TallyMan
Rebooting
Joined: Mar 31, 2008
Posts: 36583
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 Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 2:16 pm Post subject: PM Spams and Scams. Hi Dear ... I saw your profile ... |
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If you receive a PM looking anything like this it is a scam:
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my name is stella,
i am very happy to write to see you here,am a very humble and understanding girl,
i saw your profile here and i became interested in you,
please if you dont mind i will like to have you close....this is my private e_mail address...... (address removed) .....so that i can send you my pictures and tell you more about myself,
hope for your reply as soon. Stella.
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There is no woman called "stella" or whatever name they use. The same PM has been sent to hundreds of other people on this forum and other sites. If you reply to them they will either attempt to scam you out of money or add your email address to their spam lists.
Do not reply to the PM. Most PM love scams are sent by automated bots, not human beings. Sending them a PM reply is a complete waste of your time. We ban several such bots every day.
Do not be tempted to send an email to the address. They don't care if you send them a nasty email back - they will just add your email address to their spam list and start sending you scam emails.
The correct thing to do:
Check this thread and the Moderator Attention thread. If nobody has already reported the scammer:
Post a copy of the PM here but please make sure you mention the name of the member who sent you the PM.
You can then delete the PM.
The sooner people report these inappropriate PMs the sooner the moderators can ban them and stop them sending more of the same scam message to other members. Just because you know it is a scam doesn't mean that everyone does. Presumably they keep sending these scams out because some people do fall for them. By stopping the scammers quickly it helps to ensure that nobody on WP falls for them.
Last edited by TallyMan on Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:32 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Zara
Skyfish
Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Age: 32
Posts: 3133
Location: Deep Dungeon, VA
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sinsboldly
Free Range Aspie
Joined: Nov 22, 2006
Age: 62
Posts: 15238
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| Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:18 am Post subject: |
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I used to spend at least two hours a day just going down the list of new registered users looking for spammers, advertisers, people that used blind email addresses to just register and never be traceable by ISP culling them out. Kept it pretty clean, too, except for the individual blogs where there ARE no tools to route out the spam, there. It takes maybe two hours a week just keeping the front page, itself clear of spam . . .
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Valoyossa
Humanoid
Joined: Feb 21, 2010
Age: 26
Posts: 2287
Location: Freie Stadt Danzig
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superboyian
Reaching Out
Joined: Sep 10, 2009
Age: 21
Posts: 14205
Location: London
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| Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think those are the spam bots, the spound very much like an actual member, I'm very good at telling between humans and robots.
The link doesn't seem dangerous either.
Also the link is after all related to autism.
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TallyMan
Rebooting
Joined: Mar 31, 2008
Posts: 36583
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| Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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The choice of language sounds very much like someone trying to promote their own website through unsolicited PM spam. I've banned KKoss anyway.
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sinsboldly
Free Range Aspie
Joined: Nov 22, 2006
Age: 62
Posts: 15238
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 4:03 am Post subject: |
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How to find and eliminate spam from WP
go to "My Account"
go to "Browse Users"
set the list to "descending"
and there are the latest joiners to WP. I gathered the following in about 2 minutes just from today and yesterday's joinings.
they are ALL pure spam. Goodness knows how many of the cutesy girl named users that have no postings are going to be in an inbox near you soon, suggesting you go to their porn site or 'get to know them in email" off the WP site.
But this is how it is managed and this is how it is eliminated.
[Mod. edit: list redacted]
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Stellar
Hi!
Joined: Mar 20, 2010
Posts: 1249
Location: California
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 4:54 am Post subject: |
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At the bottom of the ocean she dwells
At the bottom of the ocean she dwells
From crevices caressed by fingers
And fat blue serpent swells
Stella, Stella, Oh Stella, Stella I love you, Stella I love you, Stella I love youu. |
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TallyMan
Rebooting
Joined: Mar 31, 2008
Posts: 36583
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 5:09 am Post subject: |
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| sinsboldly wrote: | How to find and eliminate spam from WP
go to "My Account"
go to "Browse Users"
set the list to "descending"
and there are the latest joiners to WP. I gathered the following in about 2 minutes just from today and yesterday's joinings.
they are ALL pure spam. Goodness knows how many of the cutesy girl named users that have no postings are going to be in an inbox near you soon, suggesting you go to their porn site or 'get to know them in email" off the WP site.
But this is how it is managed and this is how it is eliminated.
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I'm aware of these fake members and how to display them. I was actually discussing this with Toggi3 yesterday. Most of these 'members' don't care if they are banned. They sign up and link to their websites simply to boost their Google rankings. The majority have no interest in sending PMs or posting on the site. Banning them is a waste of time and makes zero difference to them because their profile still points to their site and still boosts their Google ranking. Such fake members actually need deleting from the system, not banning. I have no tools to delete members. I have suggested that new members should not be allowed to post an URL in their profile (or send any PMs) until a minimum number of post have been made - that would help to prevent this sort of thing.
Most PM scammers don't post a website URL in their profile anyway, so they can't be eliminated until they act. I did have my suspicions aroused by a new member called baby777 and she did turn out to be a PM spammer, however, she could equally well have been a legitimate member.
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Last edited by TallyMan on Sun Oct 31, 2010 1:07 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ouinon
chemical reaction
Joined: Jul 11, 2007
Posts: 6395
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 6:54 am Post subject: |
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| TallyMan wrote: | | I have suggested that new members should not be allowed to post an URL in their profile (or send any PMs) until a minimum number of post have been made - that would help to prevent this sort of thing. |
Good idea! )
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Zara
Skyfish
Joined: Jun 24, 2007
Age: 32
Posts: 3133
Location: Deep Dungeon, VA
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:30 am Post subject: |
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I don't recall, but does WP use a CAPTCHA(or however it's spelled) system for registration?
It seems like a lot of places are using CAPTCHA now to cut back on spam bots registering at sites.
Do we think these are bots doing this or actual people signing up to do this crap?
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Asp-Z
Clockwork Planet
Joined: Dec 07, 2009
Posts: 11016
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| sinsboldly, by posting those links here you're only helping the spammers boost their page ranking. |
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TallyMan
Rebooting
Joined: Mar 31, 2008
Posts: 36583
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Zara wrote: | I don't recall, but does WP use a CAPTCHA(or however it's spelled) system for registration?
It seems like a lot of places are using CAPTCHA now to cut back on spam bots registering at sites.
Do we think these are bots doing this or actual people signing up to do this crap? |
I can't remember about the CAPTCHA, if was a long time ago I signed up. Bots are well known for automatically registering at sites like WP, with no restrictions to prevent them.
It has become big business trying to push website search engine rankings by getting links on as many sites as possible. I've heard there are people paid to register on sites where a website address can be shown in the profile. Likely paid something like one cent per hundred registrations. CAPTCHAs are completely ineffective against cheap labour registrations.
Most "fake members" try not to draw attention to themselves by actually posting any spam in the forums or sending PMs about their products; and as I said above they couldn't care less if they get banned because the links remain visible to the search engines. The more links a site has the higher its Google ranking when people do a search for that product.
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Asp-Z
Clockwork Planet
Joined: Dec 07, 2009
Posts: 11016
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 2:02 pm Post subject: |
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| TallyMan wrote: | | Zara wrote: | I don't recall, but does WP use a CAPTCHA(or however it's spelled) system for registration?
It seems like a lot of places are using CAPTCHA now to cut back on spam bots registering at sites.
Do we think these are bots doing this or actual people signing up to do this crap? |
I can't remember about the CAPTCHA, if was a long time ago I signed up. Bots are well known for automatically registering at sites like WP, with no restrictions to prevent them.
It has become big business trying to push website search engine rankings by getting links on as many sites as possible. I've heard there are people paid to register on sites where a website address can be shown in the profile. Likely paid something like one cent per hundred registrations. CAPTCHAs are completely ineffective against cheap labour registrations.
Most "fake members" try not to draw attention to themselves by actually posting any spam in the forums or sending PMs about their products; and as I said above they couldn't care less if they get banned because the links remain visible to the search engines. The more links a site has the higher its Google ranking when people do a search for that product. |
All very true.
The best way to sort it is to stop the user accessing their profile settings until they've validated their account by clicking the link they get sent by e-mail, since most bots don't even bother.
Of course, you can also set the forum up so the admin has to activate each account manually, but for a site as big as this, it's not really feasible. |
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League_Girl
Proud mamma
Joined: Feb 05, 2010
Posts: 13482
Location: My house
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| Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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I didn't know people joined just to post a link to their profile. Why didn't I think of that?  |
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