Home > MySpace > MySpace inadvertently flagging accounts as phished

MySpace inadvertently flagging accounts as phished




The latest fiasco to rip though MySpace Land screams what everyone already knows: incompetence is the only strong suit of the crew over there. Hopefully, Tom and Chris will get kicked to the curb in October and Rube will completely clean house over there. If not, I guess I’ll see all you on Facebook in the coming months.

Anyhoo… When I was on MySpace a bit ago, I tried to reply to a message. Instead of getting the message sent I was greeted with a cute little “your message did not pass the spam filter” response. When I tried to resend the message I was told that my account had been phished. lolz

MySpace Phished

Their phished account flagging system has always been a bit glitchy, so I wasn’t surprised. When I went to change my password through the link provided to unlock my account I was greeted with the below:

MySpace Phished

^^^ Do you see the problem? The fucking captcha image is broken. Hitting refresh several times didn’t help things, so I logged into MySpace via Internet Explorer instead of FireFox thinking that it might be a we is be retarded and no know how make websites work in multiple browsers properly issue. Well, that didn’t help either.

During that brief couple of minutes my phone rang… My buddy’s old lady was having the exact same issue. Then the emails started pouring in and comments started being posted on some of my older blog entries that rank well for “MySpace Phished” and such in the search engines. EVERYONE is having the same issue.

Between all the spam that is still running rampant, legit user accounts being deleted left and right, and boneheaded shit like this: Rube might want to start cleaning house now instead of waiting until October.

P.S. All everyone can do at this point is sit and wait for them to straighten out the current mess.

Update:
Tom posted the below as a bulletin about this:
“if you got locked for being phished in the last hour, it’s a bug! we’re working on fixing it right now. sorry about that! the mechanism to detect if your account has been phished has been very powerful for stopping phishing, but it went a little haywire just now. things should be back to normal soon! if you’re wondering what phishing is, read my blog :)”

Back to normal? As in “MySpace normal”? That’s still a mess. :P

Update 2:
I was finally able to unlock my account. So, a metric ton of people lost access to their accounts for about two and a half hours. We can all get back to being spammed now. hehe

Categories: MySpace Tags:
  1. July 3rd, 2007 at 01:32 | #1

    You are the man!!!!! I got e-mails from friends asking me to find out from you what the problems was. I told them that as soon as you post something, I would re-post.

    Thanks!

  2. July 3rd, 2007 at 04:21 | #2

    This happened to me about a week ago and I knew it was a glitch though I didn’t have any problems with the captcha.

  3. LoLo
    July 3rd, 2007 at 04:26 | #3

    Re Gambi
    “Their phished account flagging system has always been a bit glitchy, so I wasn’t surprised.” Yeah, it’s pretty common.

    Two things made this mess worth blogging about:
    1. The number of people flagged.
    2. The broken captcha

  4. July 3rd, 2007 at 11:01 | #4

    ok, so many friends of mine had the exact same issue all at once and I was wondering if it was some sort of viris, my account hadn’t been buggy until I changed my password, and there’s a blog viris going around since then, it changes the bottom window in customise blogs, it hides alot of charactors at the bottom of the window, and you have to delete the whole window. Info about that is in Audrey Michelles blog.

  5. July 3rd, 2007 at 11:51 | #5

    ooo poor baby. Good to see you’ve recovered from your 2 hour trauma (yawn)

  6. July 3rd, 2007 at 12:53 | #6

    I salute you, but I don’t want anyone fired. It IS a buncha crap, but I love MySpace. They just need you for the boss .

  7. July 3rd, 2007 at 13:27 | #7

    and here i thought i was special and getting flagged for reposting rupert murdoch’s prodigal son bill o’ reilly’s story about “lesbian gangs”. i was hoping to let my conspiracy/tinfoil hat brain run wild, but alas…just a glitch. a highly annoying glitch tho…that captha thing was a bitch. tried it in 4 different browsers…

  8. July 3rd, 2007 at 13:48 | #8

    You is definetly the man! My sister was having issues so I tried logging in from my house to change her password for her and got greeted with the same thing she and everyone else got greeted with! I told her if she didn’t have you as a friend as soon as she got her end straightened out she absolutely needed to request you as a friend! lol…I told her you are awesome to go to with questions and seeing strange things on myspace and that I Loved the Burnt Pickle! lol

  9. adam donovan
    July 3rd, 2007 at 14:08 | #9

    yeah same thing happened to me to a T. and it would be understandable it being for everybodies best interest…if only they would actually resopnd to the help e-mails sent to them addressing people who got screwed and helping them rather than just screwing more things up. maybe if they didn’t whore themselves out to every major movie that comes out advertiseing on every inch on myspace they wouldn’t need to clear so much cyber junk in the first place.

  10. July 4th, 2007 at 19:38 | #10

    I got a ton of hits on my blog for people searching about being locked out because of Myspace’s phishing block snafu.

  11. Lance
    July 5th, 2007 at 02:24 | #11

    Was looked out, my friend tells me that my account was deleted last week, is there anything I can do?

  12. LoLo
    July 5th, 2007 at 05:47 | #12

    Re Joshua:
    Blow me, retard.

    Re Lance:
    Message the peeps at abuse@myspace.com asking to be restored. Your chances are slim though.

  13. July 6th, 2007 at 14:01 | #13

    Thanks for writing this. Millions of people were totally confused as to what as going on. I directed people to your post and site from our site. Thanks!

  14. jane
    July 11th, 2007 at 07:50 | #14

    hmmm….more and more profile outgoing links have been redirected to msplinks.com (owned by myspace) bringing down anyone pitching anything….. Check out http://www.myspace.com/detentionwatchnetwork
    which has twice won myspace impact awards.

  15. July 16th, 2007 at 17:34 | #15

    hmmm, better get to it,maybe you can check out
    my page,

  16. max
    July 26th, 2007 at 23:44 | #16

    My account was deleted after this same mishap. WTF can I do?

  17. Natali
    July 28th, 2007 at 07:42 | #17

    Oh, does it mean that I’ve lost my account for good after such a trick? I can still visit it but I cannot login! When I try to recover the password by means of “forgot my password” button it is said that my entered email is not found! Is there a hope to restore the access to the account?

  18. July 28th, 2007 at 12:51 | #18

    Re. Natali…. Thats the exact same thing thats happening too my bands site at the moment…. Its there, but I cant log in and when I do teh forgot password link, it says the email address is not valid… I messaged Myspace but they send some stupid automated thread.. “have you checked too see if you are using the correct password and email?” Of course I am…..
    Its a real pain in the ass…..
    A few of my friends profiles were deleted yesterday completely, but they were all restored… but Mine wasnt deleted.. Its just in a coma… its still there, with no signs of mental activity… I am quite frustrated… Ive never heard of this happening before… but Its kinda a slight relif that im not the only 1 affected… id say that we arent the only ones.. so I really hope that Myspace and Uncle Tom rectify this!!

  19. July 29th, 2007 at 10:29 | #19

    I found this on myspace’s FAQ
    It describes mine and Natalis situation perfectly
    http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.faq&Category=1&Question=41

    It says Myspace will Need A Salute from you saying that U are definatly the owner of that page…. problem is… it doesnt say what a salute is when U click on the link for it ;-(

    If anyone has had this problem please let me know

  20. July 29th, 2007 at 16:44 | #20

    Means you have to email the address that came in the initial phishing email. I did and they restored my account (same symptoms you guys had, and if I visited the url for my myspace, it said it was deleted); although all the blog numbers were reset.

    http://www.happyhumans.org
    Sad Music for Happy Humans

  21. Bambi
    July 30th, 2007 at 12:10 | #21

    I never got the Phishing Email :-( Fuck!!

  22. July 31st, 2007 at 19:04 | #22

    Bambi, my band’s site was phished, I got the message, changed the password, hit unblock, and poof it was deleted. Then it was restored and back up in a few hours but…. now I can’t log into it and it won’t send me a new password – doesn’t recognize my email. However, I keep getting all the myspace emails telling me I have messages on the myspace account. So I’ve emailed Myspace customer service multiple times now with a Salute and have nothing back yet. If anyone knows what’s up help me out.

  23. The Reverend Doctor
    July 31st, 2007 at 23:17 | #23

    I’m in the EXACT same fucking boat as Money!!! Word for word, except I don’t have a band. Please let me know if anyone hears how to fix this. I am so fucking pissed! I have been locked out since July 26th

  24. August 1st, 2007 at 05:12 | #24

    I don’t know how I found this site but I felt so fricking all alone until I found you folks..I honestly thought I was the only one..same fucking thing happened..I came to check my site and to answer my mail and that fricking Toms add was there telling me I have been phished ..so I changed my password and everything was cool until later that evening..I went to sign on with my new password and then I get the next page with the fricking capthca code and Im thinking this will work just be patient…well after three hours of trying on and off I finally sent the first of 11 letters to customer service, loginadministration etc etc and so forth..This happened last week thursday 7/26/07..U wirked hard i=on getting my site where I like it and I’ll be damn if I just let it go and start over..Have any of you folks got back in and how long did it take till the cathca code loaded up??THanks a whole bunch all of you..I feel a sense of relief just finding this site..Aloha from Hawaii Kimo Holland

  25. August 2nd, 2007 at 01:16 | #25

    Finally back up and able to login, I had to send 3 salutes (see the myspace requirement for a salute) before they finally emailed me that all was fixed. Good luck everyone.

  26. The Reverend Doctor
    August 2nd, 2007 at 06:45 | #26

    Money,

    Could you be specific about how you did the salute? I understand that I am to take a picture of myself holding up a handwritten sign saying “MySpace.com” and my Friend ID. But my question is how do I deliver this salute to them? Do I email this to them using the email account that was active but got deleted on July 26th? Or do I need to post this salute somewhere else? I am unsure because somewhere on the MySpace site I read “don’t put this salute in a public place”. So what do I do, how did you send your salute? What exactly did you do?

    Thanks,
    Doc

    BTW Soooo glad to hear you got your issue resolved…I was beginning to think we were all just screwed!!! I now have hope!!!

  27. August 3rd, 2007 at 09:35 | #27

    Rev,
    If you contact customer service for account login, it takes a couple days for a reply but leave them the email of the account that was deleted as your contact, they’ll email you there. Reply to it with the salute, that way it goes directly to them only.
    Good luck.

  28. Monkey
    August 5th, 2007 at 12:50 | #28

    I had the exact same thing happen to me. I sent in the salutes and have my account back. The odd thing is, all the videos I uploaded are no longer linked to my account.

    For example, try this click sequence.
    Go to the video link listed below.
    Click on the Monkey profile avatar.
    Then click profile.
    This will take you through a verified path to Monkeys MySpace page.
    Under the avatar image, click videos.
    It will say there are no videos.
    Crazy huh?

    http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2018725255

  29. kels
    August 5th, 2007 at 15:54 | #29

    they, the same thing happened. the verification code thing wouldn’t show up, but then it finally showed up. so i got my account back then i went to read my messages and reply back, then it happened again. i am so mad. it was like, “hey, your video is on cooloutkids.com” or something like that. dont reply to them, its what keeps setting mine off. if the code doesnt come back in a little while, what should i do? plz e-mail me at jlroxmysox4170@yahoo.com if you can help.

  30. Tommy
    August 8th, 2007 at 12:54 | #30

    Same thing happened to me! Its so frustrating… especially because we’re all just so helpless. How long will it take for it to get fixed??

  31. Jay
    August 8th, 2007 at 15:13 | #31

    I got the same “spam filter” / “you’re account has been phished” msgs. After I changed my password, my new one gave me the same messages. What do I do?? What’s a salute and how do I send one?

  32. August 11th, 2007 at 13:41 | #32

    I’ve contacted their customer service continuously at least 12 times since July31. Because I got a message from Tom on the login page that my page has been “Phished” and I would need to change the password. So I changed the password but then I got nervous and went ahead and changed my email as well. I had forgotten that I had an old account that was inactive with the same email. It then got the two accounts mixed up even though the passwords should be different. so when I tried to log onto the active one, it sent me to the inactive one. In order to solve the problem I changed the email on the inactive one, but my notifications for the active one started going to the the inactive one’s new email. the accounts are linked I am unable to log on to the active one and every time I change the email on the inactive one, the notifications of the active one follow to the new email. When I try to log into my account and use the new password it does not work. The old password doesn’t work either. I am told that my email addresses cannot be found! I haven’t been able to log on since july and repeated communications have gone unanswered!

    07/31/2007

  33. August 12th, 2007 at 20:29 | #33

    Hi Folks…I thought I would give you an update..You new folks that got phished and locked out…The only way to get in is to send them a salute..I sent 15 emails telling them that they blocked me now fix it and they just ignored me so after reading “Moneys” reply about sending the salute, Ihad my daughter take 5 different pictures of holding a piece of paper that had my id# written down and stating this is my salute..I was up and running the next day…It’s an inconvenience for sure of something you didnt cause but it’s the only way I got back in…take care everyone…Kimo

  34. Diana
    August 27th, 2007 at 12:37 | #34

    Again, where do you send the salute to? How can I send the salute to myspace if Ive been phished and cant access my acct? Someone please help!!!

  35. jolynn
    October 6th, 2007 at 21:11 | #35

    i’m having this issue months after you posted this thread. i know i haden’t been phished, and i changed my password about 10 times, and kept getting those two messages.

  36. Michaelplaystheguitar
    November 25th, 2007 at 00:05 | #36

    It happend to me and I can’t fix it…I changed the password twice and I still can’t login…My account has not changed…help…!!!!!!!!

  37. Steve
    November 27th, 2007 at 22:22 | #37

    Same problem. Happened just today and any password I switch to is flagged as soon as I try to respond to a message. Thanks for posting about this all those many moons ago, it’s the most info I’ve been able to find. :(

  38. February 1st, 2008 at 09:47 | #38

    Happened to me today. Wary of alleged Pishing claims so went looking and found your site. Will wait a couple hours and try a diff browser and see if it helps.

  39. Tiffany
    February 3rd, 2008 at 15:51 | #39

    I had a problem somewhat like this yesturday only mine says my profile has been deleted when i try and log on, but when my friend logs on to hers i still appear on her top friends as well as the comments i have left her. When she tries to access my account though it says there was an error that will be sent to myspace technical group. Will a salute work for me?

  40. February 4th, 2008 at 19:57 | #40

    tom suks

  41. February 4th, 2008 at 19:59 | #41

    I couldnt change my backgrown because tom blocked my account.

  42. nichelle
    February 15th, 2008 at 12:26 | #42

    I’m sooo glad you wrote this one. I tried to log in and it says my account’s been deleted so I’ve sent a salute today and am waiting for my account to be restored. Thanks for the instructions!

  43. noni
    February 15th, 2008 at 20:13 | #43

    man you guys are lucky every time i “click here” instead of it taking me to the page that is up there with the capta thingy it kicks me out and i go back to the main log in page it’s benn like this for like 2 months and guyz.. i miss myspace :_(

  44. July 23rd, 2008 at 20:46 | #44

    it just keeps bringing me back to the main page.
    its been hours all ready.
    im really upset because i have like .. REALLY important saves messages on there.
    i wish i could get on,
    but i did get to changed my password.
    now neither password is working.

    help :[[

    if you really do know anything about fixing it now, please contact me !

    aiim: OHH CEE x

  45. September 13th, 2008 at 19:42 | #45

    Ooh… wow, a glitch? Sound like a dead heartbeat just went on. I remember that I kept getting phished, so I started using MyspaceIM and log in from there, and I still hasn’t got phished yet for awhile. Pretty good tho.

  46. October 10th, 2008 at 09:43 | #46

    I am going to have to get MyspaceIM

  47. Jaymz
    October 10th, 2008 at 22:44 | #47

    Thanks for the article! The EXACT same thing happened to me, however, I changed my password twice in addition to my email and I still can’t respond to messages OR check my comments… It’s been at least 4 hours… Is there anything I can do? Please let me know… Thanks so much!

  48. Jane
    November 10th, 2009 at 00:14 | #48

    ey, man but my myspace is dogging me out with a whole lot of shit and i was ah fuck it, but i really cbf making a new myspace and im trying to get any answers :/

  49. coolio
    November 15th, 2009 at 11:06 | #49

    my myspace has recently been fished like last night and it still is..what is up?