MSAA there has been a data breach/ account hacking. TEMU is advertising on this account.

[Petdog]

MSAA there has been a data breach/ account hacking. TEMU is advertising on this account.

[MadBunny]

They are on multiple sites, under multiple usernmames . I reported the one on the Anxiety and Depression Support site.

[johnMSAA Partner]

Thank you, yes we are reporting these to HealthUnlocked Support and we ask anyone who finds objectionable content or obvious spam to please use the Report button as well.

- John, Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA)

[Frances_B]

It's not a "data breach" or an "account hacking" - they've simply joined the group as a member and do as many multiple copy/paste posts as they can in a short time. If you see a post from them please do as John asks and use the "Report" link under every comment to report them as Spam so that the admins can delete the posts and block the member ID (I reported about 15 comments last night.

They count on a few people taking the bait and clicking through to see if they can get a bargain (which probably doesn't exist...).

Don't worry though, as fast as one gets blocked there will be others that come and do the same - post and run away...........

[Petdog in reply to Frances_B]

How are they able to open an account? Hopefully MSAA can put something in place to to filter this out. My husband is in cyber security and he says this exists.

[Frances_B in reply to Petdog]

Your husband should have been able to explain to you how the spammers do this - it's not exactly rocket science.

With this site, anyone can join provided they have internet access and a valid e-mail address. There's no vetting or checking on people as they sign up - this is pretty normal for many online websites and forums. It's not like opening a bank account or similar where you have to provide identity papers to show you are legit. People who want to post stuff like the Temu posts apply to join the site, verify their e-mail, and away they go. The usual tactic with forums like this one or Facebook etc is to copy and paste prepared text as comments into as many threads as possible before the user profile is blocked by site admins. Once the profile that was used has been blocked the spammers (scammers) just sign up again with a different user name and off they go again. If a different e-mail address is required they can quickly create one using any of the free sites (e.g. [e-mail] etc)

support.healthunlocked.com/...

People also need to a take some responsibility for their own online security e.g. don't get tempted by posts offering things which sound too good to be true etc etc. Don't get conned by sob stories raising money on Gofundme pages to pay for rent or food or medical bills or funeral costs. Some may be legitimate, but some are not and are just an outright scam. So, not matter how tempting, don't sign up for things unless you can validate their legitimacy through other means, and it's certaily best to not donate money unless you actually know the people involved - no matter how sad the story might be - anyone can write a tear-jerker sob story that sounds convinving and take advantage of kind hearted people. Yes, it's sad that the world is so sick in this way, but that is reality in the 21st century.

In all sorts of guidelines for use of publicly accessible website like HealthUnlocked one of the most frequently given pieces of advice is to recommend that people do not use any sort of user name which identifies who they are or what their real names are. One of the strongest pieces of advice is that people do not use numbers in their user name which are clearly a date of birth - combined with real names, these tiny pieces of data can be used to track down other more personal accounts elsewhere and assist cyber criminals to carry out nefarious scams, and other hacking/ theft activities.

Some sites can block posts from being uploaded if they contain certain words. However, this can "backfire" - for example if the word "Temu" was blocked then this comment of mine would not be able to be posted because I've used the word in both the first paragraph and this paragraph. So, if someone wanted to post about an amazing rollator they bought from Temu at fantastic price they would not be able to do so if the word Temu was blocked. However, I doubt that software that runs this HealthUnlocked website is complex enough to have such features.

MSAA is very clear in its own information about the site that it is not a secure site and it warns people about posting stuff which can identify them, or posting information of a very personal nature.

There was one person quite some time ago who was tracked down on HealthUnlocked and viciously and publicly abused in several posts put up by a vindictive ex-spouse - they were found because they used their real name as a user name. It wouldn't have taken too much effort to find them when they have a health condition - all the ex-spouse had to do was look for forums about that condition, sign up, and search the member list for each site. There is another HealthUnlocked user who clearly has a date of birth as part of their user name, and has given out their full name in at least one post. Suggestions to both people that they change their user names were ignored, so if they get done over somewhere else by a scammer they have only themselves to blame - this site does offer the ability to change your user name (but you can only do so twice).

support.healthunlocked.com/...

[MadBunny]

They're back on the A&D.site again. I have reported them to HU

[Amore55]

Shame on them.