Keep up the good work!

I would also like to prevent rundll32.exe from starting and trying to find the rogue dll file, now that the dll has been removed. It is just consuming memory to no avail. Have you been able to do this?

Thanks,
Brian

Several years ago, a children’s company (The First Years) sold our e-mail address to several porn websites which started spamming us. Can you believe that? They are a company catering to children for heaven sake! Long story short, I contacted their IT department and their VP of Information Technology said “sorry we cannot control e-mail addresses that ‘you’ use” despite the fact that that e-mail address was only used with The First Years website. So I contacted their Public Relations department and went up the corporate ladder from there. In the end, we got a letter from the president of the company apologizing for the security compromise and stated that the VP of Information Technology is no longer with the company. Guess somebody in their IT department wanted to make a quick buck and sell off their database of e-mail addresses.

We too have been seeing spam sent to our unique address which was only used at dotPhoto. Looks like someone (probably a very unhappy employee) at dotPhoto (guess prior to the merger) stole a copy of the e-mail database and has sold it off as well. I highly doubt their system was compromised just to steal e-mail addresses. They would steal the credit card numbers that were stored there instead; highly more profitable on the black market (I heard you get like $60-$250 per valid credit card number, compared to the $1-$5 per valid e-mail address).

Keep on using those ‘unique’ e-mail addresses, it makes it easier to keep track of who is selling your e-mail address. I promise you, my blog won’t sell your address!

First let me say how much I sympathise with those who’ve lost stored photos. My own issue with DotPhoto isn’t nearly as bad, but the timing of the merger mentioned in the second paragraph seems significant.

As a matter of routine, whenever I deal with a new individual or company, I use a new e-mail address unique to that entity. That way, if they engage in aggressive marketing and won’t remove me from the mailing list, or if the address is compromised and I start to get spam, I (a) have a good idea where it’s come from and (b) can filter it out.

I was a DotPhoto customer on just one occasion back in 2002. I never stored any of my photos on their system but I did buy a couple of prints of someone else’s work, for which DotPhoto required an e-mail address. I used a unique address, completed the transaction, and thought nothing more of it.

Then a little less than two years ago I started to get spam to that address. Not photo-related commercial spam from possible partner companies but full-on, enhance-your-dangly-bits type spam that left nothing to the imagination and had nothing to do with DotPhoto.

Because I’d had no correpondence with DotPhoto since 2002 I thought it very unlikely that my address had been compromised in transit, otherwise I’d have been getting junk mail since day one. The situation felt more like my e-mail address had been accidentally revealed or deliberately sold and had found its way onto a spammer’s list. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was why it would suddenly begin after six+ years. Nothing suggested that DotPhoto’s systems had been compromised in any way. And e-mail to their support people went unanswered.

But I now realise that the MyPhotoAlbum/DotPhoto merger mentioned above coincides very nicely with the time I started to get this spam (the acquisition took place in February 2009 according to records). I still can’t be certain whether it was accidental or deliberate but it does seem as though my address was compromised at some point at or around this time.

Coincidence? I’m not a great believer in it. I would certainly be interested to know if any other customers used unique addresses for DotPhoto, and if those addresses started to attract spam around the beginning of 2009. While I’d like to believe this was accidental, if not then it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a struggling company had sold a customer database to make a fast buck.

They insist on getting my gmail password over the phone…
Be weary of Vodacom in this regard….

Thank you so much and I hope the RIM and/or Gmail Team see this and help do an update that will allow the “All Mail” to be shown instead of only the “inbox” on the blackberry.

Thank you again!

When’s that 4g iphone coming out again?

Get a clue Morons!
You do NOT have the right to violate our security and repeat offenders will be treated as terrorists.

Here’s the mail pushed to your BlackBerry about one to ten minutes after setting up a Gmail or Google Apps email account where “All Mail” is disabled for IMAP or if the account is localized in any language outside of English that illustrates the issue of not having a label called “All Mail”:

From: donotreply@blackberry.com
Subject: Action required. Update settings for

Your email messages are not being delivered to your BlackBerry(R) device. To receive your email messages, turn on the IMAP setting for All Mail in your account.

After you turn on the IMAP setting for All Mail, you must validate your account on your BlackBerry device.

1. Click the Setup folder (if available), then click the Email Settings or Setup Internet Email* icon.
2. Click Email Accounts.
3. Validate your email account.

The other email accounts on your BlackBerry device are not affected.

BlackBerry(R) Internet Service

* Note that some BlackBerry devices and some themes may have different icons or menus than those mentioned.

– Automatically generated email: Do Not Reply to this email –

Google Mail localizes their labels, since “All Mail” is in English, if you change your language settings, BIS *stops working*. For example, if you set it to French, your “All Mail” label is called “Tous les messages”, or in Spanish it’s “Todos”, or in Lithuanian it’s “Visi laiškai”.

Please, RIM, go back to using standards-based INBOX for delivery of email for Google Mail.

I suspect that the special GMAIL plugin works the same way for Starred and Spam messages, where it may not work with non-English Google accounts because those labels are localized.

But perhaps I’ll also log a case with RIMM.

The only difference in my experience was that it didn’t let me enter the blank password. So I gave it a non-gmail address (non yahoo or gmail or whatever else it has an enhancement for), then had to select the “choose my own settings” option on two different pages.

So far so good! Thanks again!

Thanks.

I have no doubt that your family appreciates and is glad for all the hard work you are putting in. The economy will get better, in the meantime enjoy the Christmas time and have a happy holiday.

I sure hope that is some class-action lawsuit against them for damages. For some people dotPhoto lost their treasured memories.

However, for myself, I believe in having my own backup copies of my images. At least stored in more than one place, where I can get to them. Not just with one company or on one hard drive.

I am ready to call consumer affairs, the better business bureau, my attorney & the media!

Alrighty then, I STILL CANNOT SIGN IN TO MY DAMN ACCOUNT TO PURCHASE THE MEMBERSHIP!!!!!!!! What don’t you understand about that? I try to sign in & my account is inactive, if I try to purchase a membership, it says my ID already exist, I am trying frantically to sign up and save my pictures but DOTPHOTO SUPPORT IS NOT HELPING ME DO THAT!!!!!!

—–Original Message—–
From: “support@dotphoto.com” [support@dotphoto.com]
Date: 10/11/2009 09:11 PM
To: “grubeo@myway.com”
Subject: Re: Ticket #5521-10002736: Solution Suggested (You inactivated my account with no prior notice!!!!!!!)

A solution for your issue has been suggested by Jenn Link.
Solution:
Hello, I am sorry for your loss. This is not something that we are able to extend on an account by account basis. Once the account was re-activated it was only allowed for one additional day since over 30 days were already given.

Because we had an overwhelming surge of requests to restore inactive accounts, DotPhoto has extended the grace period. For a very short while, it will be possible to restore your account. This will end when our old server account is no longer available and this may happen very soon. Please take action immediately. Extensions are not possible.

PURCHASING A MEMBERSHIP IS THE ONLY WAY TO RESTORE AN INACTIVE ACCOUNT.
· Purchase a paid membership plan with a credit card – Login to your account – If you DO NOT purchase a membership, your account and ALL it’s contents WILL BE DELETED SOON. Once deleted it can not be recalled.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Jen L.

dotPhoto Support

Ticket Information:
Ticket #:5521-10002736
Date Created:10/9/2009 10:01 PM EDT
Summary:You inactivated my account with no prior notice!!!!!!!
Details:To whom this may concern,

Ticket #:5521-10002128

Apparently you did not even really read the email I sent you, because YOU ACTIVATED MY ACCOUNT FOR THE ONE DAY I WAS AT THE FUNERAL!!!!!!!!! Was I suppose to leave my grandmother funeral to appease some ONE DAY ONLY ACCESS to my account. This is completely unacceptable behavior. Since Dot-Photo is holding all of my photos hostage, I need access to my account to purchase my membership and access my pictures. Is there someone I can talk to beside a customer service rep, preferably management on this matter? Because the snide comment “of the three emails you sent me” rubs me the wrong way. It is 2009 & people use SPAM FILTERS that could account for the fact I never got “the Three Emails you sent me in September!!!!!” Are you really this pompous as a company?

Unbelievably appalled

Gregory A Rubeo

Heck, my client has their own proxy server in the US, even that is not working. The requests are processed through the proxy, but all of sudden the browser in China shows “connection interrupted”. Using the same proxy in the US, everything works. So China must now have a way of “seeing” into the proxy stream and breaking it.

Looks like this was actually an experiment of “Bing vs Google vs Yahoo” … that explains it.