Email Spam

deesull

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Location
Alberta
TDI
2004 Jetta 1.9L BEW, 2002 Jetta 1.9L ALH
Hey guys I haven't been on the site for over a year now, I'm back because the last week I began getting a pile of spam and phishing emails and I couldn't figure out why until I saw one addressed to "deesull" this is the only place in the world I have ever used this username. I was wondering if anyone else out here is having these same troubles
 

2000alhVW

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Location
Silver Spring, MD
TDI
2000 Golf
Hey guys I haven't been on the site for over a year now, I'm back because the last week I began getting a pile of spam and phishing emails and I couldn't figure out why until I saw one addressed to "deesull" this is the only place in the world I have ever used this username. I was wondering if anyone else out here is having these same troubles
as far as I know, TDIclub doesn't barely send any emails out. I thought this website still operated on an archaic system of very few emails - as in only sending a single email when an account is first registered.
 

Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
its not from us, there have been times where this site gets hit hard by scammers, spammers, ect...
Just mark as spam and what not, move on!
 

luftwaffles

Well-known member
Joined
May 24, 2013
Location
N/A
TDI
Sold
I'm in the same boat. Just got some spam this morning addressed to luftwaffles...

its not from us, there have been times where this site gets hit hard by scammers, spammers, ect...
Just mark as spam and what not, move on!
I think maybe you misunderstand the significance of this. This site is the only place I use this combination of e-mail and username. The fact that I'm now getting spam addressed to my username here is a clear indication that TDI Club has been breached. There's no other place that ties those two pieces of information together. Deesull's experience is confirmation.

At this point it's just a question of how the site owner/admin handles it. The ethical thing to do would be to send out an e-mail telling everyone to change their passwords and investigate the matter. Maybe it's just e-mails. Maybe it's e-mails, passwords in cleartext, and the contents of everyone's PMs. Seems like the kind of thing people would want to know.
 
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Powder Hound

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 25, 1999
Location
Under a Bridge, Crestview, FL, USA
TDI
'00 Golf 4dr White 5sp, '02 Jettachero 5sp, Wife's '03 NB Platinum Gray auto(!)
I haven't seen anything yet, so either their spam-bot is slow (i.e. they just haven't gotten to me yet), or the spam filters on my email work very well.


Cheers,


PH
 

2000alhVW

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Location
Silver Spring, MD
TDI
2000 Golf
I checked my spam folder and I do have a spam message dated 9/9/18. Again, in-line with other claims, this is the only place I’ve used this username (made it up for this site) and my email is very new.
The spam message was trying to extort 360 USD from me. Claiming something along the lines of “when you watch porn, I put a command in the play button of the video that taps into your webcam, so I have footage of you masturbaiting. Give me $360 or I threaten to share it with everyone”
 

scurvy

Good Ol' Boy
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Location
Chicago IL USA
TDI
2006 Golf
I haven't seen anything yet, so either their spam-bot is slow (i.e. they just haven't gotten to me yet), or the spam filters on my email work very well.

Checked the spam filters on gmail this morning, nothing for me yet. They've gotten thru D & L, but not P or S yet. Check again this afternoon, PH.


I love getting those obvious spam extortion emails. Even been changing up the videos they claim to have me watching and they still say I have good taste! :D
 

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
I'm in the same boat. Just got some spam this morning addressed to luftwaffles...



I think maybe you misunderstand the significance of this. This site is the only place I use this combination of e-mail and username. The fact that I'm now getting spam addressed to my username here is a clear indication that TDI Club has been breached. There's no other place that ties those two pieces of information together. Deesull's experience is confirmation.

At this point it's just a question of how the site owner/admin handles it. The ethical thing to do would be to send out an e-mail telling everyone to change their passwords and investigate the matter. Maybe it's just e-mails. Maybe it's e-mails, passwords in cleartext, and the contents of everyone's PMs. Seems like the kind of thing people would want to know.
I would venture a guess it is the users who have been breached, not the site. Until a significant number of users say they have been hit, it is probably something the user did and not the site. I will keep watching though. Thanks for the heads up!
 

68bugboy

Member
Joined
May 2, 2014
Location
MN
TDI
1998 Beetle
I too received the same email that
2000alhvw got.
Seems this is where the info came from.
 

BobnOH

not-a-mechanic
Joined
May 29, 2004
Location
central Ohio
TDI
New Beetle 2003 manual
Spyware bots regularly peruse forums, websites, anywhere they can collect data.
I recently got the $1000 bitcoin one from Japan, but they didn't get my email here.
The only way to be 100% safe is to unplug the interweb.
 

My_name_is_Rob

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Location
Mexico 🇲🇽
TDI
2013 A4 Quattro
Claiming something along the lines of “when you watch porn, I put a command in the play button of the video that taps into your webcam, so I have footage of you masturbaiting. Give me $360 or I threaten to share it with everyone”
Lightflyer1 said:
I will keep watching though. Thanks for the heads up!
Way to show those porn scammers who's boss. :D
I don't actually know which email I used for registering, so I'm not sure if i've gotten it. :rolleyes:
 

Mike_04GolfTDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Location
Richmond, BC, Canada
TDI
Mine: 2019 Golf R DSG, Wife's: 2015 Golf Comfortline TDI
I got the same email. I’d say TDIClub got hacked because it wasn’t my system that got hacked.

How else can someone connect my TDIClub username with the e-mail address I used to sign up, which I don’t normally use for much else?

Oh and it has happened to multiple people at the same time, all TDIClub members? Coincidence that a bunch of random people got hacked by the same hackers at the same time? No way. TDIClub got hacked, in my opinion.

Here’s someone else with the same issue: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=5439474#post5439474
 

VW Derf

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 3, 1996
Location
Richmond, BC, Canada
TDI
2010 Blue Graphite Pearl Golf Variant
Thanks for the note, currently investigating.

That said always good practice to change passwords periodically and not to share them between sites. If ever in doubt, change the password on the site and not via a email link.
 

luftwaffles

Well-known member
Joined
May 24, 2013
Location
N/A
TDI
Sold
I would venture a guess it is the users who have been breached, not the site. Until a significant number of users say they have been hit, it is probably something the user did and not the site. I will keep watching though. Thanks for the heads up!
Ordinarily, I would agree with you. But I use a random 30-character password and, as I mentioned above, I don't use this username all over the web.

Forums are pretty notorious for data loss because they're generally operated by enthusiasts of whatever the site is about, rather than sysadmins whose job security depends on the availability and security of the site.

Just by visiting the homepage, I can give you a list of software on the server that has major security vulnerabilities. And based on software versions, I can make an educated guess about which OS version the site is running (which stopped getting security updates many years ago). Again, all of this is from visiting a single public webpage using nothing more than a normal browser. I certainly don't intend any of this as an attack. I'm trying to help fix it.
 

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
Well enough people have reported this issue that it is looking like it may be the site and not users. A few of the initial reports were from newbies and not from veterans here. Now that there are multiple reports from different users it kind of changes things. Waiting to hear back from the site admin.
 
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