Spammers In Your Private Profile?

[Videoskooter]

Fellow members and memberettes,

Over the last weeks I've noticed that SPAMMERS are opening accounts and don't always post in the forums. Instead I see them trying to "hit" private profiles of members.

They are trying to hit me in my profile so that's the reason why nobody can post messages there (I have disabled that function).

If you notice something like that, can you please inform us so we can deal with them, THX!

And again: never do business with those people, you know, the cheap phones, shoes, luxury products, whatever!



You WILL loose your money and you WILL NEVER GET the products you order from them.

[Bernie]

This has grown to such outrageous proportions as I have been deleting and banning a huge amount of these scammers in the past weeks as has Johan. They are like roaches so please heed the warning Johan, posted above and never deal with these people or click on any of their links... They are outright scammers and thieves. In the meantime we will do our best to keep deleting their accounts, but do let us know if we miss some by sending us their usernames and deleting any spam on your profile or pm inbox. Thanks.

[tmob]

And thanks for all your hard work in getting rid of the spammers on the board.

One question: are new members put on "moderated" status? On other boards in which I participate, any new member is automatically put on "moderated" status--in other words, their first post(s) have to be approved by one of the moderators before they're posted to the board. Thus, the spammers are deleted before their postings make it to the board. If it's doable on this system, it may be worth considering.

[Bernie]

Thanks. Things have gotten so bad that I will be implementing just that this weekend. Although I wish it didn't have to come to that as it forces new members to wait.

[Videoskooter]

Tmob, it's a good idea and we've discussed that before. The advantage is that we can indeed check people when they start posting. The disadvantage: sometimes people are browsing the net, discover this site and quickly want to react on something without intending to be regular members.

In the "new procedure" some of them won't bother coming back as they have to wait now.

On the other hand, what else can we do? They keep coming. You would be surprised how much the 3 of us have to intervene each day!

[Feisty Diva]

Ok.

As a forum admin myself, I see a lot of this. A few of these listed in the 'who's online' can be attributed to 'bots' lurking in the system. This to me seems to increase the spam rate.

Every new member joining (where I am) goes through an intense search, host, IP, location and previous registrations etc. The ones that check out ok are given usually moderated user level 2 status unless they are known personally. They then usually get upgraded to registered status at 10 (moderated) posts by one of the admin team.

It can take a while seeking out the spammers but there are some handy websites out there that collect the info.

On a side note, the mail servers can often be filled with spam too. So it might pay to keep watch there too.

[Videoskooter]

FD, at your board, do you notice that potential members are scared away or annoyed by the "hold" system? Do you have feedback on that?

[Feisty Diva]

Most new members are ok with that system. But there are a few that will try to post the same thing again if they don't see it. It would have to be written in the FAQs as it clearly is where I am. Not everybody reads the rules though.

I wouldn't say they are scared off by this but there may be the odd one that doesn't agree with the 10 post rule.

It does involve a bit more teamwork but there's usually someone around.

[tmob]

In the "new procedure" some of them won't bother coming back as they have to wait now.

Skooter, you're right, but given high quality of the communication and information on this board, waiting a day or two to join this community and see your first post would be well worth it, I think, to most newbies. If it saves you and us from having to deal with the spammers, it's a small price to pay. I don't think anyone who's really serious about joining this board is going to mind a short wait.

[Videoskooter]

Ok guys, thanks for the input and the advice.

Don't get me wrong, I fully agree with such a system! I proposed it already last year to Bernie but we were a little worried about the reactions.

[Feisty Diva]

Again on this. Having a system of a 10 post rule, ie moderated user status, would prevent these 'brand new' members from just hitting other profiles. They would just be greeted by an error message. That is until they are upgraded. Unregistered users would get a similar message.

You might need one or two extra staff to help out but such a system is feasible in my view.

[Videoskooter]

Just a little reminder as ex-member Sneaker86 was trying to sell you fake or non-existing crap from China:

PENALTIES FOR SPAMMING

Each violation is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules, but also:

* "harvest" email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
* Generate email addresses using a "dictionary attack" – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations
* Use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
* Relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:

* Use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it
* Use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message
* Falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages
* Register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant
* Falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

[BrunoRepublic]

I fully support automatic moderation of new members. It's unfortunate, but it seems to be very necessary. Countless times I've come here and seen scammers flooding the boards with spam, usually scams claiming to offer unrealistically low prices on mobile phones. I know the moderators act quickly to clean it up, so there must be a lot more that I'm not seeing. Deleting all this crap must be a lot of work!

The sad thing is that I guess people still fall for these scams, because if they didn't, the problem would disappear on its own.

[Videoskooter]

It's a lot of work but that doesn't bother me. It's like you say: some people do fall for those scams and that's not good for the reputation of the site.

Over here a lot of boards work that way. You register, you wait for the approval of the staff before you can post and you are closely monitored during a certain period.

[Cory Ander]

It's a lot of work but that doesn't bother me. It's like you say: some people do fall for those scams and that's not good for the reputation of the site.

Over here a lot of boards work that way. You register, you wait for the approval of the staff before you can post and you are closely monitored during a certain period.

Vid: this is amusing because EVERYTIME I log onto discomusic.com a pop up attempts to block my screen but my pop-up blocker prevents it!

[Videoskooter]

Cory, don't worry about that, I get the same thing but it vanishes too quick to check it out. Like you say, a good pop-up stopper does the job, like:

FREE popup blocker from Panicware.