Posted on 07/19/2015 1:31:30 PM PDT by markomalley
An unknown number of frustrated Skype customers have been pestered by spoof messages on the Microsoft service for weeks, but the company is yet to close what appears to be a gaping hole in its software.
Instead, Redmond has advised Skype users to change their account passwords.
But complaints are building up about the lack of communication coming out of the Microsoft camp regarding what seems to be a Skype security flaw.
The problem first appeared late last month. One Skype user, posting in a thread that now runs to 22 pages long, said:
I received a message earlier today from a friend on my contact list whom I don't normally have Skype conversations with. The link resolves to a Russian/.ru site so I immediately knew I had been duped and closed the window before the page loaded.
Other users were quick to pile in with similar gripes about the service, while some folk moaned that their PCs had been offline when the spoofing attack occurred.
Skype's support team said earlier this month that an investigation into the issue was "ongoing". But it clearly hasn't been fixed yet, given the level of grumbling over on micro-blabbing site Twitter.
In the meantime, here's the official word from Microsoft:
Our engineers are still looking into this.
Meanwhile we'd recommend everyone to change their account passwords for all your Skype related accounts, i.e. also update your Microsoft account password if you linked that to your Skype account.
Never signed up for Skype. Always had questions about its’ security.
I have T-Mobile $30 a month flat rate account (no tax). I get 5gb data and only 100 minutes of talk. I use Skype to make phone calls. You pay for a Skype # that costs $30 a year. Data use is 1 to 3mb per minute of phone call.
5gb is 5 thousand mbs so I get around that 100 minute limit easily. The calls are clear.
Skype works wherever you have a good data connection. I use the T-Mobile minutes only when I do not have that data connection which is not very often.
T-Mobile has more expensive plans but I figure I save at least $40 a month as T-Mobile offers unlimited talk at that price with the 5gb data plan. $80 for unlimited everything plus tax so nearer to $80 and $90 a month.
The only drawback to the $30 plan is that T-Mobile will give preference to the higher paying customers for data connection speed.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Thanks to Swordmaker for the ping!
If you check my posting history, I am Microsoft's biggest proponent. I'm an MCSA and longtime architect of Microsoft environments. That said, Skype is a steaming pile. Microsoft took the name and applied it to their Lync product, which was an office messaging tool. The old Skype you couldn't de-register or otherwise delete your account. Not sure about the new Skype.
This is not unexpected - I knew Skype was in trouble when Microsoft took over...
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