General Chat

The other day when we were changing title colours on here (a harmless bit of fun) my son who is a computer buff said that if genes was not protected against html code it would be easy to insert a virus. He is not guilty as he is twenty-five not fifteen. I have not had any of the E-mails (been happily married for twenty-eight years.) I think as with other problems on this site it shows the need to employ more sophisticated programmers. Anne

Hi, Can you tell me how I can change my username please. I'm getting spam advertising Viagra and stuff - as a 65 year old female I really don't need this!!!

I've been following this story with interest. I haven't received any spam emails but my son has and he is registered with Friends Reunited. Do any of you that have had spam emails belong to FR as well? Could there be a connection? Although the spam my son is getting is from a poor russian woman who has been let down by her boyfriend from this country and would like to move here and find another boyfriend. It's a very sad story, lol, and comes from all sorts of different addresses. Marion

If you want to change your user name you can do it through my account details.

Hi, I'm very surprised that this thread seems to have been ignored, even though it is quite a serious issue. GR have given out personal info or have been hacked into. because without doubt the only way the spam email(dating site) have got our email addys and user names is through this site. which means they have access to our account details. i'm surprised that you can all carry on chatting and having jokey conversations on a site that has serious privacy issues. paula

Am I the only one that has no had none of the E-mails? I seem to have had every other message (pe**s enlargement/ Via**a etc) known to every man and his dog.? Not that I want any

If you right click the message sender, it will give you the message properties. The sender now has a data base of all the e addy's he/she accessed. the only way to ensure that you don't get any more is to make that particular address redundant. yvette

My guess is that security on GR is not being compromised but rather they are perhaps selling their e-mail lists to marketers(?) If that is the case someone messed up when selling the list by leaving any affiliation to GR attached which would let the recipient of these e-mails know where the problem originated from. A lot of companies do this (sell their e-mail lists.)

Morning, Just had a look and I have 31 e-mails which have appeared since yesterday. All junk from Viagra to tesco gift cards which I automatically deleted and one from someone saying Hi Aileen. Haven't had anything referring to me by my user name though. Very worrying all the same. Aileen xx

Hi, I've had one of these too andI know full well where it has originated from. The only way anyone could have got that particular email address was from GR. I can say this with some authority because I have only used the email address in question for GR for the last two years owing to problems. Those problems mean that I only tend to check that account every few weeks just in case anything important as reached it. I can also say with some certainty that whoever and however the sender got the details they have got them in the last few weeks since it gives my real name and until recently I was rarely logged in under that name. Sarah

I have to say I havent recieved any of these e mails, but would be very upset if I had/do. This makes intresting reading about reporting spam http://www*ftc*gov/spam/ How many of these are hotmail emails? Hot mail is the most easy to hack and have had many problems which they say will be fixed but then another securuty issue is found.

******************** UPDATE 26/10 ********************* Thank you to everyone who either complained about this to GR or forwarded the offending spam emails to them. I have now had a pleasant reply from GR Abuse, with an apology for any upset caused. They are taking the matter seriously and investigating. Mandy :)

I should think so too! Thanks Mandy xxx

This thread has really got to me today, so much so I although not recieved any of theses emails have contacted GR In brief saying that if i was result in finacial loss which is proved to be as a result of security issue with GR as a number of people have complained and they are not taking it seriously I would seek compensation from them through the courts. A bit OTT I know but my PC also contains buisness details on cannot afford for something to happen just because GR do not want to investigate its own security. As paying memebers they should be reassuring us that they are doing something about it AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH Sorry had to get that out. Will let you know if i get anything back

this is all very worrying when you dont know how they got hold of our user names on here.mine mail has my user name on.havent opened it as someone on here advised me not to.but its from a [email protected] one got any ideas on this

refering to what Gilian has just said above, if card details are NOT stored, how come I have just gone in to purchase more credits and made a payment WITHOUT having to enre mt card details?????????????????? Are GR lying ?

I forwarded the SPAM email to GR as requested and have heard nothing since. If the email lists had been sold, GR would be in breach of the Data Protection Act in the UK. There are strict controls on who can sell what data, the first thing being that you need a Data Marketing Licence - and the relevant licence no. should be prominently displayed. Haven't noticed one anywhere! Thanks for the update Mandy, at least we know they've taken you seriously. Hope we all get an email soon saying that they've plugged whatever secuirty breach they've had Barbara

wendy V.......goto your account, enter your password, and THEN you can access your details..........and modify them .

Gillian I will always be suspicious of the security on this site from now on I'm going to change my user name on here I fully agree about the outside help - as I don't think the technical team at GR will have the expertise to find whatever is wrong (just going on the problems with the tree builder etc) I can't see it being a quick solution either! Don't use this site much now - but I'm still getting some very good contacts through it, which is why my tree will stay for a while. Barbara

Hi Tenerife Sun. I want to change my user name too and have been into my account and I am obviously being very thick here but which part do you modify to change your user name? Thanks