Getting Scam Private Messages On This Forum

Started by motumbo, November 16, 2005, 02:26:07 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

motumbo

I got one of those Africa money scam personal messages here on simplemachines.org.  The sender is "jurlebaba".  Basically they've got $12.5 million hidden away and they "need" my help to get it.

Just wanted you folks to know that your forum is now being used to spam scams.




HEB XI 1

Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done to prevent things like that here ... since any registered member can send a pm to any other registered member and there's just simply WAY too many members for the staff to police them proactively.

I do hope that anyone who does it gets banned quickly however ... there's nothing funny about spam and I wouldn't even give them a warning if they did it on my site.

StarWars Fan

Turning off private messages for "Newbies" would prevent some of the problem... ;)

JayBachatero

Actually you were not the only one getting these.  We have banned the two people that were sending the PMs.
Follow me on Twitter

"HELP!!! I've fallen and I can't get up"
This moment has been brought to you by LifeAlert

Killer Possum

Yes, as Jay said the offending users have been banned. And I wanted to add if anyone reading this gets a PM like that again, PLEASE don't hesitate to forward the PM to a team member as this is the fastest way to get the situation resolved.

motumbo

Great!  I can't believe that someone would go through the trouble of signing up to a forum just to try to scam people with only a tiny, tiny probability of succeeding.  Assuming, of course, that it was a human and not a bot doing it.

I've seen a lot of requests for Captcha support or some other type of Human Verification image on registration.  But [Unknown] seems absolutely against it.   :-\  I was surprised there wasn't a mod for it.  I looked.



redone

Human intervention is often better though.  :P

~redone

Trekkie101

Capatcha isnt full proof remember and will cause MANY a problem, I have a slight eye defect that causes some trouble with capatchas especially if they have random lines through them. (My eye got scratched when I was younger)

SMF can ban bots from trying to multiple register, and quite easily implement a technique to stop mass sending of PM's

Capatcha's just a quick fix.

Thantos

I wonder why the "Report To Admin" feature isn't enabled on this site.  IMO it is much better then forwarding it.  This is because the message is quoted automatically and thus I (as an admin) can be sure that what is being sent to me is true and accurate.

Killer Possum

Hmm, thanks for bringing that up MikeMill, I never realized it wasn't turned on. I will let the Admins know :)

Killer Possum

You will be happy to know that Compuart has turned the "Report to Admin" feature on for us :)

Bonk

#11
I agree that a visual confirmation on the registration form should be implemented. At least as an option.  And no, not as a mod, the fewer mods and the more features the better and more stable and usable the forum. The visually impaired can seek assistance or perhaps an auditory confirmation could be provided as an alternative.

P.S. I have no idea what "Capatcha" is.

Thantos

Quote from: Killer Possum on November 16, 2005, 06:36:24 PM
You will be happy to know that Compuart has turned the "Report to Admin" feature on for us :)
* MikeMill runs off to report all the tards who pm'd him with "I know you said you wouldn't give out that mod but I neeeeeeeeeed it, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese"

Amacythe

You realize that this is only going to bog down the Admins more and make it nearly impossible for them to reply to the valid PMs they will get.

dtm.exe

Quote from: Amacythe on November 16, 2005, 10:43:25 PM
You realize that this is only going to bog down the Admins more and make it nearly impossible for them to reply to the valid PMs they will get.

Should an an annoying PM not be reported?  I feel it should.  Plus, it won't bog them down as much as you'd think.

Amacythe

um... how many members are there here?  Let's say only 10% get that spam and only 10% of those report it... that's still nearly 300 PMs reporting posts!

dtm.exe

Quote from: Amacythe on November 16, 2005, 11:11:22 PM
um... how many members are there here?  Let's say only 10% get that spam and only 10% of those report it... that's still nearly 300 PMs reporting posts!

If it's the same message from the same person, then only one report is required...wuick and easy :).

Bonk

But... visual or auditory confirmation options for registration could prevent the need for many posts to be reported.  :P

JayBachatero

Quote from: That's The Hacker to you on November 17, 2005, 08:50:53 AM
Quote from: Amacythe on November 16, 2005, 10:43:25 PM
You realize that this is only going to bog down the Admins more and make it nearly impossible for them to reply to the valid PMs they will get.

Another reason for my disabling Newbie PMs suggestion...

I'm againts this.  Reson being that Newbies need support also and you don't want them spaming the forums just to the to another level to be able to PM a support Speciallist or anyone else.  There are times that they need support from us hand to hand and they PM us the information.  How would you feel if you were if you needed serious help from a Support Specialist and he wasn't ablt to help you because you can't PM him.  I know that e-mail is an alternative but no.  It's not the same.
Follow me on Twitter

"HELP!!! I've fallen and I can't get up"
This moment has been brought to you by LifeAlert

motumbo

Quote from: Bonk on November 16, 2005, 07:55:42 PM
I agree that a visual confirmation on the registration form should be implemented. At least as an option.  And no, not as a mod, the fewer mods and the more features the better and more stable and usable the forum. The visually impaired can seek assistance or perhaps an auditory confirmation could be provided as an alternative.

P.S. I have no idea what "Capatcha" is.

I think "captcha" is a play on the word "capture".  As in an image verifcation system should capture automated bots or something.

I've noticed that just about every forum software out there, free or paid, has a human verification system.  Perhaps human verifcation systems aren't foolproof, but neither are door locks and we all lock our doors at night, right? 

Thantos

Quote from: Amacythe on November 16, 2005, 10:43:25 PM
You realize that this is only going to bog down the Admins more and make it nearly impossible for them to reply to the valid PMs they will get.
While this is a valid concern IMO the admins haven't taken the correct course of action by enabling it.  If it truely does become a problem then can reverse it.
As for the function in general it would be nice if you could specify other groups that could also recieve the reports.  Such as if you had a membergroup that was designed for user support.

Advertisement: