Rejoice with us, Lemon Merchant is alive and well.

Birdjaguar

Hanafubuki
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Greetings to Off Topic and the entire Civfanatics community.

We have great news. Recently, a CFC member posted that Lemon Merchant had died and we all mourned a tragic loss. She is not dead and so we rejoice and will explain as much as we know about what has happened.

It was a kind of “perfect storm” of events. Back in November nefarious evil doers wormed their way into her computer and captured her internet world without her knowledge (can you say “keylogger”?). They had contacts, passwords, her civ data, etc. Everything they would need to strike her hard. At the same time she made a trip out of town. So using her hacked contacts they told her world, including CFC, that she was dead in a very convincing way. Truth telling was not their goal and so they took what they did know and bent it with lies to make a compelling story. All the while she was out of touch with what was going on.

In staff we made every effort to figure out what was going on and tried to piece together events and get verification of what had happened and if what looked like hacking events, posed any threats to the site. As soon as we began to have doubts about the veracity of the original death notice post, we closed our memorial thread. On Thursday, Lemon was back at home and saw the “mess at her door” and contacted the staff to explain all the weirdness of the past 4 days and how they had been woven into this story of destruction.

CFC staff was just as shocked by this news as most others were. Thank you for your understanding. We are so glad to have her back in the land of the living.

Posted on behalf of all CFC Staff and Moderators

:grouphug:
 
Oh, well, wow, I am so relieved and confused.
 
You were not alone. We all were.
 
let FBl hear about it . And good wishes too .
 
so , this prn attack or whatever that came previously , was it also reported to the authorities ? Yeah , there are really limits what to civilians can do .
 
Hi everybody.

The bad guys wanted a bitcoin from me or they would make my life a "living hell". They have succeeded in a most convincing way. It has been reported for all the good it will do.

I would just like to say thank you to all the people who had nice things to say. It really meant a lot to me (and I managed a tear or two). It just shows what a great little community that we have here. When I read the thread I was at first very alarmed and upset (and locked out), and I am sure that most of you, like me, were at least a little upset, judging by the comments. I am not going to belabour the point, though. I want to put this behind me and move on. I am taking steps to secure my online life more stringently.

Also, thank you to staff for their handling of the situation. It must have been difficult. I know I would have had trouble with it.

I am taking a small hiatus while I sort some things out, so you may not see me for a bit. Just know that I am healthy and well, and I plan to come back prior to Christmas to help spread Christmas cheer.

Again, I thank all of your your concern, and I am sorry that we all had to go through this. :)
 
Wow!

Firstly amazing news that none of this was true! Secondarily, how terrifying the lengths scammers would go to try and blackmail someone into handing over money like this.

So sorry you had to go through all this Lemon. We don't know each other, but sending a digital hug and hope you can find headspace after all this bad nonsense!
 
I am taking a small hiatus while I sort some things out, so you may not see me for a bit. Just know that I am healthy and well, and I plan to come back prior to Christmas to help spread Christmas cheer.
Take all the time you need; I'm just glad you're alive.
 
I'm very happy to hear you are alive and well, Lemon Merchant! :) Big digital and covid-free hug from the community :hug:

This must be a very surreal experience, to read about your own death and how people reacted to it.

I'll never understand why people can be so thoroughly evil as to do crap like this, "only" to force money out of people. Suppose we shouldn't have high faith in consequences for their actions, but good that it has been reported to (presumably) the authorities. I know the police put more resources into digital crimes of this sort, but they have their hands full, to put it mildly.

Thank you for being among the living still :) Just reading posts in the BAT forum and such places made me sad. I don't know you well in all honesty, but it still made me very sad, so this is a big relief :love:
 
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