phishing scheme????

[impaledpeach]

I got the same email and dismissed it as phishing when I saw the form linked to a different site, but it's a reputable form site. (Of course, the form itself could be disreputable and they might not know. I wonder if they have any measures in place to prevent phishing.)

I work for an ad agency, so I can tell you why Stephanie's email address appears different: it's because when sending mass emails, you usually use an email blasting platform rather than sending through gmail. Probably helps with server stress. I imagine they send out this email to hundreds of users every day or every week.

As for the legitimacy of the copyright infringement claim, it's totally bogus because I have nothing on official.fm that I didn't write or compose 100%. This isn't just about mashups. I do find it alarming that the site would delete an account just because of an anonymous tip. But I suppose the form is meant to help them investigate the issue. And the owners of servers are now held 100% accountable for copyright-infringing data on their servers thanks to a (stupid) law that went into effect last year or the year before, so maybe deletion being the default policy makes sense.

I replied to Stephanie to provide me the details of the copyright claim so I can see if the entity is attempting to violate MY copyrights. I'll post back here if I get a response. If I don't get a response, I may just remove my music from official.fm anyway since it hasn't really gotten me any exposure.

I also made a support ticket through official.fm just to verify that this copyright infringement email is legit, the result of which I will also post here.

[jcrisman]

So when can we see Stephanies picture?

I wonder if she is related to Adriana21?

[jancivil]

This is very strange. I wouldn't call it phishing since that usually involves stealing passwords and account numbers for identity theft purposes. Most of what they are asking for would have no financial value and would be publicly available for many bands.

My first guess is that someone sleazy is trying to build up some kind of spammy mailing list of bands to sell to advertisers. My second guess is that a summer intern at Official.fm was given a task to create a procedure for dealing with copyright infringement and created this wacky form and emailed it to everyone without approval.

Just sit back and wait until you here from Official.fm. It should be interesting.

I don't think it's phishing. The ideas shared in this thread don't show it is. Stephanie Yamaguchi is the name of the person that founded the site.

here, so tricky can get with the stalking: https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.yamaguchi.31

[jancivil]

vendetta against all things mashup / Mix / remix

I considered this aspect too. I would think a high % of the users are 'producers' like that, but I never made a mashup or "<-mix->" or "<-remix->" in my life.

[jancivil]

The outcome here was, after getting another notice I put in a ticket to support describing the events. The email I got back assured me my account would not be deleted, yet addressed nothing of what happened (such as the form to be filled out as if an 'account extension'). I think official.fm is not the source of those deletion threats.

[Fornax]

The outcome here was, after getting another notice I put in a ticket to support describing the events. The email I got back assured me my account would not be deleted, yet addressed nothing of what happened (such as the form to be filled out as if an 'account extension'). I think official.fm is not the source of those deletion threats.

I replied to the second email (the "reminder" mail) without the support ticket thingy (i really should've done that instead...too bad, I invested so much time into "composing" this reply.) and my account was deleted as "promised" [albeit one day later than they said it would be nuked]. My reply probably never reached either Stephanie Y. nor Stephan A. - or it could be that what I wrote in there was too close to the truth and so they nuked me for that. Yeah, they probably double-nuked me!). This, for me, is 100% proof that the real official.fm are behind this. And I guess other people's accounts were deleted as well (if they didn't put in a support ticked like you did - because that account extension form is obviously a bad joke...all fields required...) - it's just that so far none of those that had their accounts deleted on Sep 1 (or Sep 2, like in my case) has posted an update here.

[codec_spurt]

Phishing rods come in all shapes and sizes.


I've been carrying on my research.

This is how I see the 'field' altering lately:


Getting illegal software is easier than ever. There are quite a few very well respected sites where this can be achieved. For the most part, running any of the downloads you get through a Virus Scanner you will see that most of what you download is clean.

But, that is not where the money is these days. It is in the Download sites themselves. Most of them are clean too. But if you run something like PrevX or even WOT or Norton DNS, you will see that the real money is in the payload from malicious websites. Why do they offer you this dl of this expensive software for free, but you must dl from a specific site?


I have been surprised that even lately, very clean, very popular sites are linking to sites that basically host malware. Your dl of your illegal software will be good. Your AV won't show up anything unusual, but you will be infected in a very low level bad way.


This is just a heads up to those that think that up till now, stories of malware have been pretty much 'scareware', which they have. Things are getting dirty. There is no longer a level playing field. Not that there ever was...



But feel free to delete this thread if you like.


I buy all the software I use. I can hold my head up high.


I just want that to be known. But any questions. Fire away.

[jancivil]

The outcome here was, after getting another notice I put in a ticket to support describing the events. The email I got back assured me my account would not be deleted, yet addressed nothing of what happened (such as the form to be filled out as if an 'account extension'). I think official.fm is not the source of those deletion threats.

I replied to the second email (the "reminder" mail) without the support ticket thingy (i really should've done that instead...too bad, I invested so much time into "composing" this reply.) and my account was deleted as "promised" [albeit one day later than they said it would be nuked]. My reply probably never reached either Stephanie Y. nor Stephan A. - or it could be that what I wrote in there was too close to the truth and so they nuked me for that. Yeah, they probably double-nuked me!). This, for me, is 100% proof that the real official.fm are behind this. And I guess other people's accounts were deleted as well (if they didn't put in a support ticked like you did - because that account extension form is obviously a bad joke...all fields required...) - it's just that so far none of those that had their accounts deleted on Sep 1 (or Sep 2, like in my case) has posted an update here.

I wrote a blunt note to support, not a belligerant one but describing what had happened and essentially, 'you've got to be kidding me'. I did provide assurances my music uploads are certainly my own. I have a number of images I have, how you say 'appropriated' for the presentation, but I would need to see the actual claims before I'll bother with that. I'm not selling those images/I'm not in competition with them and they're degraded.

Mine is still up. I didn't check until now, it's not a go-to as far as revenue because they hold the money until ~the second of the next month. I don't know. Practically at once I felt that 'this is a ruse to delete my broke-ass account' was as good an hypothesis as any.

Since I actually do have copyrighted material in terms of images, and I got rather quick assurances my account was in good standing, I think the notice was bullshit.

[chaosWyrM]

yeah, i got a second "reminder" email as well.

i sent another email to support, and in an obviously annoyed tone mentioned to them that we supposedly already took care of it. i also asked them who was accusing me and which of my tracks was being accused.

all i got back was a short email saying my account was not being deleted and that stephanie would send another email to that effect...which she did.

i also sent a none too pleasant email to stephanie herself, which wasnt responded to (im guessing she never even got it).

so far i have still not been provided with any sort of explanation from officialfm, and i probably never will.


my account is still up, and im still pretty annoyed.

[Fornax]

If this were a "phishing scam" why would the perpetrators bother to send another reminder email shortly before the deletion deadline without re-including the link to the account extension form that was given in the first email? Wasn't phishing supposed to be all about getting people to enter their data? But they didn't even mention the form in the second email! Instead, the sentence: "We're contacting you today to remind you that your account will be closed on September 1st 2013, as previously announced" - made it appear that the deletion is a done deal.
Furthermore, they included the following totally reasonable suggestion:

"If there is any content on your account that you would like to save, please do so now.

To save songs: make them available for download and then save them on your computer."

If I were to assume the mails were not authorized by Official.fm then I think it's pretty strange that they were still able to somehow take down my account on Sep 2, because that's exactly what happened (despite my uploaded material, even the artwork being 100% original). I'm pretty sure that if had put in a support ticket like some others did, then my account would still be there. Anyway...
While I don't see any actual hard evidence that upholds the scam-theory, there are two factors that make this theory appear plausible to those whose account wasn't deleted:

a) the lack of people reporting back that their account was deleted.

b) the radio silence (the real) official.fm maintains on the subject of the authenticity of these two mails. (of course, this could also be seen as supporting the noscam-hypothesis).

So what is needed to prove the 'no-scam, all authentic'-hypothesis (this is the one I'm leaning towards) is to find at least two or three people who received these mails and whose account was also deleted OR to get one definite offical statement from official.fm that these mails were faked by somebody (somebody who apparently has the power to delete at least one Official.fm account - mine. Or were there more? Let's wait just a bit longer - maybe somebody else will find the motivation to speak up & vent his anger.).

I'm sure some are tired of this topic by now and I can understand that. But after all, this is the 'everything else' section where (almost) everything goes, right? So I hope this thread won't be deleted (at least not yet) - because who knows what revelations might still lie in store?!!! It's still a mystery and I wish I could ask Hercule Poirot for some more ideas.

btw: There is a post on some french forum that I put through the google translator and this guy seems to have come to some of same conclusions as me (that is, he is not of the opinion that it's phishing.) But the interesting thing is that he writes it in a way that makes it seem as if he is now totally convinced, as if he suddenly received definite proof (because a few posts before he sounded not nearly as sure). But judge for yourselves:
Translated version: here (scroll down to the post by the 'admin', Reply # 10).
Original: here.

So, in a nutshell, what that french guy says is that official.fm received complaints but that they don't have the manpower to go after each one of them, so that's why they started this mass-mail thing. It's a bit like installing a system like 'Audible Magic' just so that you can tell these copyright holders: "See? We did do something about it."

[jancivil]

Much of what you have come away with makes sense, but the general nature of their approach doesn't make sense and I can't really arrive at believing a copyright claimant with clout is going to be made to go away with random deletions, 'see, we kind of did the thing'. It's just too vague. I think it's bullshit. I don't have any theories about phishing or any of this. I assumed the email from Stephanie Yamaguchi was real. I asked them after the second one if these emails were real and that was ignored. The form would not show one thing regarding copyright, it was a form to list another website and a barcode for your sales. If it's relevant to anything it would give an indication of the professional status or not of the account holder.

If the people getting deleted having uncleared music and the people not getting deleted being clean is consistent/true, I can believe there were concrete claims. I know only this much about it, that Warner's claimed movie clips in my videos on youtube, I pretty much knew what they meant. So I cited fair use, the clips were not long in duration/not substantial and not in competition, and that was that, they released the claim. Within minutes.

I can't know and it isn't of much moment for me, but a tactic to open up some server space is as good a guess as any to me. It seems like amateur hour to me.

[jancivil]

There is a post on some french forum that I put through the google translator and this guy seems to have come to some of same conclusions as me (that is, he is not of the opinion that it's phishing.) But the interesting thing is that he writes it in a way that makes it seem as if he is now totally convinced, as if he suddenly received definite proof (because a few posts before he sounded not nearly as sure). But judge for yourselves:
Translated version: here (scroll down to the post by the 'admin', Reply # 10).
Original: here.

If a text field that contains either the word "remix", or writing related agreement, the account is put on a list.

I have never characterized anything of mine as a remix, by typing the word or checking a box. My music is made 'by hand' as it were, there is no copying or importing another person's music in this way. There is no gray area with me.
That guy is certain there were claims but I'd have to write his story for him on that, not seeing evidence.

[chaosWyrM]

i dont believe this is a phishing scheme, but i also dont believe there were any copyright claims.

so far for me the most reasonable explanation is that officialfm is going after people who generate little or no cash for them in an attempt to make room on their servers.

i dont understand why they would take this approach, but i cant think of anything else that would make sense.

perhaps they simply assume most small time (read: no cash flow) producers are guilty of copyright infringement in some fashion or another and would simply allow the accounts to be deleted without question out of fear of being caught.

i dont know, just a theory...this whole episode smacks of foul play on officialfms part.

[Fornax]

First of all, I want to state that even while I'm leaning toward the no-scam-theory, I'm still open for all other explanations until we begin to see a glimpse of the bigger picture or maybe even "full disclosure" on part of Official.fm - and that may be never, but I'm still hopeful.

If a text field that contains either the word "remix", or writing related agreement, the account is put on a list.

I have never characterized anything of mine as a remix, by typing the word or checking a box. My music is made 'by hand' as it were, there is no copying or importing another person's music in this way. There is no gray area with me.
That guy is certain there were claims but I'd have to write his story for him on that, not seeing evidence.

I can say exactly the same for my music. And I also never used any tag besides "Experimental". It' clear that this french guy in the forum I found doesn't have the whole banana, but he may have at least a part of the puzzle.
I think there may be one more or even several other 'factors' or 'data items' that official.fm used in determining which accounts are evil and therefore need to be put on the list for deletion. What if the sole use of the 'Experimental'-tag was the reason for my getting put on the list of evil? Of course, this is just pure speculation.

but a tactic to open up some server space is as good a guess as any to me. It seems like amateur hour to me.

This could also be part of their agenda, yes. In any case what they have done and how they have done it is, indeed, totally amateurish! And I believe this "amateur hour"-aspect is a major reason for the overall confusion aboout this. It leads many people to think "Official.fm cannot be this amateurish!" But what if they are...?

Listen for example to this soundcloud clip that I found a few weeks ago from a guy whose files were deleted from Soundcloud because his Official.fm account got deleted - the songs were uploaded to SC via the Official.fm remote-uploading feature (automatic upload to youtube is also possible as far as I know). They basically violated his Soundcloud account by remotely deleting these files completely without his authorization! They only had his permission to upload these files to soundcloud, not to delete them. Amateurs or criminals - I'll leave that for others to decide.

[dsan@mail.com]

But I can't get the name Stephanie Yamaguchi out of my head, such a nice name! I hope she's a pretty girl and still available, even if she lives on an island in the Indian Ocean...

You're too funny!

It's really Igor - middle of Russia - 6 ft 280 pound oaf with hairy knuckles that drag the ground.

Or, it's his half brother, Muhatmumooboo, in Nigeria. Same build though (from their mothers side)

Good luck Tricky!

Happy Musiking!
dsan