Randy,

I just wanted to let you know how disappointed I am. I fully understand flyertalk.com is owned and run by you and you may do so as you wish but with that said the following are very troubling to me

1) The "appeal" process as outlined in the Flyertalk TOS doesn't work. I have sent many emails & pvt's over the past 8 days and have yet to receive any sort of response even if it was to just confirm receipt of my emails. I find this extremely poor behavior for any professional organization.

2) I find it extremely troubling that moderators believe the Flyertalk TOS supersede any and all other services/websites TOS. In my case I received two emails from an individual, the first had the individual's email address spoofed as the headers show the email originated from this website while the second email's headers show it originated from that users ISP. I found the second email extremely offensive and informed the ISP of the violation of their TOS. I was informed by a moderator that filing a complaint with the ISP about a matter that occurred outside of flyertalk was a violation of the Flyertalk TOS.

I know cancelling my subscription to your magazine will have no effect but with my strong set of ethics I have no other option, I'll be emailing Mikel later today with my information for you to process.

Again I am very sorry about the way I feel but until everyone is treated in a professional manner I am forced to discontinue use of your services.

If you should like to discuss this matter further you can find my email address in any one of the emails I have sent over the past 8 days.

Was the OP suspeneded for this post?

I'd hope not.

I also hope not UP

Soc's questions and comments seemed legimate to me....After all, he is/was a very longtime poster and has always been a gentleman on FT

I am sure Randy will clarify for all of us.

I will touch on no other aspect from OP other than this one. It may be connected with the above issue - I have absolutely no idea and I do not know socrates, but raise it for possible info of Admin, and a heads-up to all members.

One FlyerTalker registered the email address [email protected] a few years back. I have never opened any hotmail account at any time in my life. It seems the email address [email protected] was also registered.

I have a very good idea who this very senior member is, but that is beside my main point there.

This hotmail address has been used to email FT'ers with all sorts of gossip and nonsense and obscenities, and several believed it came from me. Luckily some copies were sent to me for info not believing I'd sent them, but I have no way of knowing how many were NOT picked as fakes.

My only point is please be CAREFUL when receiving an email from someone on FT whose name you recognise, but have not have email contact with before.

Especially if the contents are controversial or offensive. Sad that we need to built in an extra layer of checking, but if it has occurred to others, all FT'ers should be warned it does go on.

If I for instance today got an email from (to use a member above for demonstration only)

[email protected] (we have never emailed before AFAIK!) I would in the first instance email him/her via their FT link saying: "Hi - did you just send me an email?".

Takes an extra minute, but allows a clear double check that you really are contacting who you THINK you are.

I seem to recall other members have had this issue. Gaucho100k I seem to recall had a problem along these lines, and one other well known member did too with hacked password to email account etc.

Thanks for the insight oz.

ozstamps makes an excellent point, which I've fortunately never had an occasion to think about until now. It suggests that first contact via FT PM is a good idea, even though it's a bit more cumbersome than regular e-mail. When you get a PM, and log into FT to read it, you have some assurance that it's from the FTer you think it is. First contact via e-mail has to be a tad more suspect.

May well only be tangential to this matter, but don't some members only receive emails and never check/use the PM feature? It may make the "first contact via FT PM" a bit difficult if that is the case.

Valid point; it's been so long since I set those options that I had forgotten that one can turn off (or not turn on) PM.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I have never in my FT history had PM's enabled.

However I have the ability to email me via FT enabled and many member use it.

Likewise if I got an email I was not sure about from someone purporting to be a FT member, I'd email him/her via FT to verify it was actually the member concerned.

Takes a minute longer, but saves a large hassle down the track if the initial email is a fake - and they are certainly not unknown.

This is a thought-provoking thread. I've done the opposite- never enabled e-mail (I really guard my e-mail addresses, none of which are tennisbum@...) but have always had PM-ing enabled.

That seemed simplest and safest to me. Am I misunderstanding something here?

Ozstamps is correct. A year or so back many passwords were hacked and mine was one of them.

It should be made very clear � it was not from FlyerTalk. Where you might use a common password elsewhere is your own business.I think as a common courtesy, many of our members remind others to remember to "log out" when using a remote computer for access to FlyerTalk or any other Web site for that matter.

Strange that you used the word "many." I seem to recall maybe one or two or maybe three members all with a common association with another Web site.

Regardless, I think this post was meant for my attention and as it is, none of the above posts have tried to answer the members question.

I'd like to answer it if any of you are wondering, but the member doesn't seem interested in answering a simple request made to him regarding using some of the information he provided. I'll wait a little longer...

Randy, my choice of the word many is accidental, Im not throwing around the blame. This was a long time ago and I dont remember off hand how many people got their passwords hacked. The real point is that someone used my handle to post certain things, and from the beginning I said that I was not the author of what was posted. And yes, FWIW you are correct in that I did use the same password for FT and another website.

Once again, there is no need to get defensive about FT, I dont blame FT or any of its employees/affiliates for what happened.

This thread has gotten way off-topic and i haven't even answered the question yet.

I do know that from the facts i know so far, nothing posted this far into the thread is even close to the situation.

I think it best the remains closed until I answer. Thank you.