TMZ Music: MySpace HACKED!

MySpace has been touted as almost a Messiah to the music industry over the past year, allowing people the ability to share their favorite artists with friends, listen to bands they love and discover new bands that they may never have heard before.

Green Tea Monkeys

Green Tea Monkeys, an indie ska/punk/reggae band from Germany, hoped to tap into MySpace's potential to achieve the success of other once no-name bands like Hawthorn Heights, Hollywood Undead and even Jack White's new baby The Raconteurs -- all were able to capitalize on the social networking site in their rise to prominence.



But what they never thought they would have to do is apologize to their entire fan base for unauthorized racist bulletins post under the band's name. "For us as a little band, it's worse when our fans won't believe in us ... to have to show people that we're not talking sh*t and that they can still believe and trust in what we're saying" they say.

Over the past couple of months, a rash of hacking has taken over MySpace, the most popular Web site since, well, the Web. The scale of the hacks has the MySpace community up in arms and is prompting people to ask when MySpace is going to step up.

The hacks are occurring through the bulletin section of each individual's MySpace profile. The extent of the hack is unknown, but as any MySpace user can tell you, in order to post a bulletin -- whether real or counterfeit - you must have access to an individual's account. That suggests that any and all information that a person has stored within their profile, including personal e-mail addresses, passwords, and e-mails, could be accessible to hackers.

Bunner on MySpace.comThe counterfeit bulletins causing the biggest uproar are those containing defamatory racial remarks that would make the grand wizard of the KKK blush. It appears that the three most common racist posts are: "I'm Gonna Kill Y'all Ni**as," "F*ck All Y'all Ni**as!," and "Get Out of America You F*ckin Ni**as!"

Each of these appears in the bulletin section -- with the user's name attached as the author of the bulletin. That means that every single one of the user's "friends" receives this information in connection with the owner of the account, who is listed as the author. Horror stories run rampant about the extent to which people have had to defend their character under these circumstances.

There's no way to measure how long the racist impressions will resonate before users have the ability to apologize and set the record straight. But then should MySpace users have to apologize for something like this in the first place?

TMZ attempted to contact MySpace for comment. We were not successful.

Reader Comments

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31. Only losers have myspace accounts.

Posted at 1:47AM on Jul 17th 2006 by VonSecret

32. I get a lot of google and msn searches ending up on my site because I have a blog article on how to "Hack Myspace." They are usually disappointed when they find out it's in reference to a book that teaches how to make your layout look better.

I recommend that people make their profile private to avoid non-friends access to the data they are posting. Many times this data can include information that will make it easier for a hacker to narrow down the possibilities of a password.

Posted at 2:42AM on Jul 17th 2006 by BestMyspaceProfiles.com

33. Wow. We just started on myspace and we had alot of trouble uploading our stuff on Fri: "Server Busy" messages. Now we know why. We'll keep an eye on our bulletins and make sure they don't get hijacked. Cheers. www.bushler.com

Posted at 4:07AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Adolph Bushler

34. That is true. There are other things going on in the world today, such as, hunger, disease, war and other things. Myspace is the least of my worries. Yes, I have an account with Myspace, and I'm there to make friends. YOU have the power to delete people, delete messages and bulletins and so forth. You also have the power to delete your entire account. I didn't know Myspace had so much drama going on.

Posted at 5:42AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Cinn

35. Did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps this band posted the message themselves? Think about it: Here's a band that virtually unknown, and now due to this issue, they're getting publicity. It would be a rotten way to get attention, but it's definately working.

Posted at 7:27AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Melissa

36. ok. heres' the REAL DEAL. my space has turned into the worest thing preety much.... EVER. orginally it was a place that you could "hook-up" online with people in your town. obviouslly, you then get stokers, perverts, etc etc. but---- you get a ton of teens- like me -that don't rly know what they've gotten themselves into, untill it's all over the news. but... you can't shut down your site, because, it's ADDICTING. and not only that, when ALL your friends have a myspace, it's werid if you don't. it's like all of the sudden not having a cell phone. &&& for some, it's the onyl way they can talk to old friends that moved away.

when you start a myspace, if your like me, it's cause it's a cool way to talk to your friends online. not because you want to be raped.

plus. we need a new myspace. it's over-populated now. so is xanga. & live journal. grrrrrr.

Posted at 7:38AM on Jul 17th 2006 by christie

37. I hate myspace.com, I'm seriously considering deleting my account. If it's being hacked, good, they need to learn to step up to plate and control their website better.
They need to shape up on security, too many bad things are happening on and coming from that dumb site. I don't know why people keep moving from blog to blog, it's rude because then your friends have to move with you. I'm still on livejournal, so myspace can just.. yeah

Posted at 9:42AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Mudflap

38. My stepson didn't even have a myspace account. But someone opened one, pretending to be him. They posted his picture with vulgar comments and have him soliciting kids for sex. Since he didn't open the acct, he doesn't have a password or any power to change it. He went to the police, Homeland Security, and FBI. They said they wouldn't help. So, now he has this profile out there that is completely defamatory, could be seen by a future employer, and he has no way to remove the account. This is devastating him that they set him up to look like a pedophile. There should be some recourse, does anyone know of anything he could do?

Posted at 10:34AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Valerie Sigler

39. I saw the racist posts from various users. The true hack is how the Green Tea Monkeys got their name attached to this story!

Posted at 10:42AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Xavier Durham

40. ATTN VALERIE SIGLER!!!:

you and your son are morons! go to myspace.com click on help and it gives you a whole list of options to choose from *gasp!* including what to do if someone has created a FAKE ACCOUNT PRETENDING TO BE YOU!!!!!

Posted at 11:05AM on Jul 17th 2006 by YouRStupid

41. RE: Bunnyfake,
What a lame response... That's a simple way to put it as long as it isn't your sorry a** that's hacked! Then it would suddenly turn into an issue more important than African and Mideast cleansing... Your forgetting that we have to keep our own houses clean or we will begin to stink, but then again it's obvious that that you've become accustomed to your own rancid odor without any consideration for the ones around you... Lets hack your personal website, e-mail etc and clean your bank account out and see where you stand... You are also forgetting that this is illegal...
P.S. I'll be sure and pray for the African and Mideast "cleanse-ee's" and hope that the "cleanser's" are brought to justice!

Posted at 11:09AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Roger

42. OK Val, FBI and Homeland security is a bit much don't you think??? Have your little stepson to set-up his own profile, take a pic with him holding a sign with his myspace ID and send it in... We don't need the Army or CIA... It is also possible that he did something someone didn't like... I know we like to think the best of our kids but try to investigate further and see why he is so disliked...

Posted at 11:16AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Roger

43. Well I got tied up in all of the hoopla and forgot to mention that my myspace page was hacked Sat night 07-16-06... I didn't find it the least bit amusing either... However by using SiteMeter I gained a tiny bit of info surronding activity on my page... I compared the exact times that comments and a bulletins were posted to matching times on sitemeter... Those people are weak, sorry idiots who probably never gets a date and hates the world because of their loser status in society... Most likely they can't even get fake myspace friends much less real ones..

On that note I also feel the need to defend myspace against all of the haters who don't like myspace for whatever reason... Myspace much like everyday life is what you make of it... Yes there are fakes on myspace but there are just as many in everyday life... The difference is that you can block or delete the ones on myspace if you don't want to deal with them, however we must continually face fakes everyday at work, school etc and keep up a continuous fight just to watch our backs... Unfortunately we can't delete those fakes.

I personally have gained a large number of real friends that have come with all different invaluable life experiences from all across the US and the World for that matter... People that I would have never met or communicated with if not for myspace...

Posted at 11:45AM on Jul 17th 2006 by Roger

44. IF u make ur myspace "PRIVATE" u wont have these problems,at all.

Posted at 11:54AM on Jul 17th 2006 by CLASH

45. If you have your myspace account settings set to PRIVATE ACCOUNT, then you won't have these problems because EVERYTHING that gets sent to you has to be APPROVED by you in order to be seen on your page.

Posted at 11:58AM on Jul 17th 2006 by CLASH

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