VBD2 is closed. Please go to https://vbd3.co.uk instead.

If the site is restored, members can once again look forward to about a week of further down time when the Jim G's yearly Matchbox Collectors Gathering event takes place. Curtis still insists on going "dark" during that time to "punish" all involved with Jim's wonderful event.

MCCH has 1299 members on FB - if anyone here wishes to be the 1300th here is the link to join https://www.facebook.com/groups/44945544532/ - they seem to be getting about a dozen posts each day which averages out at 1 post per 100 members per day

Idris wrote:The MCCH forum page now reads: "Hacked again! The MCCH is currently under a Trojan Virus attack and is down to fix it.".

I don't know a lot about such things, but is a Trojan virus attack on a website credible? Surely if the website had been hacked, the people responsible would have simply got in, done whatever they wanted to do, and then left again? My understanding of a Trojan is that it's a file you inadvertently upload to your computer where it then does something (normally undesirable).

Idris wrote:

Idris wrote:The MCCH forum page now reads: "Hacked again! The MCCH is currently under a Trojan Virus attack and is down to fix it.".

I don't know a lot about such things, but is a Trojan virus attack on a website credible? Surely if the website had been hacked, the people responsible would have simply got in, done whatever they wanted to do, and then left again? My understanding of a Trojan is that it's a file you inadvertently upload to your computer where it then does something (normally undesirable).

Like leaving wooden horse poo (meow)

I tried using the link and I get some of the posts but where the page header should be all I got was... Error download... Has this link been blocked??
Also cannot find the mcch page by searching F.B strange.....

I think technically there are classes of malware like bots, viruses, worms and trojans. Unlike viruses, trojans do not usually replicate themselves but are mainly activated through the unsuspecting actions of users. There are many types of trojan which can affect systems and their integrity in different ways and some can do significant harm.

Last time I tried (just a few days ago) to go to some mboxcommunity.com page I got redirected to a porn page of some sort. So I quickly removed browser history.

And right now if I download without rendering the source for http:// mboxcommunity.com / it appears to end with some sort of hidden iframe to a page tswhp.php at the top level, with some long strange ID. If I download without rendering that tswhp.php page (actually did without the id) the dense text seems to contain lots of references to dubious pharmaceuticals.

Not only hacked, but very seriously trashed.

A saved browser link to within the forums is not found. http:// www. mboxcommunity.com / forums / appears (currently) to be the deepest you can go, and currently a non-malicious message from Mark C.

I suppose he indicates how to send email and I probably should. "Just in case you don''t know already..." [Actually, he doesn't seem to indicate such, I found an old address in my correspondence, though]

(Links deliberately broken to increase the level of expertise needed to follow them, just in case it's not obvious; I'd recommend using something like "lynx -source" or
"curl" or "wget" for most pages).

EDIT: Sorry, because I am not that familiar with the VBDF format, I overlooked the second page before posting.

P.S. Facebook seems very much opposed to its members publishing anything via their pages.

Curtis is aware the site is down and posted a small coment about it on his Facebook account.

He is also completly inept at dealing with such issues. If he is to get the site back up, he will have to pay someone to do so. I'd place my bet on this being the swan song for this long troubled forum and it's much loathed owner.

I wasn't sure he would be aware at least one page attached to his name and reputation is serving people serious and possibly harmful rubbish.

Is all.

SportWagon wrote:I wasn't sure he would be aware at least one page attached to his name and reputation is serving people serious and possibly harmful rubbish.

Is all.

He's ruined his own reputation some time back and this isn't the first time he's had harmful content served up from his pages. It took him months to clear up the last virus infected pages. He never was able to solve the problem himself and paid to have an update done and the harmful content removed. That was very minor compared to this mess.

I suspect he has little motivation to pay someone to straighten out this latest mess. From what I can see (and as you also commented) the site is severely hacked/trashed. He will pretty much have to start over from scratch and unless he has backed up the data & archives somewhere else (he's never done that, even when he used to give a damn) all the archives (though few they are) will be lost. From the level of trashing the site has taken, he's likely lost all of the member information as well so any members wanting to rejoin will have to sign up as new members. That's if he has the desire and financial resources to start over.

This is a good time from Christian to get off that sinking ship and move his site to a different server. Because, if he doesn't rebuild the site, there is no reason to continuing paying for the server.

I'd be willing to bet the MCCCP site is finished.