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moore850

T-mobile... classy!

2 replies

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Coles_Law

@moore850: Well, AT&T has the iPhone, Verizon has the most 3G coverage, and T-mobile has boobs.

Well played, T-Mobile. Well played.

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mac-phisto

@Coles_Law: it fits with their marketing campaign.

now, if only we can get them to work on their brand imaging. shouldn't all those pictures be of catherine zeta-jones?

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LadySiren is murdering her kids with HFCS and processed cheese

@mac-phisto: Yeah, it's perfect for the \"Connect\" part, eh? iPorn for all!

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dohtem

They will blame hackers.

3 replies

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Wireless Joe

@dohtem: They're probably being extorted, between this and their two massive outages.

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LostAtoll

@dohtem: hackers probably did it.

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veronykah

@LostAtoll: Yeah, really you think T-Mobile is inserting FREE porn?

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working class Zer0

@veronykah:Oh no. Your being charged for it. It's one of those hidden fees.

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Barbobaggins

I don't think I'll ever look at my cats the same way again. Couldn't have used an Aye-Aye instead? You'd still need the brain bleach, but you wouldn't need to have a repeat rinse when you get home.

2 replies

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Toffeecake

@Barbobaggins: My first thought was \"What are they doing to that cat?!\" .... Ah, Photoshop.

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lmarconi

@Barbobaggins: I thought it was super funny : )

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SJPadbury

I'm surprised about the number of pornographic pictures that are being reported. I realize that innocent enough pictures won't generally be commented on, But now that this is getting more attention, are people seeing other, non-pornographic pictures there too, or is someone in T-Mobile's IT department pulling a prank on their entire customer base?

2 replies

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YardanCabaret

@SJPadbury: I've got a logo for a sports team I've never heard of appearing in mine so it's not JUST porn. I think it's that porn gets noticed. If it was just some innocuous picture you would think it was an ad. I did, wasn't till reading that original article that I double checked. Porn makes you say \"hey wait a minute\" and take a closer look.

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YardanCabaret

@YardanCabaret: Scratch that, I think it's a Porn company logo. It's in the style of the Phillies but it says Philthy. The other images it shows are mine though. Very odd.

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bwcbwc

@YardanCabaret: I'm thinking it's porn spam like the stuff that most ISPs filter out from our email accounts.

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iamlost26

@YardanCabaret: You've never heard of the Phillies??? They just finished losing!

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YardanCabaret

@iamlost26: No I had never heard of the Philthy's. I just said it looks like the Phillies logo so I've obviously heard of them.

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catskyfire

I like the 'we've cropped them and added cats'.

2 replies

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diasdiem

@catskyfire: That just adds a whole new level of \"Ick.\" Expect an angry letter from PETA.

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yesteraeon

@diasdiem: Yeah, I'm really not sure why the Consumerist editors thought we'd rather see a cat being sodomized than a penis.

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Slave For Turtles

Kudos for the added kitties!

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apollo46

Every time i get someone else's pictures, naked half the time.

1 replies

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LastAndLeast

@apollo46: 60% of the time it works all the time?

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Loias calls you out if you can't RTFA

This seems like a situation of a hacker or unscrupulous employee doing some damage.

That being said, I am strongly inclined to join this MobileLife thing. Apparently all the hip cats are on there - pun not intended... oh what the hell, it was.

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ChemicallyInert

I smell a hack-attack. There's no other plausible explanation I can think of. Obviously T-mobile didn't put that on there on purpose, and using pictures from people's phones online isn't something they would do for privacy reasons. (At least I don't think so)

It could also be a virus in individual computers that manifests itself in this way rather than a hack of the website.

(Not a computer expert, just throwing suggestions out there.)

6 replies

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bobbycreekwater

@ChemicallyInert:

I dont think thats the case - I too have unexplained pictures on my T-Mobile account which are not pornographic pictures at all. Just average looking people taking average pictures. I have tried to delete them before without success.

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bwcbwc

@bobbycreekwater: T-Mobile's explanation is that the user accounts are being sent pictures as messages. This could either be a misrouting of pictures intended for other users or it could be straight spam.

Or T-Mobile's explanation could be completely bogus and they've got a major security breach in the secure portion of their account management system and there's malware on their website injecting porn (and who knows what else) into an advertising space. But spam would be a lot easier for a crook to pull off.

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danep

@ChemicallyInert: I also strongly suspect viruses or DNS hijacking, and not a problem on T-Mobile's part.

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eddieck

@danep: Viruses? The screenshot in the post here shows a Mac using Firefox, and others reporting this use Windows. (Contrary to Apple's advertising, there are Mac viruses, just very, very few; I believe less than 10 total.) I guarantee you this isn't a virus.

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Saites

@ChemicallyInert: \"There's no other plausible explanation I can think of.\"

The feature was coded poorly. A virus seems unlikely, as that would be quite a focused virus.

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Saites

@Saites: I meant that as a possibility, not as definitive, just to note.

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sir_pantsalot

That is one heck of an all you can eat buffet. Bleh!!! My T-Mobil is due by the tenth but I think I will wait as long as possible to let them get this resolved.

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KarbonKopy

I wouldn't be offended. Send them my way T Mobile.

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Fuzz

You covered the naughty pits with Pussies? Interesting strategy.

On a more serious note, I like how the standard company line is \"its not our fault, its yours\". Instead of \"looking into it\" they just blame the customer. Slick.

1 replies

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drjayphd

@Fuzz: I blame Lords of Acid.

(Linked for dubious NSFWness.)

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stopNgoBeau

HOLY CRAP! It's on mine too! I just looked just to see what might be and OH CRAP! I'll be sending mine in to Consumerist as well.

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G.O.B.: Come on!

\"It could arouse spousal suspicion...\"
I see what you did there, Alex. Unfortunately, it doesn't lead to spousal arousal.

It's strange that it's only porn that people are getting. Or is it just that people only notice porn? I would imagine that if it's a problem with the system in general, then people should be seeing innocuous pictures as well and not just porn.

2 replies

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madanthony

@G.O.B.: Come on!:

I guess the lesson is that 93% of cell phone pictures are of naked people.

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Rectilinear Propagation

@G.O.B.: Come on!: It's possible that people are only noticing the porn. If it's a just a photo of a sunset or a closeup of a person smiling then someone not using the service will assume that it's a placeholder/example photo.

On the other hand, people take photos of some weird, non-pornographic stuff. I wonder if anyone's gotten photos of someone passed out drunk who's had half their head shaved.

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Coles_Law

I wondor if they'll start charging $19.99/month to 'pay your bill'.

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thisistobehelpful

Is this just one angry tech guy? A nation-wide prank?

2 replies

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mac-phisto

@thisistobehelpful: pictures from last year's company christmas party?

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WiglyWorm must cease and decist

@mac-phisto: Either disgrintled empoyee, or XSS attack.

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bwcbwc

@WiglyWorm must cease and decist: Or spam.

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zandar

@bwcbwc: @ludwigk: agreed. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if T-Mobile are secretly shitting themselves at this moment.

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SacraBos

Classic Johnny Carson to Zsa Zsa Gabor:
\"I will if you move that darn cat!\"

2 replies

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Greasy Thumb Guzik

@SacraBos:
That's just not true, it never happened.
[www.snopes.com]

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Newvox

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: Gee.
First, a genuine thanks for the correction.

And I HAVE to ask: Do you fact-check EVERY anecdotal comment? Or did you just know this one and looked for the reference to post?

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Aaronjk

What if your 10 year old daughter logged in and got that picture. I think that would spell LAWSUIT in a heartbeat!!!

3 replies

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ludwigk

@Aaronjk: Distributing obscene material to a minor is a felony. I'm a liberal enough guy that just a topless woman doesn't automatically trigger my obscene flag, but some of these followup pics? Yeesh! Say what you want about it being the customer's fault, T-Mobile, it's your funeral.

If someone has a child who also shares their T-Mobile account, they should send the F.C.C. and the AG a couple sample pictures of what T-Mobile doesn't consider to be their problem.

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SteveZim1017

@ludwigk: I was under the impression that this only shows up on the bill pay screen. How many people are having their 10yr old go pay their own cell phone bill online.

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stephennmcdonald

@SteveZim1017: While I agree with that idea in theory, I know a lot of people who are trying to get their kids more involved with finances early (a great idea), in some cases as young as 7 or 8. So they could very well be sitting with their parents as they pay their bill online.

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LastError

@Aaronjk: Protecting the kids is all well and good but kids don't usually care about boobs or skin or the like until their parents tell them they should care about it, or they hit puberty and sort it out on their own.

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sweetnjoe

Those poor poor kitties.

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ArcanaJ

Checked my own bill and all the photos are those that I have taken with my own phone. I'm almost disappointed.

Almost.

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Mr_Human

T-mobile just can't catch a break these days.

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CompyPaq

Can it be that the Sidekick outage, the service outage and the pictures are all somehow related? I wonder if their system has been unknowingly compromised.

1 replies

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eddieck

@CompyPaq: I believe the Sidekick outage was a problem on Danger/Microsoft's end, not T-Mobile.

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Mackinstyle

At least that screwed over HR person can email this site to everyone and add \"Fuck you for not believing me\", which I would add if it were me.

1 replies

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Rectilinear Propagation

@Mackinstyle: That's what I'd do (with something other than 'Fuck' since it's for work).

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aka_mich

Ok, now I see the problem.

1 replies

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aka_mich

@aka_mich: Also, is that bottom picture Michael Cudlitz?

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rhys1882

It sounds like the problems are occurring specifically with people who don't even use MobileLife. My guess is that there is a database somewhere of generic filler pictures that are supposed to be used if you don't have any actual pictures in MobileLife. Some hacker or employee has probably gotten into that database and swapped out the pictures with the pornographic ones. The fact that they are almost all highly pornographic clearly indicates that it's intentional.

5 replies

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The_IT_Crone

@rhys1882: Exactly what I was thinking.

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G.O.B.: Come on!

@rhys1882: Not just highly pornographic, but badly pornographic. I mean, the photos in the first article were fine. These are just gross.

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strathmeyer

@G.O.B.: Come on!: You'd be surprised what kind of things idiots send to each other.

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Vengefultacos

@rhys1882: I just checked now... I don't use MobileLife, and I don't have any sort of pictures showing, not even the generic \"wallet and pictureframe sample\" types.

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rhys1882

@Vengefultacos: Perhaps they have disabled it now as a result of the complaints.

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veronykah

Just logged into my account. Not only do I not lose service when they have \"outages\" but I also don't get the free dirty pictures.
Shame on you T-Mobile for your super cheap awesome service.
WTF!

1 replies

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Mauvaise

@veronykah:

I know, how dare they, right?!

I feel like I should be outraged at something, but they've done nothing but provide good service and a really decent price.

:: shakes fist at T-Mobile ::

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wickedpixel

disappointingly, when i log into my account i get a picture of my cats. i was hoping to cash in on the eventual class action lawsuit this will instigate.

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XTC46

This isnt something malicious, its a coding issue within the database that is just showing 1 account images from another (possibly somone that had the number previously?)

This kind of stuff happens.

2 replies

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flugennock

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter:

Shill much?

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mianne

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: You wouldn't, by chance, happen to be a T-Mobile CSR or Level 2 Tech? Perhaps reading the article instead of just looking at the naughty pictures is in order?

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ovalseven

Has anyone with offensive pics checked the source code to see what server is hosting the images? Is it T-Mobile, or some other site?

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Namrok1

My plan is now complete. Mwuahahahahahaha.

(No, for serious, though, I have nothing to do with this. Except for the \"I (kitty) U.\" That's totally me in the picture.)

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seth_lerman

Just checked my account. Still no boobies...

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AK47 - Now with longer screen name!

Alas, no random boobies for me. :( Just the ones that I took myself. Wonder if they ended up on someone else's page . . . ?

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alceste

Certainly, a hack is likely.

The most likely innocent explanation is a hash collision.

[en.wikipedia.org])

Whatever algorithm T-Mobile is using to identify a user for purposes of this preview, rather than the _correct_ user, the system retrieves the first pictures which are stored with a similar identifier.

This would explain why some people always see porn, and others do not.

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alceste

OK, here's a link that works:

[en.wikipedia.org]

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heismanpat

I'll add another vote for crappy programming.

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valarmorghulis

I swear to got I thought the guy and the lady were wearing Stormtrooper helmets. Was saddened to discover otherwise.

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hambot

I just checked my account and came across a photo of a naked man bent over with a cow's nose up his bum. WTF, T-Mobile?

1 replies

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Laura Northrup

@hambot: ew.

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DefineStatutory

I realize it's a serious issue...but when people get surprise boob/kitty shots in their bill pay window, the 12 year old in me takes over and starts giggling.

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corinthos

Think they fixed it or might just be mine. I logged into see if they changed the naked pic they gave me and now it just informed me to manage my album.

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spadefoot

Dang! Just checked mt T-Mobile account page, and no free pr0n.

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Awjvail

I've got one pussy sleeping between my legs and another 7 month old pussy sleeping beside me.

The kitten's name is Pussy Galore.
For srs.

And now I'm never going to look at them the same again.

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Bargaineering.com

I wouldn't be surprised to find out this all was perpetrated by 4chan :)

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MIAMIFROST

PORN RULES !

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Schildkrote

Hey, cool, maybe they'll soon fix the issue and I won't have to read Consumerist with porn pictures on the top stories bar. That would sure be swell.

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stardeo

I don't have porn in my album, but when I look at my MobileLife Contacts I see phone numbers and people that apparently live in Texas. I'm in Minnesota. A couple of the people are labeled in \"interesting\" ways.

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qcgallus

This gives new meaning to T-Mobile's motto: \"Stick Together.\"

It would seem that at least one couple is.

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The_Legend

Maybe they got some of the data from the Sidekicks back and mixed it back in.

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Gracegottcha

Kitties not titties!

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lessemm

Maybe Consumerist should post a fully scrubbed (no pics) version of this story. I feel bad for the HR guy who tries to clear his name by forwarding this story to his whole office and then gets accused of distributing even more porn -- and this time with those poor cats involved...

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thomas_callahan

And why don't they just turn that thing off until they can fix it!?

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holocron

We're sorry-My T-Mobile is currently unavailable while we work to improve the site for you. Please try again later.

Important message for T-Mobile customers

Some T-Mobile customers may be experiencing intermittent service
disruptions impacting calls and messages.

Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to restore service as
quickly as possible.

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BrazDane

My guess is the site employs a sort of photo gathering software similar to a 'random Flicker photo' screen saver.

I think it might be intended to 'build community' to see pictures of other regular people, but somehow it is gathering photos from inappropriate sites. Could be something as simple as the web programmer sticking a few unauthorized photo feeds in there.

My bet is that it is automated software gone haywire. Alternatively, this space is sold to an advertiser, who is showing inappropriate content w/o Tmobile knowing (until now).

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pot_roast

I keep logging in hoping to see something, but no. Just photos of pets and some guy with his motorcycle. :(

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MartaMyrrha

Funniest use of kitteh pics EVER!!!!

Man I am still laughing!!!!

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djkatscan

Is it wrong to feel dissapointed to find no nude pics on my account page?

Side note: the cats are funny as hell. I especially like the one saying \"NO!\"

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econobiker

Nothing in my account under \"My Album\" - in fact it wanted me to agree to a pretty restrictive Terms of Service/Contract (arbitration, no jury trial) to even access the album- I disagreed and the account dumped me out to resign in again...

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coffeeculture

My mom has tmobile so I asked for her log-in credentials...HOLY CRAP THERE *IS* porn on here!!! Hahaha..so much for isolated!

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coffeeculture

There's another photo in there from a family with \"Happy thanksgiving!\" as a text underneath. It appears these were sent/uploaded to *someone* and somehow ended up in our account (we don't know who these people are).

And I got a picture of someone's testicles and a FWD message saying i got teabagged and to pass it on.

Fishy stuff =/

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Duke_Newcombe sez íViva la Revolucion de Chihuahua!

Two words re: the kitteh-redacted photos: eye bleach.

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flugennock

You mean, a bunch of pr0n pops up that's totally not suitable for any situation, and T-Mobile's droids tell you to delete it and move on? Y'mean, they don't care if it causes people to be written up, fired, sued for divorce?

Hell, man; if it were me, I'd take their advice -- and delete my goddamn' T-Mobile account and move on -- to another wireless provider.

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Legal_Eagle_In_Training

holy cow, i just logged into my account and got an EYEFUL. Sidenote, I also got a pornographic email today from fake_name24@hotmail.com with a picture attached of his (or someone's) erect member. It's the same email I use for T-Mobile notifications. The body of the email said something about finding my email in their hook ups folder. NOT TRUE. I didn't get that email until about 2mos before my wedding...

Could it be that whoever hacked the T-Mobile site is also spamming the emails they got with pornographic emails? Has this coincidence happened to anyone else??

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frob23

When I first got a T-Mobile phone well over a year ago, this happened to me! The first time I logged into the account, there was a picture of a very well endowed man who appeared to be very excited.

I was rather flustered... since my mother was in the same room as I was. And I just wanted the picture to go away. So I deleted the picture right away. It didn't come back. And I haven't really thought about it until I read this.

I don't use their mobile service these days (it's easier to just use the usb connection on my new phone) and I wonder if there is any new random porn on the account. If their explanation is correct, it would have appeared on my phone if there was.

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Frank From Virginia

Did they change their name to \"T & A-Mobile\"?

November 13, 2009 4:36 PM

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blacksky08

I actually work for the company and have logged on to multiple customer's online accounts for the sake of showing them how to access their MyAlbum. One time I logged in and saw a bunch of pornographic pictures...I immediately logged out, and said, \"and that's how you log into your MyAlbum account.\" It turned this simple conversation into a very uncomfortable one.