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Merscom Site Hacked - Be Advised!

(17 posts) (9 voices)

Started 16 years ago by aRenegade
Latest reply from Whiterabbit-uk

aRenegade
Member

The other day I tried to access the Merscom forums to see if I could get any information about a problem I was having with one of their games, "MiniGolf Championship". A few days ago I started having problems with the game crashing right after the "welcome" screen - Discus (which I thought that was the name of the company). I was getting "encountered a problem and have to close" messages. After a couple of system restores that problem went away, only now when loading a saved game it puts me in the creek right next to the water wheel. Very strange to say the least! I figured there had to be a corrupt dll file (I'm still on the hunt). I never had problems like this before. As it turned out it was a Merscom game. GAOTD put that game up a couple of months ago and it was also offered last year.

When I clicked the link to get to the forum from Merscoms support page (merscomsupport.com) the forum page would appear just long enough to see that it was the forum page. Afterward, a you have been hacked web page opens and denies access to the forum. It even shows up in the IE7 history of sites visited list. I spent the better part of the day running security scans on my pc, uninstalling and deleting anything associated with Merscom as a precaution. Here's the link to Wikisend for a copy of my print screens (100% certified safe)(Wiki file #948534). Has anyone else seen this before or know anything about what's going on?

http://wikisend.com/download/948534/Game

Posted 16 years ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

Defaced not hacked, though it was not hacked either, more cracked.

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

sad, but if it had been an actual attack there probably wouldn't have been a 'warning'.

Posted 16 years ago #
copmom
Member

goodgotd .. hackers like to brag that they've done something, so it very well could have been a warning.

Posted 16 years ago #
goodgotd
Member

script-kiddies, sure- but bot-herders?

Posted 16 years ago #
Buckleysmom
Member

So does this mean I shouldn't try to play any of my Merscom games?

Posted 16 years ago #
aRenegade
Member

Many thanks to everyone for commenting on my post. Nothing showed up in any of the security scans I ran i.e., OneCare, Avast, AVG, Ad-Aware, & Defender (hey, so call me paranoid). Based on those results, and the comments made here, I'm somewhat more at ease with labeling this incident as a case of a site being defaced opposed to a hack (in the purest sense). But honestly, I'm still not very comfortable with reinstalling Merscoms products or even visiting their site because of this incident. If this was a planned hack by some disgruntled individual, then from that extent they were successful. Which makes it very important not to let those feelings get in way of doing business with that company, including visiting their web site. If this was done by “newbie’s” just out to test their smarts by getting their jollies at other peoples expense. Then in my opinion that company needs to do whatever, and show their customers that it’s safe to do business with them without security issues getting in the way. I sent them an email so it will be interesting to see how they are going to respond. I’ll post that information. Thanks Again

Posted 16 years ago #
haalam
Member

aRenegade: I am looking forward to reading what Merscom replies to your email. I hope they do. They should know about the forum problem if they offer support there, right?

Buckleysmom & others in fear: I have a lot of games from the Game GAOTD site that were from Merscom, but I highly doubt the hacker/defacer could get to games that are downloaded to our systems. Just to have a feeling of security, don't allow Internet access from the Merscom game if/when your firewall asks for your permission.

Posted 16 years ago #
aRenegade
Member

As an FYI - I have yet to hear anything from Merscom regarding this incident, and frankly that surprises me. So much for "customer satisfaction" eh? Now that's what I call building trust in a customer base. I guess the people at Merscom have made the decision that it's best to do nothing and let "time heal any wounds, just kick back and the whole thing will soon be forgotten".

How does everyone else feel about this silence from Merscom? Speaking for myself, when it comes to "stuff" like this my wounds heal very slowly! It doesn't exactly rid any guilty feelings I had about uninstalling everything on my PC that was associated with them. I'll keep the forum up to date.

Posted 16 years ago #
aRenegade
Member

It's a good thing I wasn't holding my breath waiting for ANY feedback from Merscom regarding their forum site being defaced. If anyone does know someone holding their breath in anticipation of some response, they're probably getting a bit "ripe" by now.

Hey, if the Merscom people don't think this incident isn't worthy enough to allocate a couple of minutes to send out an email response, that's ok. Because at this point I don't think using ANY of their products are worthy enough for me to use. If there is anyone who needs or knows someone needing technical support, tell them not to hold their breath!

Posted 16 years ago #
graylox
Moderator

Thank you for your efforts aRenegade.

Posted 16 years ago #
copmom
Member

I've found the merscom products to be very reliable, I've sure downloaded pulenty of them, and they have been VERY quick in replying to me when I've emailed them.. so don't judge in haste!

Posted 16 years ago #
aRenegade
Member

Judge in haste??? Could you be a little more specific as to how long it took (in terms of days, weeks, hours, minutes, etc) to resolve those issues that put you in the position of contacting them? "VERY quick" doesn't tell me much.

Its been a week already and I haven't heard squat! I am of the opinion that it would be in Merscoms (or any company’s), best interest to acknowledge this incident and alleviate any concerns customers may have regarding security issues. How long would it take to email a note saying, "We are aware of the situation and are taking appropriate steps.” A little bit of “sugar” can go a long way. Playing deaf, dumb, and blind sends me the message that they just don't give an excrement, and customer satisfaction is a secondary priority to them. Should they initiate damage control with me I’ll post their reply, but until then, as far as I’m concerned the matter is closed. As they say, “We all got to do, what we all got to do”. Good luck ;)

Posted 16 years ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

If you click the link posted in the first post of this thread you get a powerpoint file.

Posted 16 years ago #
Robert
StrayCat

Lee,
aRenegade

And it is a nice one.Wish I could read it though.
My Japanese isn't what it used to be.
:)

Posted 16 years ago #
copmom
Member

This following is posted on Mercom's site:

"We are committed to providing you with technical support for your game in a timely manner. Here you will find a Troubleshooting Guide for common technical issues as well as the Merscom Forums, which allow you to communicate with our staff and other players.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to our agreement with Game Giveaway of the Day, we regret that we are unable to provide tech support for Merscom games downloaded from their Web site.

Merscom Support FAQ Thread

Windows Vista Information: Currently only a few of our games are officially Vista compatible. Please check the system requirements on your game box or at our store to confirm. We unfortunately cannot provide answers to support questions regarding Vista compatibility for games that do not include Vista on their system requirements."

And when I said, "don't judge in haste", I had contacted them because my grandson liked one of their games so well on my machine, I wanted to buy it for his machine. They got back to me within the hour.

And.. if needed, here's their information:
Merscom LLC
Boyd Hall, Suite 330 55 VilCom Circle
Chapel Hill, NC 27514, United States
Phone number: 919-869-8737 Fax: 919-918-7834

Posted 16 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Personally I've had no problems with any of the games from Merscom. Perhaps the Easter vacation may have been one of the reasons for a delay in replying, though I see Copmom has pointed out the no support clause for anything from the giveaway site. It could also be that the Email you used was one of those not served by a human (lol). You know what I mean.

I'm sorry you've had the problems your having. It's sad that there are a breed of people out there that think it funny hacking sites such as Merscom. We just have to live with it.

I wont be stopping visiting Merscom though as I do have adequate security measures in place.

Posted 16 years ago #

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