They're real. So I had an email in my Junk folder with a variation of an old password in the subject. Obviously it hasn't been successful in getting any money out of me so they've actually sent an email to try and webcam scam / sextort me. (1. I don't w@nk on my laptop and 2. who the heck wants to watch a video of me doing that?) so I'm not worried about that side of things.
I liked Tumblr before they made their recent changes.. never made an account though. I have an account for Imgur though.
Also, I looked back at the list and mine is most likely from MySpace back in 2008. The data was only recently published online with the first 10 characters converted to lower case. This is exactly how my password appeared in the subject.
Be very afraid of using the same password for everything, trust me i know how these things work under the hood.
I use Lastpass. Its free and randomly generates strong passwords for each thing you store / use. All you need then remember is your master password. As long as it's memorable and long and a bit wierd you have nothing to worry about. You therefore have a different password for each system you use. It audits your passwords too to tell you about duplicates or weak passwords.
Lastpass advise you to change passwords when a hack has been made on a system (such as MySpace) so they manage that for you too.
They have browser extensions, apps and will autofill the passwords for you on PC, Mac, Android and Apple
