Diane,
I had a "zombie" ghost writer do the same thing on an AOL acct. It was sending automatic e-mails from my email address to all my contacts, advertising Viagra and other unmentionable "adult" items. These were sent to my pastor, 16 yr old grandaughter and others. How embarressing.

I had to delete my password, and stop my auto address system and then manually type in my own e-mail address and those of all contacts. It was a mess.

Barbara

No email problems that I am aware of but had $285 worth of charges to my credit card last month. Everyone needs to be careful.

We need to keep bumping this up so that everyone sees it.

Okay, I've been able to reclaim my account so any pestering for money should stop but who knows how many already went out?

Now I just need to tie up all of the loose ends that go along with this sort of thing. Just how I wanted to spend me day... LOL

Diane

That happened to me on Facebook. Someone started to message all of my friends that I was stuck in Sudan and needed money for a ticket home!!!!

I disabled Facebook after that, but the fact that it is happening on GW is disturbing. These people are sad.

I don't think we know that ANY of this happened because of GardenWeb. It is easy enough to put together some family history and names and places from blogs, facebook, chat lines, etc. They know how to do all of that.

Also be alert for language skills that indicate that English might not be their first language.

I knew a man that was so convinced of a story that a "woman" was filling him with that he thought he was in love and ready to plan a meeting. Of course, she needed money to get there, etc, etc, etc. He agreed to let one of his friends tell me, and ask me some questions. I was able to break it all down and find everything I needed in one night to prove to him what it was. Another man that both of us know said that I "didn't have to worry anyway because this guy was to cheap to send her any money".

That comment made the situation funny then, but this guy had been talking to this woman (umm-huh) for weeks before we convinced him she was a fraud. They're everywhere, they're everywhere!

Sure hope it all settles out for you. We received one of those "Sudan" e-mails, about a friend who is in her mid 80s. It had all the marks of a fraud. But the funny thing was, that she's the type who just might jump on a plane for Africa! Still, we didn't fall for it. Anytime someone asks for money or personal info, via e-mail or other electronic means, all the flags go up!

George

I received a request for money from a "cousin" that said he was in Houston and wanted me to send him money. I ignored it, and to this day, I don't know if it was real or not. LOL I had no contact with him from childhood, and only rarely then, until a few years ago after I made contact with his sister-in-law, the wife of his deceased twin.

He mostly worked overseas, and he was obviously a heavy drinker and liked to call me to talk about family when he was three sheets to the wind. One day he called just to tell me he had found out I was Mormon (like that was a secret), and how he felt about that. Well, you can attack me on a lot of battlesfields, but if you're going to try that one you better bring a big gun and be armoured up. LOL

He would call about once a month for a couple of years. The last conversation, he said he had cancer and asked me to prayer for him. (Who, me, a Mormon?) Of course I did.

When the msg came, there was no explanation, nor anything to indicate that it was really him. My husband said, "Send it if you want to". I said, "Not in this lifetime". I still don't know. Was it him? Did he really need help? Did he die and some one got the info from an obit or on-line. It wasn't his normal way of contacting me and he wanted the money sent Western Union to an address I had never heard of. Although he lived in Texas, I don't think he lived in Houston at the time. Who can you believe? Maybe very few!!

Carol - that's really sad. Our society has spawned some really evil people, hasn't it?

The good news is that ANYONE who knows you, KNOWS you're a good person at heart. So whether he's still here or not (your cousin), he knows and it doesn't matter. Glad you're a savvy person and didn't get taken. DH got scammed a few years back and it cost us $6K. (one of those times that DH & I weren't on the same page) Ouch...but I believe that "bad" was on them, not us.

I'm just really glad Diane caught this early and put the "snips" on 'em. We all might be really "earthy"...but we ain't dumb!

Whew. I think I've finally done all that was needed to put this behind me. Sheesh. What a pain. It seems I caught them early on. They started instant messaging folks from my idea but hadn't yet emailed. I apparently snagged the account back from them just as they were composing mass emails. The partial email was sitting the my "drafts" folder. Scamus interruptus.

They funny thing was, come to find out, that they were telling people that I was in London for a "quick vacation". Well, anyone that knows me knows there's no way I'd be able to jet off to London at this point in time. LOL

The hack did not come from GW or even have anything to do with GW, other than I had some Okie GW members' email addresses in my contact list. Turns out that there were a gazillion folks that got hacked in the past day or two so not sure what's going on. I suppose I'll do a search later to see if it made the news somewhere.

All in all, this wasn't too bad. Just a minor pain that just took a few hours to straighten out. A couple of years ago, someone swiped my credit card number from somewhere and ordered several hundred dollars of lingerie from the Netherlands. Now THAT was a fun time. LOL

Diane

Paula, I guess I will never know, because I just found his obit where he died in Dallas this February. He had a very unusual surname, so he was easy to trace. I feel sure the request from Houston was fake, and I wonder if he had a computer with my address on it or something. We were second cousins and our grandmothers were sisters. I never saw him as an adult, but remember him as a child. He communicated with one other of my cousins (another twin) so I will have to ask her if she got a letter also. She should have been his first choice since she she has more money. LOL Her mother was a lot closer to that branch of the family than my mother was, so she may have actually known him.

it is all very scary. But most of your information is public knowledge. I dont own credit cards, and if i get something online i buy a prepaid visa and do it that way. This is a public website but you can request that they take your name off of it. spokeo.com and type in your name. Its very scary how much info they have on you, but you can request your info be taken off.

~Danni Girl