Hi all. Today we had two new classmates join the site. In one case the classmate changed all info including name (both first and last) and added a job description of "security administrator" - this looked to me like a bogus account with a bit of a sense of humor. the other classmate changed all info including changing the email to one that makes no sense for that person and I happen to know that she is not at the email and address that had been entered.

So the first thing I did was turn on classmate verification. Great to discover this feature just when we needed it. I verified all existing accounts and then went back and unverified the two new ones. Really like how the unverify works: reset the address data which I think is correct and uncreate the account.

I have asked some of my reunion committee members (with hopefully better memories and stronger social networks) to go look at our most recent profile changes and see if any look odd. The last one was in May and looked right so hopefully this was a new problem.

My questions:

Anything else I need to do to shut this barn door and strengthen our security?

Has this kind of random sign up happened to others?

Is there a quick and easy way to audit the changes in classmate data to scan for any that might have gotten by us?

Thanks for any advice and feel free to point me to existing FAQs and threads with my gratitude and apologies in advance if I have asked a previously answered question!

George Wyner

Yes, this happens, but thankfully, not often. It's a very good argument for turning on Admin Verify though - as you found.

About the only way to double check for previous changes is to download the class list as a spreadsheet and sort by Last Update date column. That should give you a relatively short list of classmates to review, check for names you don't recognize, etc. And if you have a previous downloaded spreadsheet, that's a handy place to compare the newest one with for changes such as email address.

Hi John. Thanks for the suggestion. I have an older version of the spreadsheet and can do a precise comparison. Glad I have verification turned on!

As far as strengthening security - -
We have had only a few 'suspicious' sign-ups, and I have done one or more of the following:
If they have not completed the entire profile, I email them asking them to complete all spaces before I can approve them.
If/when they list a phone, I simply call them, and tell them I am about to approve them, and start discussing some things about teachers, the school, etc.
<>Who did you have for English our Sr. year?
<>Who was the principal, I forgot his name?
<>What activities were you involved in at the school?
etc.
If they are someone outside the school, they probably can't answer those or similar questions.