My site has been compromised

Technical Details

Forum version : #phpBB2
Position : Founder
Concerned browser(s) : Google Chrome
Who the problem concerns : Yourself
When the problem appeared : Today
Forum link : http://taggersgonemad.forumotion.com/forum

Description of problem

I have been away from my forum for over two years due to personal problems and health related issued. I've signed into my forum to realize that I cannot access the Administration panel. I am the owner of this forum and would like to be active and activate my members again, but cannot access the Admin panel. Please help if you can. Thank you

Hi there.

When you say you can't access the admin panel, are you saying you can't see the link at the bottom or it doesn't work? Also, are you making sure you are logged in as your founder's account or an admin?

Draxion wrote:Hi there.

When you say you can't access the admin panel, are you saying you can't see the link at the bottom or it doesn't work? Also, are you making sure you are logged in as your founder's account or an admin?

I cannot access the founder/owner Admin panel at all. I have tried signing in and my Admin link at the bottom left of my forum is dead; I can't click on the link. Also, my forum is ad free. I have not paid to be ad free. I left my group 2 years ago or maybe longer, so I have not kept it ad free during the time I was away. My group was private, but now, there are Guest posting and new members since I had to quit the group. I have no Admin powers at all as far as going to be Admin Panel to create forums, editing posts, and so on. Someone has taken over my group and I need them out because I founded this group in 2013.

Thank you

But you are able to log into the site just fine as the founder, right? Or are you not able to log in?

Draxion wrote:But you are able to log into the site just fine as the founder, right? Or are you not able to log in?

I am able to sign in, but I am just a regular member with no access to the Member area, Skins area, forums, and so on. All I can do is basically, sign in.

I think what has happened is someone hacked the account while I was away. As I mentioned before, the group was private and all of my members new that it would be closing indefinitely. I always kept my group ad free, but since I've been away, there was no use to do this because no one was supposed to be at the group. The person who hacked into my group made him/herself Admin and demoted me and also set the group to ad free. If you will go look at the group, my name is Cin S. Over my name you will notice Owner.

I did not leave the group open for anyone to maintain. It was Private. It now has new members and Guests posting. I did not click any new members into the group because I've only tried logging in today. I didn't leave the group open to the public, so someone changed the settings where Guests can post and that same person has been clicking in new members. Bear in mind, I wasn't here to click in new members. The group has always been private. The group is even ad free and I wasn't here to make the group ad free. All I want are my Administration power back so that I can get my group ready for members again. I also need to design a new skin, but I have no way of gaining access to the Administration part of the forum.

Thank you.

When the founder is away for more than 6 months(I think), Forumotion allows someone else to gain control of the forum and basically be the founder. I suppose that's what may have happened to you.

Occultist wrote:When the founder is away for more than 6 months(I think), Forumotion allows someone else to gain control of the forum and basically be the founder. I suppose that's what may have happened to you.

But this is my group. I knew I would start it up again when I got well. I did not abandon my group. The members were told. If I can't have my group back, then it needs to be deleted because I came up with the name and helped layout the last skin applied. My friend made the header. It isn't right that someone can take over a group when the owner is sick and has had death in the family.

No one asked permission to use my skin and all other buttons, arrows, and tabs. I made those. I should at least be able to go in and remove my work put in on this forum. They can make their own skin.

I've just copied this from a post that I made when I was active in my group.+

Back to top Go down
View user profile Send private message Send e-mail

Owner
Cin S

Gender : Female
Posts : 219875
Chips : 769475
Love : 6554
Birthday : 1960-05-05
Join date : 2013-02-25
Location : USA - Alabama

Thank you

hello and welcome back


we have a specific procedure you can read this topic https://help.forumotion.com/t81878-recovery-or-change-founder-of-an-account

i checked your forum and i dont see any actions made like someone else asking to be the founder
but i saw that you log in today with no problem ..isnt that you?

Cin -> 13-09-2019 08:03:56

your forum is closed so i can check anything else
can you post some screenshot please to help us

skouliki wrote:hello and welcome back


we have a specific procedure you can read this topic https://help.forumotion.com/t81878-recovery-or-change-founder-of-an-account

i checked your forum and i dont see any actions made like someone else asking to be the founder
but i saw that you log in today with no problem ..isnt that you?

Cin -> 13-09-2019 08:03:56

your forum is closed so i can check anything else
can you post some screenshot please to help us

I can sign in, but someone demoted me to plain mod in some of the forums. Someone else is using this site because it is ad free. I haven't paid for over two years to have an ad free group. I do Not have the ability to click on Admin and access my settings like owners should be able to do if they're the owner. I can't even remove the skin. Yes I can log in, but I can't get to the settings to add forums, skins, and new members.

What kind of screenshots do you need? I don't really understand why you need them, but I'll post screenshots if needed. If you can delete this site completely, I would rather that happen and I'll just make a new forum. We have copyrighted materials in the group and I do not want the group to exist with my name associated with it due to copyrights infringements.
That's why I was hoping to save the group as me as Admin/owner, but delete it please. If anyone can stoop so low as to steal someone's group that is all fixed up and move into such as a new home, then that is pretty low of them to do this and for Formumotion to allow this to happen.

So if you can simply delete Taggers Gone Mad, I will make a new group with a new name that's even better.

Thank you

See if you can manually go to http://taggersgonemad.forumotion.com/admin

I can not delete anything only the founder has the power to delete the forum
did anyone from your site had your codes? i need a screenshot of the current admin profile ..

Hello,

I just checked your forum url in our tools, and there are no tickets in our tool where someone requested to take over the forum, which means they must have hacked the founder account by guessing your password. If you send me a pm with the email you used to create the forum I can help you regain access to the forum.

-Brandon

brandon_g wrote:Hello,

I just checked your forum url in our tools, and there are no tickets in our tool where someone requested to take over the forum, which means they must have hacked the founder account by guessing your password. If you send me a pm with the email you used to create the forum I can help you regain access to the forum.

-Brandon

Thank you so much for helping resolve this issue. I did sign in today and saw the Administration panel. I did have a hard time signing in for some reason. But I am in by Cin S and copying my password in. I will definitely change my password to my account. Again, thank you so much for your help.

Cindy

skouliki wrote:I can not delete anything only the founder has the power to delete the forum
did anyone from your site had your codes? i need a screenshot of the current admin profile ..

Thank you. I am able to access the admin panel today, but I'm trying to reconstruct the forums and topics. Once inside a forum, at the bottom of the forum it says I can start a new Topic, but there is not an option to create the Topics. I don't know why I'm not seeing the forum construction options. I created a new forum in admin panel, but when I go to the forum, I'm not able to create topics. I apologize for being so much trouble.

Update: I figured out what I was doing wrong. Everything is fine now.

Please start new topics for questions/issues that are not related.

Is the issue in the first post solved now?

SLGray wrote:Please start new topics for questions/issues that are not related.

Is the issue in the first post solved now?

Yes, everything is working like it did before I had to take a leave. Thanks again and sorry about the new topic in the same thread.

Thanks.

Problem solved & topic archived. Please read our forum rules:  ESF General Rules