# What is"suntimesmail.com"?? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 7, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193 "2014-01-07T23:27:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/21 "2014-01-08T12:01:51Z")
> [@wibble](#): > > AKA “How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?” Same way you came in; naked and screaming. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/22 "2014-01-08T12:12:29Z")
Yes, very much not clicking this link and coming here to see whether the issue was a genuine one was my first reaction, too. Neither return mail address nor link pointed anywhere I associate with the SDMB, and in both cases that wasn’t directly obvious, so of course all sorts of Bells rang. This sort of thing could really be done more carefully. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/23 "2014-01-08T13:04:25Z")
Hey, I just wondered, is it possible for a malicious site to route you to a legitimate one? e.g. if you click on a link in your email and the eventual address in your browser is [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com), what’s the worst they could do, other than check your email is valid? Can a site install cookies/applets that monitor your behaviour on future sites? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/24 "2014-01-08T13:44:36Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Can a site install cookies/applets that monitor your behaviour on future sites? Short answer, yes. There are ways malicious sites can do all sorts of things if you don’t have your protections set up correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Lips\_Obsession](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbce88/32.png) [@Lips\_Obsession](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lips_Obsession)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/25 "2014-01-08T14:22:06Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > ETA: Okay, just checked my e-mail. No such message there! Do messages like that only go to paid members? My message ended up in my spam folder (gmail)… might want to check there to see if yours was similarly filtered. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/26 "2014-01-08T16:33:15Z")
For me, the text of the email itself was incomplete, too, which pinged my radar to ignore. It just had this: Our security team recently discovered that the Straight Dope message board forum was targeted and h And then the SunTimes link. ---
**Author:** ![RyanfaeScotland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@RyanfaeScotland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyanfaeScotland)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/27 "2014-01-08T19:20:29Z")
> [@wibble](#): > > Personally, I wonder how legitimate this ‘hacking event’ is; my cynical mind wonders whether it’s in fact just a scam to get more long-absent eyeballs (such as mine) back to a perhaps-languishing forum. > > I can’t find an option to delete my ‘account’ here, which is the most sensible course of action in terms of protecting one’s identity if one doesn’t intend to revisit a place anytime soon… > > AKA “How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?” Can we get an answer for this? I also want to delete my account as I’m never on here. Looking at the vBulletin board I see they don’t have an option built into the software (which I find really surprising) so how do you go about it? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/28 "2014-01-08T19:42:38Z")
> [@RyanfaeScotland](#): > > Can we get an answer for this? I also want to delete my account as I’m never on here. > > Looking at the vBulletin board I see they don’t have an option built into the software (which I find really surprising) so how do you go about it? Accounts aren’t deleted here. Not even chocolate and scotch will work. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/29 "2014-01-08T19:48:57Z")
> [@Mislav](#): > > I used a link to change my password is that OK? Should be fine. The general consensus is that the email had the hallmarks of a phishing email without actually being one. ---
**Author:** ![RyanfaeScotland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7c8e57/32.png) [@RyanfaeScotland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyanfaeScotland)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/30 "2014-01-08T19:50:25Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Accounts aren’t deleted here. Not even chocolate and scotch will work. Interesting, I thought it was a legal obligation under some sort of equivalent to our (UK) Data Protection Act to have the option to delete an account. Oh well, I’ll point my email address else where, change the password to a random generated one and then drink all the scotch myself to forget ever having done so. Cheers Runner Pat. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/31 "2014-01-09T10:22:50Z")
Same here. When I saw that email in my spam folder, and had a look at it, it looked so much like a phishing message that I let it sink in my spam folder. I usually only browse the SDMB by the subscribed threads link so it’s only today that I read the announcement about the SDMB having been hacked. (and then changed my email addy and password) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/32 "2014-01-09T14:58:42Z")
> [@Lips\_Obsession](#): > > My message ended up in my spam folder (gmail)… might want to check there to see if yours was similarly filtered. Gmail is usually really good about spam (to the point that I almost never check my spam folder) but I had the same problem. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was caused by being sent from an unusual email address, rather than the one that informs us of PMs. At least that address would already be marked as “not spam,” making sure it would get through. Having a password reset link that redirected somewhere else probably didn’t help, either, but Gmail did not warn me that it thought it was a scam, which I’ve seen it do on other phishing attempts. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/33 "2014-01-09T18:26:01Z")
Yeah, whoever sent that out wasn;t thinking. Having a link in a message like that pretty much is a screaming warning sign “PHISHING!”. They should have just sent the email without a link. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/34 "2014-01-09T21:06:56Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > The email we got about the hack displayed a link pointing to the change password page within this site, but **behind** that link was the true link pointing to [suntimesmail.com](http://suntimesmail.com) > > This type of thing usually rings alarm bells about Phishing. What’s the deal with that? The communication you may have received via email was legitimate and was not a phishing scam. A similar message is posted on our forums. You can read more at [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=2). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193/35 "2014-01-09T22:28:46Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > The communication you may have received via email was legitimate and was not a phishing scam. A similar message is posted on our forums. You can read more at [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=2). Yes, Ed, I know. But you guys should know not to send out a email that looks so much like a Phishing attempt. Savvy SDMBers won’t click on it, and the less savvy will, but they should NEVER click on such a link. This is my field of expertise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-suntimesmail-com/678193.md?page=1)