FPL teams being hacked and deleted? Maybe time to change your password just in case!?

[Mav3rick]

Over on Reddit there are reports of several big name FPL players having had their FPL accounts hacked overnight, presumably email addresses changed (to stop recovery) and then having teams deleted.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyPL/comm ... urce=share

Obviously this may not be the case, but if you have ever given your password to any FPL related sites or if you have a weak password, now might be a good time to login and change your password to something more secure.

Would be sickening to lose an account with a lot of history, so get those passwords changed as a precaution if nothing else!!

[Stevieste]

Wow that is terrible that and how sad that someone go out of there way to do that

[TheRumourMill]

It's true, absolutely disgraceful. It's odd though that certain managers have been targeted and others left alone. Possibly due, as has been hypothesised, to the ones targeted having used a common fpl related site of some sort. It's the only explanation I can think of. Have changed password just in case myself, although I can't claim to be a big name manager in any sense!

[Stemania]

Disgusting. In addition to most people probably using the same password everywhere, fpl has a feature where you can link your fpl account to facebook/twitter etc.

The first guy who got hacked had his twitter hacked first apparently, and other prominant victims appear to be common twitterers, so it could well be that was the issue rather than another FPL site.

As collateral damage (and sorry to them), I'll never be using FFFix again as they ask you to provide your real fpl password - even if they say they don't store it. I used to use the same password for FFS members too, not any more I guess! Wake up call.

[TheRumourMill]

I didn't know about being able to link your team to social media, I certainly won't be taking that option up.

Understandable Stem, I've only ever used sites where they just need your ID, which I'm assuming is a lot safer?

It really is beyond the pale what's happenned here. Hacking people's details for the purposes of financial gain, or in the interests of some sort of vigilante justice (as was the case with the Ashley Madison case) is disgraceful, but I can understand the motives to do so. This is just malicious destruction for the sake of it. The perpetrators gain nothing from this other than ruining people's enjoyment and putting a dent in people's incomes. Thinking out loud for a minute, could a rival fpl account or group be behind it, seeking to destroy the competition and promote their own agenda/service/channel? Just trying to understand the thinking and motivation here.

[FranckKessie]

Really sad to see people sinking to such low levels.

[Mav3rick]

The FPL account deletion process is a bit like Facebook's, whereby your data isn't actually deleted for 21 days.

There may therefore be a chance that FPL can identify the hacks and reverse the deletions, although of course price changes and perhaps even points may be lost in the meantime.

I've only ever used sites where they just need your ID, which I'm assuming is a lot safer?

Having your team id won't be a security risk, it's if they have your email address and you have either a weak, reused or otherwise exposed FPL password that you'd be at risk. Similarly, if you use FB or Twitter authentication, and your credentials for those sites were compromised.

I'd normally assume the motivation to be financial, it's effectively potential ransomware after all, but on such a small scale it is perhaps more likely deliberate trouble making - some men just want to watch the world burn.

[Stemania]

I've certainly heard of FPL accounts being deleted and recovered - I think it's just a case of being able to prove your identity to FPL (i.e, prove that it was actually you that owned the account).

There's been a case going around the twittersphere recently (FPL Chef?) where the email account on the account was apparently also changed so he had no means of proving the account was his, so FPL didn't act. I wonder if the content providers that have been hacked might have quite a lot of 'evidence' with which they can hopefully make the case, especially those linked to FFS.

[Gambit]

Fpl have always done nothing when this has happened in the past, will soon see if they continue to do nothing now some higher profile managers have been hacked.

Or will it just be that high profile managers will be helped?

Shocking stuff but fpl have been useless themselves in previous cases.

[SG_8]

One of the accounts being hacked belongs to Neale from FFScout right? I'd imagine Mark has some contacts at FPL Towers and is hopefully able to escalate the issue in recovering all the accounts. This is threatening some people's livelihood as well as they make money out of content creation for fpl. Horrific stuff.

[Gambit]

all accounts being the key phrase.

It wont look good at all for fpl if andy and neale are helped but others are told to jog on.

[Agent Overson]

I wonder if FPL will treat influential managers/friends of friends differently to how they’ve treated casual players in the past.

If they do act and recover these accounts because one of their chums wades in, they set a dangerous president for every single other average Joe user potentially hacked in the future.

As nasty as this is, it’s definitely interesting to watch how it unfolds as an outsider.

[Stemania]

It looks like it might not be as large a scale as the reddit post suggested - it was observed that 13 of the 'Elite 64' league had disappeared, but apparently the 'next page' button had just gone and the other teams are accounted for on page 2.

Suggests it was a personal attack on those two/three individuals?

[Bobby Fetta]

As collateral damage (and sorry to them), I'll never be using FFFix again as they ask you to provide your real fpl password - even if they say they don't store it.

There is a way of logging into Fix without revealing your FPL password. I've always done that because I was never comfortable revealing my password to them. Its a bit fiddly to do initially and you have to do a confirm click each week but is possible.


On the overall topic, this is disgusting behaviour. But if by picking on big names it raises the issue and forces FPL to act then surely good news. One of the people who's been deleted (Andy Let's Talk FPL) had Sterling c, KDB vc, Lundstam first on bench. Wonder if this is prompted by fury about flukey bench points?

[Finisher1]

As collateral damage (and sorry to them), I'll never be using FFFix again as they ask you to provide your real fpl password - even if they say they don't store it. I used to use the same password for FFS members too, not any more I guess! Wake up call.

But isn't it a shame if we shouldn't use FFFix anymore? I have always found their price predictor as one of the most useful tools in FPL.

[TheRumourMill]

Ah ok, that would suggest it's a targeted attack. Seem 2 pretty nice chaps though from what I've seen, hardly controversial characters.

Neale even presents on the fpl show occasionally, so it wouldn't look good to have him with a team deleted. Maybe he knows some people he can speak to directly to try and resolve it. I hope so anyway. I agree with the posters above though that say it can't be one rule for one and one rule for another. If they sort his out they need to sort the others out too.

[TheRumourMill]

As collateral damage (and sorry to them), I'll never be using FFFix again as they ask you to provide your real fpl password - even if they say they don't store it.

There is a way of logging into Fix without revealing your FPL password. I've always done that because I was never comfortable revealing my password to them. Its a bit fiddly to do initially and you have to do a confirm click each week but is possible.


On the overall topic, this is disgusting behaviour. But if by picking on big names it raises the issue and forces FPL to act then surely good news. One of the people who's been deleted (Andy Let's Talk FPL) had Sterling c, KDB vc, Lundstam first on bench. Wonder if this is prompted by fury about flukey bench points?

If it's fury at bench points then that is an outrageous overreaction! I don't think it's that. Especially after chef lost his last week before this gameweek happenned.

[Bobby Fetta]

If it's fury at bench points then that is an outrageous overreaction! I don't think it's that. Especially after chef lost his last week before this gameweek happenned.

Yes, I'm probably just projecting my own envy...

[Sutter Kane]

The histories are still there [e.g. This is LTFPL- https://fantasy.premierleague.com/entry/58/history]. So as pointed out somewhere above, there is a 'cooling off' period; shouldn't be too difficult to reinstate because very little proof is required they are the victims, if it's now possible to link back???

As also mentioned above, this is more serious than just an FPL game, because finances are involved with youtube videos, etc. What an ar**hole thing to do, some very angry, jealous people out there in need of serious help. Having watched some of Andy's podcasts, he often has to delete posts and temporarily ban people from saying weird/nasty stuff so it's probably one of those guys.

[SG_8]

As collateral damage (and sorry to them), I'll never be using FFFix again as they ask you to provide your real fpl password - even if they say they don't store it. I used to use the same password for FFS members too, not any more I guess! Wake up call.

But isn't it a shame if we shouldn't use FFFix anymore? I have always found their price predictor as one of the most useful tools in FPL.

Fix have now sent out a tweet responding to this - https://twitter.com/FantasyFootyFix/sta ... 59552?s=20

Also apparently there is a login with FPL ID option. Just FYI.

[Stemania]

Cool, fair play FFFix.

[Bobby Fetta]

Official fpl has also responded to that Fix tweet: "We're speaking directly to the affected users and will have more information once the initial investigations are complete."

https://twitter.com/OfficialFPL/status/ ... 3862418432

[Football Hero]

Really sad to see people sinking to such low levels.

It's not their fault, their accounts got hacked!

[ajcairns]

I doubt that we’ll ever hear who is behind this but it doesn’t take the brains of an archbishop to know that it is someone in the fpl community.

[Stemania]

A few more have been reported now, so it's certainly more than two or three, and there's some evidence that suggests it was essentially a twitter hack, with fpl access gotten by using the same passwords/using twitter to recover the fpl account.

[Football Hero]

I doubt that we’ll ever hear who is behind this but it doesn’t take the brains of an archbishop to know that it is someone in the fpl community.

Well yeah obviously. Even if they weren't part of the FPL community immediately before the hack attempt, (for example if they did not have their own FPL team); once they started the hack attempt then they essentially became part of the community.

[FranckKessie]

Really sad to see people sinking to such low levels.

It's not their fault, their accounts got hacked!

If you are levelling me here then I fell for it. I was referring to the hackers not the victims

[Football Hero]

Really sad to see people sinking to such low levels.

It's not their fault, their accounts got hacked!

If you are levelling me here then I fell for it. I was referring to the hackers not the victims

Well to be fair, your comment can refer to both so that is the cool thing about what you said.

From a probability perspective, it would be more likely that you were talking about the victims, as you shouldn't be wasting time talking about and acknowledging the vermin that are those hackers.

[Agent Overson]

After bringing in AMN this week, is Mark Sutherns the latest victim of Hackgate?

[ajcairns]

I doubt that we’ll ever hear who is behind this but it doesn’t take the brains of an archbishop to know that it is someone in the fpl community.

Well yeah obviously. Even if they weren't part of the FPL community immediately before the hack attempt, (for example if they did not have their own FPL team); once they started the hack attempt then they essentially became part of the community.

I meant, and you know I meant, an existing member of the FPL community. This will not have been someone who had no previous connection to the game. In all likelihood the Elite 64 or other high profile, players that have lost their accounts are the only ones that had password was identical or close to their Twitter password - I think that has been the common link hasn't it?