Issue: Immediately need HELP from the authority here on a serious matter!!!!

[LegendChu]

Okay guys, I know its April Fools time, so initially I just dismissed this as a prank, but now this thing has gone a bit too far.

For the past couple of days I've gotten a bunch of mails from Pokecommunity. One says that I need to "renew" my account within a week or its likely to be banned. Another one "congratulates" me for applying to be a "Community Supporter" & offers me a lot of so-called benefits, although I never applied for any such thing (I have no idea what a Community Supporter is anyways). Likewise, I've got about 6-7 mails, all wanting me to do one thing or the other.

One thing common in all the mails is the fact, that I'm being asked to divulge my personal details on a link to a site mentioned & being asked to pay money, after which a supposed "Verification Code" would be sent to me (once my payment has been confirmed), which I'm then supposed to give to one of the Administrators or Staff Members on Pokecommunity, to "avail" the "benefits". I'm not even aware of who the Administrators (are there more than one?) or Staff Members here are. I also don't know specifically whom I should take up this issue with, which was why I was forced to make a thread.

See, I've been on this forum for quite some time & I really like coming here. Most of the times, I've only posted on threads here & not had too many one-on-one interactions until recently, but people who know me, will vouch for the fact that I've always been very polite & friendly with them. But don't for one second take politeness for meekness, coz if there's something wrong happening I'll be the first one to speak out & take a stand. And also don't think I'm so naive that I'd fall for such a lame trap.

Right now though I'm at a complete loss at what to do & how to stop this bombardment of mails, coz even after I blocked the mail account, the one from where I got the initial 4-5 mails, I again received a couple of mails from a different account (which I've also blocked for now).

Is it a new rule here, I mean can only people who are ready to shell out money, be allowed to be members here? Sounds ridiculous & highly unlikely! But the fact is that both accounts from where the mails were sent to me, seem to belong to Pokecommunity.

Please guys, if someone here on Pokecommunity is behind this (I'm still hoping that this is only a prank), this is going way too far now. I'd really appreciate if this person, whoever it is, admits to it, I'll just let it be & end this right here.

But if its not a prank, its most likely to be a phishing attack, which is a very serious matter. I don't want to take any action yet, but if this continues, I'll be forced to do something from my end.

I'd really appreciate if the concerned authorities (the right people whom I should be talking about this to), could please guide me on what I should do.

 

[Nah]

While I don't know the exact contents of the emails you've received, it sounds to me like some sort of scam by a 3rd party. Emails asking you for personal information and/or money tend to be scams. We do not ask for people to give money to the site, this is definitely not a prank by PokeCommunity staff; donating is strictly voluntary and money is definitely not a requirement to post here.

To answer a couple of your more minor questions:

I have no idea what a Community Supporter is anyways

A community supporter is simply just someone who's donated money to the site. Doing so nets you a few perks and a new username color depending on how much you donated. You've probably seen people with silver, gold, azure, and platinum usernames, right?

I'm not even aware of who the Administrators (are there more than one?) or Staff Members here are.

Here's a full list of PokeCommunity staff: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showgroups.php

But yeah, PM Audy (Rukario would probably be good too) these emails if you haven't already done so so this can get sorted out.

 

[Nihilego]

For reference, these are absolutely not sent legitimately from PokéCommunity or its staff and you should not acknowledge them. It is important that you do not follow their instructions or reply to them. Please send complete copies of the emails and the addresses which they're from, along with any other information, to any staff administrator as suggested above by Private Message.

 

[LegendChu]

Alright guys, even after posting this thread, I've gotten two more mails, from yet another new id, again on the same lines as the ones before. Okay, maybe the mails were sent from fake ids, but the fact is, that all those accounts have an @pokecommunity.com suffix.

I'm so sorry I'm having to do this guys, but I've talked to a friend of mine, who's a cyber expert, to try get the IP addresses from where the mails are being sent from.

Can you please PM me copies of the emails and the addresses they're from?

Ausaudriel, I really don't doubt your intentions & as much as I'd like to PM you the mail copies, I'm so sorry, but I have a few reservations man, reason being that there is a list of people mentioned in the mails, who I'm supposed to contact (you being one of them), AFTER I pay up & get the "Verification Code". I just went through the list of Staff Members & found out that each of those mentioned is an actual member of the staff here on Pokecommunity.

This is the full list:-
Ausaudriel, Klippy, Ludger, Livewire, bobandbill, Omicron, Team Fail, Keiran.

And Ausaudriel, another thing I should mention, all mails have been undersigned by your name (its says - All the best, Ausaudriel (Administrator), The PokéCommunity Forums). Of course I'm not accusing you of anything, I know you're trying to help but still man, I choose to hold back from sharing the mails for now. Hope you can understand.

And I'd also really appreciate, if the above-mentioned can personally confirm that none of you is behind this, so that I'm absolutely assured. Its not a demand or anything, just a humble request, just for my satisfaction.

See, its not that I'm saying any of you is responsible, but the fact is that I've chosen to keep my personal details (including my mail id) private, that's the reason I'm having doubts of the involvement of someone who has access to those details. I might still be wrong (hopefully I am).

I have full faith that people here on Pokecom, won't try to pull off such a prank, that puts a fellow member through so much trouble, coz this is a lovely place to be & most people here are really nice, friendly & helpful. But please understand guys, I'm very stressed out & pissed off right now.

I really don't want to stop coming to this place, so I'm still saying, if someone here is behind this, just admit to it man. Please, just end this thing right now, please.

 

[Omicron]

I can assure you I'm not involved in that.

 

[bobandbill]

I also can confirm that I have naught to do with this. Sounds like maybe this person grabbed a few names at random (maybe people who were active at the same time and showing up as online?) given the range in ranks. They would do better to impersonate given Audy isn't the owner, but I guess adding the name of an admin may be convincing enough.

I'm sorry to hear that something like this happened to you. If anybody else has such emails I strongly suggest sending what information you have here to the admins as requested.

 

[LegendChu]

I can assure you I'm not involved in that.

I also can confirm that I have naught to do with this. Sounds like maybe this person grabbed a few names at random (maybe people who were active at the same time and showing up as online?) given the range in ranks. They would do better to impersonate given Audy isn't the owner, but I guess adding the name of an admin may be convincing enough.
I'm sorry to hear that something like this happened to you. If anybody else has such emails I strongly suggest sending what information you have here to the admins as requested.

Thnx for replying guys, really kind of you. I take your word & believe that neither of you is responsible for this. Its a little reassuring, but I'm sorry, before I share any more details with anyone, I choose to wait for a response from the others, coz I want to absolutely sure that nobody from Pokecom is involved. Plz don't mind.

Btw, Rukario is mentioned as the "Administrator" in the Staff List, while Ausaudriel is mentioned as a "Staff Administratrator" so who exactly is the head of the authority here, is it Rukario?

 

[Mana1]

Thnx for replying guys, really kind of you. I take your word & believe that neither of you is responsible for this. Its a little reassuring, but I'm sorry, before I share any more details with anyone, I choose to wait for a response from the others, coz I want to absolutely sure that nobody from Pokecom is involved. Plz don't mind.

I'm sorry but you really need to PM the details to an admin now. Then we can work out what's going on. Razor Leaf has already said this as well, and isn't on your list, so he seems like a good bet.

 

[Astinus]

Btw, Rukario is mentioned as the "Administrator" in the Staff List, while Ausaudriel is mentioned as a "Staff Administratrator" so who exactly is the head of the authority here, is it Rukario?

Rukario (also known as Steve) is the owner of PC. He owns the server, and is the one that makes the payments to keep the forums running.

Ausaudriel is a "staff administrator" because he was promoted to that rank by being PC staff. He has access to the admin CP to code things for the forum and change usergroups for members. But he does not own the forum, and falls under Rukario in the staff hierarchy ladder.

So Rukario is the "head of authority" here, as there have been times when staff has deferred to him on things.

--

There have been many cases before of people impersonating PC's staff members in attempts to get passwords and other information. The only way it stops is if you (the person on the receiving end of this) reports it to an administrator now, as Mana has suggested you do.

 

[Sydian]

I'm not involved in this, if that makes you feel better. But you really do need to send a message to someone to get this fixed. It's hard to help without seeing the full contents of the messages. Like Mana said, Razor Leaf should be a safe bet.

 

[Rukario]

Those emails are not coming from us, we don't send out generic emails asking for ANYTHING esp money or personal details / login info. EVER.

That said, please attach those emails to a new email and send to webmaster (@pokecommunity.com) I need to see the full email complete with headers to trace them back to the source.

as we use security features such as SPF and DKIM to prevent email spoofing you should check to see if your email service provider supports it and its working properly (should have not delivered or marked them as spam/fishy if not actually sent by out servers) - this is also why I need full copies of the email w/headers included.

Also you can and should send a copy to Audy (Ausaudriel) so he can also take a look..

 

[Nick]

In case you didn't know, sometimes people can send emails that appear to be from a specific domain name, but aren't. Usually by using the email address its pretending to be as its first name and a unicode alt space character as its last name. I get emails from people pretending to be others all the time that fit into this. If you go into an email and attempt to reply to the email, you can see the actual email address used in the indented quote level that appears on most email clients and websites. I'm going to assume you didn't reply to them or attempt to do so, given the urgency in this and the suspiciousness.

 

[LegendChu]

Hmm, I still don't see any responses yet from a few people I was expecting replies from.

I can also assure you that I'm in no way involved in any emails. Anyways, definitely send Ausaudriel copies of these messages, as they're being used for phishing attempts and we definitely don't want to have people's accounts being compromised. Trust me, I know from experience.

I'm not involved in this, if that makes you feel better. But you really do need to send a message to someone to get this fixed. It's hard to help without seeing the full contents of the messages. Like Mana said, Razor Leaf should be a safe bet.

Okay guys, I'll take your word & believe you.

Anways, you know what guys, making this thread actually worked. The person behind this apparently got scared & goofed up big time on the last spam mail I received & actually revealed his/her identity by mistake (or deliberately I don't know). I did some searching & as shocking as it might be, the name mentioned in the mail is an actual registered user here on Pokecom. I don't wanna take any names yet, coz I don't want to accuse anyone without ample proof.

So if you're reading this post buddy, your game's up. I'm giving you one last opportunity - better own up asap & let everyone know how you managed to pull this off & if there are others involved in this, or else I'll have to take action from my side. Its not a threat, but believe I'm damn serious about it, coz even though the name mentioned in the mail might be a random one, I managed to get your IP address, so you can't hide any more. I'll be left with no choice, but to make it & all mails sent to me, public & believe me, I will.

 

[Klippy]

Hmm, I still don't see any responses yet from a few people I was expecting replies from.

You have been advised to forward the emails to Rukario, Razor Leaf, and Ausaudriel, arguably the only people you need or could even want handling this given they are administrators. Once again, you should be forwarding these emails to them and sharing relevant info for them to look into.

You need not reveal anything public and you certainly don't need to make threats. Let the admins handle it and give them the emails via PM. All future contact regarding this situation should be handled through them and not by you or through a public accusation. If you do as they've instructed, they can gain the necessary info from there.