facebook nightmare....

susieq · #1 07-13-2008, 06:34 PM

The girl that built my website for me is a long long time friend. She is our youngest daughter's age and they were friends all through highschool. The girl's parents are also long time friends. We all stay in touch. Recently, Lisa emailed me to say that she had a new "facebook page" and I should go visit the website and register as a member so I could look at her page. She also got the youngest daughter to join.

So, a couple of days ago, I did join. I visited several times and we chatted back and forth through the site.... I really don't have time for this sort of thing....spend way too much time on the computer as is.

But our daughter was on there too and it was fun. Then, my friend suggested that I post a link to my website on there. She thought it would be a good thing.

So, this morning, I logged on to my facebook page and posted my website link. I kid you not, within seconds of doing so, my website was infected with 3 different viruses. I clicked on the link to make sure it was working and BAM! My antivirus program went nuts!!!! It was fighting off several infections at once. Thank God I keep it up to date.

So, I deactivated the facebook thing. Closed it down. I emailed my friend and told her what happened. She had to go in and take my whole website down. Delete the content and repost it. It's fine now, but just beware out there. It happened so fast it made my head spin.

Alice in Wonderland · #2 07-13-2008, 06:46 PM

Susieg ,just today a friend said to me ,"Alice you got to make a page in Facebook" and I was just looking into it ,but since I am rather illiterate when it come to this kind of things( and the weather was to nice too:-))) I did not do it,Thank you for taking the time to write about this ,Susieg I would have been lost.
Thanks again
Alice

Eddy Smiles · #3 07-13-2008, 07:40 PM

Susan... Too much of everything going on at "Facebook" and sites just like it. My advice to anyone and everyone would be to stay away. When you start attracting that many folks to one location it's bound to lead to trouble....

Ron T · #4 07-13-2008, 08:01 PM

Thank you for you post. I'd like to get more traffic to my site but I'm also worried about all the troublemakers out there. Sometimes it's best to slow and careful.

brian bailey · #5 07-13-2008, 10:15 PM

I'm curious on how your website got infected. Your host's server must have some sort of software to protect their customers from this sort of thing.

I'd be firing off an e-mail to who ever hosts your website and make them aware of this.

susieq · #6 07-13-2008, 10:47 PM

Hello all,
I have calmed down a bit since this morning. The girl who built (and fixed) my site, says it may have had the problem before I put the link up on facebook. She has her site up there and has not had a problem. She will be contacting the host server to see what they recommend for protection.
I am done with facebook though.

I wish peple would just play nice....

brian bailey · #7 07-13-2008, 11:11 PM

You shouldn't have to do anything to protect your website other than to change your password frequently.

That's the host's responsibility to provide their customers protection from infections.

Unfortunately, there are geeks out in cyber land that take pleasure in beating the system.

mikeGinSC · #8 07-14-2008, 12:29 AM

My wife hosts her own craft forum. Sometimes she spends all day deleting spammers that try to register for her forum. Seems like they're everywhere. And I mean all over the world. Be careful out there.

Mike G. in SC

Mottles · #9 07-14-2008, 12:37 AM

WOW, another reason for anti virus programs and keep them updated. No telling what would have happened to your computer had you not had everything working the way it should.
Geez! Glad you back on the boards.
Kathy

susieq · #10 07-14-2008, 01:43 PM

Thanks Kathy,
Because of my antivirus program, my computer was never in danger. I am totally helpless when it comes to my website. My friend had to take down my site, delete the content and repost it to get rid of the problems

One of my goals to tackle after leaving my job, is to learn how to use my Dream Weaver software. That is the software that was used to build my site. I wish my friend lived closer so I could learn from her. I know she would like me to learn how to manage a few things on my site so she doesn't have to. But she is in Atlanta now and I am here in FL.

I do have someone lined up to tutor me on the software so hopefully, I can work on my own website before too long.