Has this site's security been breached?

Wywth

I've noticed over recent days that a large number or unused/little used user accounts registered about 6+years ago have recently been used to post.

Did someone register a shed load of accounts back then?
Perhaps now offering them to others perhaps via another site?

Or has the security of this site been compromised somehow.

Just seems a very odd coincidence that all these ancient accounts are now suddenly coming into use.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to offer such accounts to others anyway, or obtain them themselves - they probably don't have enough posting privileges to spam URL's yet (but I suppose they probably pass on the time of membership front) when you can sign up a new account for free - you only need a valid email address.

fermi

Can you give examples? Not here, but email to the forumteam at forumtem@moneysavingexpert.com

That would likely be a big help to them to kick off any investigation if this should be something out of the ordinary.

Wywth

Thanks fermi.

I didn't keep a record, but I'll start collating a list. If I collect enough over the next few days/weeks, I'll let the FT know pointing them towards this thread

fermi

Thanks. Some spammers or other nefarious users do mass register accounts for later use. Just one of the tactics used exploit forums etc.

Don't think that tactic would have much long term traction here with reporting and the spam button, but just in case reporting concerns should do the job.

If it should be something else, then at least the forumteam would be alteted

Former_MSE_Andrea

Thanks guys

Have these posts been on discussion threads linked to from guides that have been in the weekly email or tweeted by MSE?

Some people who have simply used the site but haven't posted on the forum for some time do start posting again if prompted by something that's relevant to them.

GwylimT

I was having some dodgy experiences yesterday and only on this website, normally I just use the new posts page but occasionally when I pressed refresh it took me to a completely different scam website, this website wouldn't close and so I had to shutdown my computer. I double checked to ensure I don't have a virus or anything, this happened twice more however on the second time the scam website opened a mirrored version of Santander online banking website.

Former_MSE_Ian

Hi GwylimT,

GwylimT wrote: »

I was having some dodgy experiences yesterday and only on this website, normally I just use the new posts page but occasionally when I pressed refresh it took me to a completely different scam website

Our site does not do this. But this is one of the things which typically happens if your machine is infected by either a virus or malware. Please may I suggest reading our free anti-virus software guide? You may find some software there to help you.

Ian

Former_MSE_Ian

Hi Wywth,

Wywth wrote: »

I've noticed over recent days that a large number or unused/little used user accounts registered about 6+years ago have recently been used to post.Did someone register a shed load of accounts back then?

Unfortunately every forum encounters a minority of users who wish to use the forum to post spam. We do not always know whether a user is a spammer when they arrive. So in these cases they have the same privilages as any other normal user. And like any other normal user they can create user accounts, post, and - eventually - post links.

If you see spam please click the spam button and use the report button to report it to the forum team. I appreciate that spam is irritating whenever you see it. But please bear in mind. For every one spam post you see, there may have been hundreds of thousands of spam posts we prevented which you did not see. And hopefully we did this in an unintrusive way which did not spoil your enjoyment of the forums. Thank you .

Ian

GwylimT

MSE_Ian wrote: »

Hi GwylimT,



Our site does not do this. But this is one of the things which typically happens if your machine is infected by either a virus or malware. Please may I suggest reading our free anti-virus software guide? You may find some software there to help you.

Ian

No viruses or anything as I have already stated.

Wywth

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Thanks guys

Have these posts been on discussion threads linked to from guides that have been in the weekly email or tweeted by MSE?

Some people who have simply used the site but haven't posted on the forum for some time do start posting again if prompted by something that's relevant to them.

MSE_Ian wrote: »

Hi Wywth,



Unfortunately every forum encounters a minority of users who wish to use the forum to post spam. We do not always know whether a user is a spammer when they arrive. So in these cases they have the same privilages as any other normal user. And like any other normal user they can create user accounts, post, and - eventually - post links.

If you see spam please click the spam button and use the report button to report it to the forum team. I appreciate that spam is irritating whenever you see it. But please bear in mind. For every one spam post you see, there may have been hundreds of thousands of spam posts we prevented which you did not see. And hopefully we did this in an unintrusive way which did not spoil your enjoyment of the forums. Thank you .

Ian

No, not really. The posts are not usually linked to anything in the MSE email nor I believe in tweets (although I'm not on twitter so can't be sure, unless I see them in the fields on the right)

The posts are not usually spam either ...yet, probably because they don't have enough posting score to post URL's (but probably meet the time of membership criteria)

I think most are used just to incite a negative response.

However, I shall report them as I see them in future. (I've just sent a list of some I gathered since staring this thread to MSE Andrea)

Thank you.

Edit:
Just had a reply from MSE Andrea saying a list isn't acceptable - they must all be reported individually