i received an email yesterday with a title of a thread I contributed to in this forum soliciting participation in a survey for people with IBD. It addressed me by my screen name here. It’s the first time it occurred since I joined, then I received a second email today.
Has our info been sold, shared or leaked? This is a very concerning development as it essentially means the info we post on this site has been linked to our personal, identifiable information.
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Did you read this sticky thread?
Has this email been forwarded by the forum as a private message? This is something that every registered person here can do and it would mean no leak of personal information like your email address or real name.
@CTBarrister I have never shared my private info on any public forum. I’ve only shared my email to set up my account.
@SteveG no it was not a PM. It was a marketing email from a healthcare survey firm sent to my personal (private) email but addressing me by my screen name from this site to solicit participation in a survey about IBD. I have never shared personal info with anyone in PMs or otherwise. I am very protective of my privacy.
The subject line of the email was a post I had contributed to but the sender and body of the email mail was pure marketing. Sneaky but not surprising really. I unsubscribed and cleared my cache but realistically the cat is out of the proverbial bag.
I did not receive the same email. Did anyone else on the board other than you?
This is a public form, you could actually Google your screen name and it will pop up related to this blog.
One time I posted my email address on here for a specific reason and some nosy body from this site took it started emailing me. It was not meant for her. I contacted the moderator on this site and she took care of it.
Do you have the email address that it came from?
@Pouch2021 posted:i received an email yesterday with a title of a thread I contributed to in this forum soliciting participation in a survey for people with IBD. It addressed me by my screen name here. It’s the first time it occurred since I joined, then I received a second email today.
Has our info been sold, shared or leaked? This is a very concerning development as it essentially means the info we post on this site has been linked to our personal, identifiable information.
Could you send me a copy of the email in a private message please? I I will send you a PM you can reply to. I will make sure the site administrator Bill J looks into it. I am traveling right now, but check my email daily.
As far as I know our profile information is not shared with marketers.
Jan 
If the board was hacked I would think everyone would have received the email, otherwise what was the point of the hack since the only thing of value would be the privately stored emails of members?
Which reminds me that medical offices have become huge recent targets for ransomware attacks. I work as an attorney and handle many personal injury cases, and just in the past year, settlement in a couple of my cases was held up due to such attacks. I could not get current bills on my clients because the hackers locked the billing system. In one of my cases it took MONTHS for them to figure it out, thus holding up settlement for my clients, much to their annoyance. I suspect those medical offices did not invest much, if anything in their internet security. I do not know if any money or ransom was paid. One of the offices admitted to me it was a ransomware attack but would not say if the ransom got paid.
I should note that my firm and other law firms have been subject to attempted hacks. Any firm that handles real estate and large amounts of clients' or lenders' money are targets. You should all ask your law firms what they have done as a firm policy to protect against such attacks.
We all need to be vigilant with our internet security at work and with our personal security.
