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.

Filed under: Music

Reader Comments

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91. Myspace has been having alot of technical problems latley, and I think it is related to hackers.

Someone hacked into my account and I had to change my password 3 times before they, im guessing, gave up.

I think that Myspace is going downhill and soon there will be no Myspace. The site will be overwhelmed with hackers and there will be no way that we can login.

Im sorry to say that Myspace will proberly die out in a couple of months If this goes on.

Posted at 12:10PM on Aug 4th 2006 by Samantha

92. be careful

Posted at 12:46PM on Aug 4th 2006 by FeliBellini

93. I am also one of the many people on myspace and i just wanted to say that i agree this is getting rediculous. My myspace was one of the many hacked, but not is not as nearly bad as what happened to this band. The only bullentins sent out on mine were adult porn sites and other stupid stuff. I hope someone gets this under control soon.

Posted at 12:54PM on Aug 4th 2006 by Jennifer

94. Hey, things like this has been happening to me for a while now..and i never thought nothing about it. Every time i clicked on a bulliten add it would always make me sign in again..and i was cool with it cause i thought that i had been idle for too long and it logged me out..so i always put all my information in. Well the other day i clicked on another bulliten add and it pulled up a screen that told me to log back into myspace again, but i didnt...cause then i figured something wasnt right cause i had just signed in. Well im glad that yall are finally telling us stuff, and thanks!! I will make sure that i change my password on everything I have!!


P.S. dont worry, ill still be using myspace!!

Posted at 12:59PM on Aug 4th 2006 by Stacey

95. hi everybody. i am fourteen and i have a myspace.

i don't understand why in a thing about how myspace has been hacked people are talking about how our parents should be ashamed of themseleves, and how if we were not on myspace, the world would be a better place. although my parents do not completly apporve of the fact that i have a myspace, they are aware that i have a private profile, gave out no personal information, and all of my 71 friends are people from my honors classes. Why should my mother or father be ashamed of me for having a myspace when there are tweleve year-olds who pretent to be fourteen to get a myspace and take the skimpiest pictures and have thousands of friends?

And Bunnycake you said that instead of myspace we should go to Africa and help the starving kids. Are you not aware that there are starving kids in America? So if I decided not to go on myspace for the hour or so that I go on it a day, I would save the starving kids? I don't think so.

But back to the issue at hand. People are posting fake bullietins that many people may find offensive. In case anyone hasn't noticed. People put the most outrageuos subjects on thier bullietins so that you will open them. Although I do not think the words used (then N word) were approprate, I think a few people may be carrying it away a little. If people are hacking into myspace accounts for the sole purpose of telling people to go F themselves, why do you care, this person obviolsly has no life at all.

Another thing I would like to bring up is if instead of a Caucasion person posting a bullietin with the N word in it, a Latino or African American person, posted one with F all gringos or crackers would we still be talking about it? No.

So as a fourteen year old, I don't underdtand how adults who post their concerns (if thats what you would call them) about myspace.com so immaturely. For example "myspace is for losers... their parents should be ashamed of their kids and themselves." Then why are you posting your statements on a bullietin board about myspace?

It's not like myspace is the inly interent site like this: there's blackplanet.com, mycrib.net, myyearbook.com. And then there's the online dating sites, you don't think there are any pedophiles or hackers on those?



Thanks for reading
Ashley

Posted at 1:29PM on Aug 4th 2006 by ashley

96. ff

Posted at 1:31PM on Aug 4th 2006 by fgfg

97. all this discussion is really irrelevant and unneccesary, if you honestly think about it... who cares if your talking to a famous artist over the internet god knows how many miles away...what purpose would it serve speaking to him instead of just some other guy pretending to be him. Whats the big deal? I mean...famous Icons are people just like us, matter of fact, I seen JimmyBoi (affiliated with L2h...Live 2 Hustle) In a mall, I just nodded, winked, and continued walking. and if someone obtains your password and account info recquired to hack into your account, its because you didnt protect yourself properly...be more careful. other than that...its really not a big deal, unless myspace is your only contact with the public...in which case, I would feel your concern. its just a website guys...no reason for a debate...arguement, or conflict of opinion...whatever you want to call it. and no reason for a page long paragraph like the one I just wrote...such a hyppocrite.

Posted at 2:21PM on Aug 4th 2006 by Truance (A.K.A "2-Tru")

98. My myspace was hacked into about a month ago. someone was posting bullitin about gay people.

Posted at 3:29PM on Aug 4th 2006 by shanna

99. I think that who ever is messing with myspace needs to leave it alone...I get to send messages to my friend in Iraq through myspace and It will really make me mad if they do something to mess up my account! Why do people have to mess with everyone eles? Don they not have a life? If not I really wish that they would get one!

Posted at 3:40PM on Aug 4th 2006 by kazygurl

100. ya it happened to me....and some of my other friends....but im black so it just seem to other blk ppl that i was upset with an ex or something...but i have white friends that this hass happened to...but i think they need to find who that hacker is

Posted at 9:12PM on Aug 4th 2006 by meg

101. oh man that really sucks i also wonder when myspace will step up but keep everyone posted n this issue as it unfolds thanks for the warning keep up the good work

Posted at 2:05AM on Aug 5th 2006 by jake

102. i was hacked but i got a message form "tom" saying someone had goten my info and posted a bulletin whit the header "f*ck all ya Ni**as"and that i had to chang my password. so i did and i it never happend agaen. but when i saw the bulletin it would not let me see what was in the body.

so every one just cheng your password and youll be good we good for now!

Posted at 2:37AM on Aug 5th 2006 by chealsie

103. its not that ppl are freaking out for nothing. its cause what they are hacking into. They are hacking into the bulletins where all of our information is kept so i heard. When someone goes to post a bulletin it is going to the log in page and asking for all of you info such as your email address and your password. That might not sound like a big deal but like me most ppl use the same password and emailaddress for banking and for online bill paying. Thats why ppla re making it a big deal. Thats sensitive material that i dont want in the wrong hands. They can really screw up someones life if they get ahold of this sensitive information. As some of the others that are talking about the celebs having profiles on my space, i think there really should be a way to check if they are celebs or not. I really dont think there are that many real ones on here anyway cause really i dont really even find that much time to check my account for friends that have messaged me in a day and i am not a star on photo shoots and running from the shutter bugs. Come on like they care to sit there and consume themselves with all the DRAMA that goes on in my space. COME O
N UNLIKE MOST OF US THEY HAVE LIVES!!!!!!!!!! But the hacker thing does need to be FIXED!!!! aND I have noticed all the problems that my space has been having and i really dont understand. WTF they have how much money and they cant prevent things like this from happening? Thats a crock!!!!! and as for all perves looking for children on the site who knows what to do. It really all comes down to the parents. WATCH YOUR CHILDREN and if the dumb child and the parent are not aware of the risks of the internet then they should just get what they get cause its only common sense. !!!!!!!! REMEMBER what my space was created for in the first place.MY SPACE -A PLACE FOR FRIENDS) why would you wanna sit there and add someone as your friend and spend all your time talking to someone half way around the world? Your never gonna meet them and if you do your a WHORE!!!! And last of all My Space should have really steped up and told its users about all the problems that they are having. But instead they waste time telling us that comments are down but we are working on it, When they should be telling us hey we are working on keeping ppl from stealing your identity and from cleaning your bank account, uh and by the way tom just might let some perv rape and kill your frined and if we have time we might try and stop that too!!! Do you all feel me? Hit me up AIGHT???? Emanuelarellin@yahoo.com

Posted at 3:23AM on Aug 5th 2006 by emanuel

104. I got a link to your website on a MySpace bulliten. I think that letting people know about this problem is great! I've definately been noticing a lot of this going on lately, especially seeing my friends posting rare and unusual things as bullitens. I knew something was up... You guys are great, keep up the good work! I definately reposted the bulliten I recieved to help keep other MySpace users informed!

Posted at 5:44AM on Aug 5th 2006 by Kadey

105. This happened to my sisters. But instead of only putting out random bullitins to porn sites and such.. they also kept deleting her background and picture slideshow on her page. Honestly.. who wants to do something like that?

Posted at 9:40AM on Aug 5th 2006 by Julia

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