PinPics Account Changes

[Figgy]

Hello All,

There have been a few changes to the way account profiles are changed as well as how a new account is created so that what happened this last weekend to one of our members will never happen to any of our other members again.

1: Account Creation -- When you create a new account from this point on the account will only be finished after you recieve a confirmation email from PinPics and respond to the email by following the link provided. Since It is done via email no one can create an account using a false email address nor someone else's email address. If You get one of these emails and you did NOT create a new account simply ignore the email and the account will not be created.

2: Changing Password -- If you forget your password no longer do you have to request PinPics assign you a password. You will be able to input your own choice for a new password. You will also put in your user name and email address. You will then recieve an email asking for confirmation that you requested these changes. If you did request the changes then you click on the link provided to enact the changes into your account. If you did NOT request the changes simply ignore the email and no changes will be done.

3: Changing Email Address -- If you wish to change your email address in PinPics or even simply type in your same email address for whatever reason to refresh your account you can change your email address using the same method as above. If you attempt to save your profile with any alterations or activity on the email line it will send you a confirmation email asking if you wished to make these changes to your email address. It will send it to the NEW email address that was typed in to the account. By following the link provided in the email the change happens. If you did NOT request the change then simply ignore the email and it will not update the account in question. You can only request an email change from within your profile so you have to actually be logged in. This is to prevent someone from creating an account and then changing the email address to either a false email address or someone else's email address.

These changes should prevent anyone being messed with through their pinpics accounts. If there are any questions feel free to post them here.

Thank you,

Figgy and Britt

 

[LynniethePooh]

Thanks Figgy and Britt for your continued hard work and time to keep Pinpics fun and safe for us.

 

[Luv2Roam]

Thanks for the effort and info.

Were you able to find out who the hacker was? Not that it matters who to me. Just a general question if you were able to get to the bottom of the issue.

 

[Figgy]

We narrowed it down to just a few users but without proof we were unable to in good conscience point the finger at any of them.

figgy

 

[Eeyore's Pal]

Or should I say <i>improvements!</i>

 

[BeautyLLM]

Mind if I ask what happened?

 

[Goofy4Pluto]

Originally posted by BeautyLLM
Mind if I ask what happened?

yes, my first thought was "what on earth happened!"

 

[Figgy]

One of our users started having problems with someone messing with them through PinPics back in June. They would get password changes they hadn't requested. The other person would also create accounts using our members email address and make comments on pins and send out very very lopsided TA requests in their name.

It all came to a head this weekend when the person created yet another account in this person's name and proceeded to send out over 20 TAs using Vulgar and Inapporpiate language in the add a comment line available in outgoing TAs. We were flooded with complaints and of course our member recieved some very negative reponses to something they hadn't even done.

Britt and I had realized that the current set up for accounts was not really working and had been planning to change things but this brought the need to have it done right now very clear to us. To prevent anything like this from ever happening again we have put in these safegaurds.

figgy