Banned?

[audioguru]

Hero999 sent me an e-mail saying that he is banned here "for posting SPAM". He thinks that maybe somebody hacked into his account.
He says that he posted no SPAM and I didn't see any from him nor from a hacker.

Admin, please contact Hero999 and explain why he is banned.

 

[HarveyH42]

Hero999 sent me an e-mail saying that he is banned here "for posting SPAM". He thinks that maybe somebody hacked into his account.
He says that he posted no SPAM and I didn't see any from him nor from a hacker.

Admin, please contact Hero999 and explain why he is banned.

I don't think he stands accused of posting the spam, just posting a response to it (I speak from a previous experience). I posted a response to his post in that thread, but no banishment (yet).

These spammers are getting bad all over the web. Got a hunch everyone is feeling the grief. Hopefully, Hero's is only 24 hours, as mine was. Mine was because I had PMs turned off (why give the option), and they needed to get my attention. Now I get 2-3 PMs a month, ask my help on stuff I have no experience with, and no idea why they would think I could help.

 

[jpanhalt]

Seems to me like banishment for these things adds a little stigma, albeit short lived, to someone who is either innocent or a victim himself.

Don't the moderators have our direct e-mail addresses for communication? John

 

[HarveyH42]

Seems to me like banishment for these things adds a little stigma, albeit short lived, to someone who is either innocent or a victim himself.

Don't the moderators have our direct e-mail addresses for communication? John

Nope, I think only the administrator has direct access to Emails. Moderators mostly have tools to clean up the mess. Posting replies to spam threads seems to make the task a little more complicated.

Wonder if there is something we all could do to help shut down this new spam threat. It's popped up on two other sites I frequent, and they are very persistent, several times a day.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Apologies to Hero999 - he accidentally got banned because a spammer had his username as part of their username - he's un-banned now.

Thank you Audioguru for bringing this to my attention.

As for the spam, VERY little gets through to the general membership, almost all is deleted (and banned) before it can ever appear.

 

[Mikebits]

You know the saying about poop and things happening. Glad to hear it was cleared up...

 

[3v0]

As for the spam, VERY little gets through to the general membership, almost all is deleted (and banned) before it can ever appear.

And we thank we you for the work you do to make that happen.

 

[audioguru]

Thanks, Nigel.

 

[haggis@home]

i was on last night , there was some bloke from china spamming away . i understand that its a 24 hour a day job to stop them , when i had my forum i was sick and tired of mopping up after them ...

they should be shot , hung , drawn & quartered for spamming

 

[picbits]

I run my own small forum and I get at least 2 spammers from mail.ru addresses trying to sign up.

Fortunately my IP has been banned from sending emails to mail.ru addresses so the verifications never get through to them

 

[haggis@home]

aah i have some not so fond memories of mail.ru .. got added to the exception list on the forums . it is very frustrating , my philosophy is if i want Viagra , copy watches etc etc i will find them

 

[picbits]

Sorry - should have read ...

I get at least 2 spammers a day trying to sign up ......

 

[atferrari]

I keep wondering what the spammers get from all that?

Do they earn any money after all? From whom? How?

 

[Hero999]

I suppose it's an easy mistake to make. Spammers must be becoming more cleaver and are now imitating other users.

Just a suggestion but if you see some spam seeming posted by a long term member who's never spammed before, you contact them somehow. Suppose someone did hack into my account, I know this didn't happen this time but it could have happened. Banning me would have been the right decision but an email would be nice.

I suppose you could tell if someone's account was hacked because the posts made by the hacker would be from a different IP address. IP banning them and resetting the account's password would probably resolve the probelm.

 

[killivolt]

Glad to see your post.

I suppose it's an easy mistake to make. Spammers must be becoming more cleaver and are now imitating other users.

Just a suggestion but if you see some spam seeming posted by a long term member who's never spammed before, you contact them somehow. Suppose someone did hack into my account, I know this didn't happen this time but it could have happened. Banning me would have been the right decision but an email would be nice.

I suppose you could tell if someone's account was hacked because the posts made by the hacker would be from a different IP address. IP banning them and resetting the account's password would probably resolve the probelm.

How is it that they can have part of your user name that doesn't seem right maybe there should be a tighter regulation on user names or something.

Was this done intentionally. Targeting you. This shouldn't happen to long term members who have offered so much to the forum.

Maybe some better safeguards.

kv

 

[HarveyH42]

Everything posted here, including user names is freely accessed through search engines. Not much could be done with that. Pretty sure spammers get paid some how. Computers can send out thousands, if not millions of advertisements in minutes. They only need to catch a few suckers each time to turn a profit. It's almost free, compared to the telephone or mailbox, which seems to have pretty much stopped at my house.

I would like to see a more active approach to ending this sort of thing, but doubt I'll ever see much difference in my life time. People still pirate software, and steal music an movies, which cost a lot of people money. Computer viruses are still going strong, and don't usually serve any useful purpose, other than entertainment for some nut-job. Spam cost almost nothing, produces sales, and I'm sure the little nerd gets some kicks from slipping past the hard work of those trying to keep it out.

They really need to get tough on the companies associated with the spam, seize, shut down, and jail the top executives, whether they acknowledge involvement or not. It's their company, and their ass, the should know, or make it a high priority to find out.

I'm guessing that if they get caught, they pay their fines, or lawyers drag it out until the courts are just too busy to deal with it, or they find an out. Usually some sort of deal is made. The nerds get high pay jobs, working for a company wanting to stop other nerds from abusing their computers...

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The 'wondeful' UK government declared spamming an offence years ago - which made absolutely no difference whatsoever, as spam has rarely originated in the UK anyway.

The TPS (Telephone Preference Service) has also stopped most cold-calling (if you sign up for it) - but now we just get cold-called from America instead. I've got caller-ID now, any call which I see marked as 'International' doesn't get answered at all

 

[picbits]

I've got caller-ID now, any call which I see marked as 'International' doesn't get answered at all

You're lucky. Half my family live abroad so I can't ignore the international calls.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You're lucky. Half my family live abroad so I can't ignore the international calls.

Depends if you like them or not?

 

[HarveyH42]

That's pretty funny. Nobody in American answers their calls, so they take it overseas... Kind rude not at least listen to them, it's an expensive call. Be sure to ask a lot of stupid questions, several times... Then tell them sorry, I can get the same crap cheaper, direct from China.