OhMyMySpace

A couple of weeks ago, some loser hacked my MySpace page and started sending out spam MySpace Bulletins to all my MySpace Friends making it appear that they were coming from me. Actually they were. This person -- er, loser -- captured my username and password and logged right into my account, using it as their own. Furthermore, the loser added some code to my page so that anyone clicking a link on my page would be directed to said loser's own IP address, where their name and password would also be captured.

I'm surprised that more hasn't happened...said loser almost undoubtedly has my valuable email address, and should be bombarding me with spam, but isn't. I have no idea why someone would do this. Anyone wanting to send out spam MySpace Bulletins could create a new MySpace identity in a matter of seconds. Why bother hijacking the account of someone with a total of 9 MySpace Friends?

Here's how it happened:
I was surfing MySpace late one night, and landed on a "You must be logged in to do that" page. No matter that I was already logged in: Many Web sites ask you to reenter your password periodically, so I did.

Here's how to prevent it from happening from you:
MySpace never asks for your password while you're logged in unless you navigate away from MySpace. If you see the "You must be logged in to do that" page, look at your browser's address bar. If you see a misspelled version of "myspace.com" or a numerical IP address, DO NOT type your email address and password. To do so is giving them away to a phisherman. Back out of the page immediately.

Here's how to fix it if it does:
If you've been hacked, you'll find you can't get to your own MySpace home page. Anytime you click your Home link (or anywhere on your own profile page, actually), you'll go to the hacker's IP address. Instead, go to someone else's MySpace page, click Home on that page, and then click "Edit Profile." You'll find some unfamiliar code in your "About me" field. (It's much easier to spot if you have not customized your MySpace page.) Delete that malicious code, and things should be back to normal. At least, this was all I had to do to fix the problem.

I grok MySpace. But I don't understand it.