# PM spam (sourceradix)



## xpi0t0s

Did a search and couldn't find this already reported.

Three messages today, more to come? All from "new" users (0 posts), IOW spambots seem to have broken through the SOTW defences.

Bizarrely it seems to be advertising a blank page at sourceradix dot com (even View Source displayed nothing), with the message "All of you know nothing about it!". Don't visit, just in case there is something nasty up there for non-Firefox users.


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## warp x

I got one spam PM today. reported it.


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## Carl H.

Seems there is a flaw in the software that the spammers all know about.


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## Gizmo Hall

It seems like the update may have opened a hole through which the spammers are exploiting. :?:


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## DixieSax

Gizmo Hall said:


> It seems like the update may have opened a hole through which the spammers are exploiting. :?:


Hasn't been a hole like that since goatse. :twisted::twisted:

(inside joke for the old time web heads)


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## SaxMoose

DixieSax said:


> Gizmo Hall said:
> 
> 
> 
> It seems like the update may have opened a hole through which the spammers are exploiting. :?:
> 
> 
> 
> Hasn't been a hole like that since goatse. :twisted::twisted:
> 
> (inside joke for the old time web heads)
Click to expand...

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.


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## bluesaxgirl

Yeah, I've seen the spam too. 
Such an annoyance.


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## FranzKafka

DixieSax said:


> Gizmo Hall said:
> 
> 
> 
> It seems like the update may have opened a hole through which the spammers are exploiting. :?:
> 
> 
> 
> Hasn't been a hole like that since goatse. :twisted::twisted:
> 
> (inside joke for the old time web heads)
Click to expand...



I recieved some PM spam too, by the way.


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## spartacus

I got a spam on my home computer that was also on here (about improving your website)??


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## bluesaxgirl

Are you guys talking about pop ups? Or PMs?
So far, no PMs or pop ups, but I have seen the spam threads.


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## saintsday

xpi0t0s said:


> Did a search and couldn't find this already reported.
> 
> Three messages today, more to come? All from "new" users (0 posts), IOW spambots seem to have broken through the SOTW defences.
> 
> Bizarrely it seems to be advertising a blank page at sourceradix dot com (even View Source displayed nothing), with the message "All of you know nothing about it!". Don't visit, just in case there is something nasty up there for non-Firefox users.


I just got the same spam and reported it.


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## bluesaxgirl

I talked too soon. I just got the PM.


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## segaleon

I got it too: from someone called Parliamentaryfl


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## Kenneth

Mine came from "secondj". 

Sigh. I'm an I.T. Administrator, and our email server is in-house. We have an enterprise-level hardware spam filter -- 95-97% of our email is filtered out as spam/virus-loaded/malware, but our users still get one or two unwanted messages a day. I never thought I'd get spam at SOTW. Sigh.


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## kcp

We're going to try to keep up a list of PM Spammers that were already banned so that you guys don't have to report them again and to help reduce the overwhelming ammount of double, triple, etc spam reports to sort through in the Admin Lounge -- See here: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?p=1090355#post1090355


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## CooolJazzz

kcp said:


> We're going to try to keep up a list of PM Spammers that were already banned so that you guys don't have to report them again and to help reduce the overwhelming ammount of double, triple, etc spam reports to sort through in the Admin Lounge -- See here: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?p=1090355#post1090355


Kim...Is there any way you can attach that list link to the top of the page so we don't have to search for it when or if the time comes that we may need to refer to it?


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## kcp

CooolJazzz said:


> kcp said:
> 
> 
> 
> We're going to try to keep up a list of PM Spammers that were already banned so that you guys don't have to report them again and to help reduce the overwhelming ammount of double, triple, etc spam reports to sort through in the Admin Lounge -- See here: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?p=1090355#post1090355
> 
> 
> 
> Kim...Is there any way you can attach that list link to the top of the page so we don't have to search for it when or if the time comes that we may need to refer to it?
Click to expand...

It is already stickied... isnt it??


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## CooolJazzz

kcp said:


> It is already stickied... isnt it??


Hmmm...it may be...but I don't see it. Either I don't know where to look...or my Firefox is blocking it like it does with various pop-ups and advertisements. I guess it isn't a huge deal. I'll just search for "spam" if I need to find it.

Thanks.


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## kcp

Go here: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/forumdisplay.php?f=74
First thread at the very top


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## CooolJazzz

kcp said:


> Go here: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/forumdisplay.php?f=74
> First thread at the very top


Ahhh...Gotcha. I see it now. I rarely take that route coming in...usually just go straight to the "New Posts" tab.

Thanks!


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## Kenneth

Kim and all the other administrators, thanks for all that you're doing. From one who's always in the "hot seat", as in, "Hey, how come I got 2 spam messages today??!! Huh, HUH??!!", I really appreciate the fact that you guys care and are taking all the necessary steps to stop this EVIL.


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## kcp

conn1933 said:


> Kim and all the other administrators, thanks for all that you're doing. From one who's always in the "hot seat", as in, "Hey, how come I got 2 spam messages today??!! Huh, HUH??!!", I really appreciate the fact that you guys care and are taking all the necessary steps to stop this EVIL.


Thanks. You're welcome 

(although today I wouldn't mind trading places with one of you guys )


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## bluesaxgirl

Thanks Kim!


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## warp x

kcp said:


> (although today I wouldn't mind trading places with one of you guys )


Yes you would.












Anyhow, thanks for all the hard work fighting the spammers.


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## Jazz House

I received a spam message from StrasbourgJV. This robot has a realistic name, so it seemed like it could've been a person. It certainly wasn't.


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## DixieSax

It's really counterproductive and wastes admin time to complain about spam. Just report it and let the admins kill it. For every idiot proof system that will ever be developed, the world will build a better idiot. Same can be said for spammers.

As long as they think they can make money by spamming, they will continue to break into e-mail and forums and send unsolicited messages. Best advise is to keep a heavy delete finger.

And admins.. You do a great job here - thanks for what you do.


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## warp x

Curious to know how much money they are actually making..


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## Harri Rautiainen

*Re: PM spam and spamming more generally*

Thanks Kim for clarifying the PM spammer situation.
I appreciate everyone's reports. It is important we all are concerned of the well-being of this forum.

The spammers are getting more clever and resourceful all the time. The PM spamming was not really an issue before. Because this thread had reports and suspicions of other spamming, too, I would like to lay-out some ground-work that we all know what we are talking about. _(90% of the SOTW readership could skip this anyway  .) _:


*E-mail spoofing* is a term used to describe fraudulent e-mail activity in which the sender address and other parts of the e-mail header are altered to appear as though the e-mail originated from a different source.

One of the oldest tricks in the book. *It has nothing to do with your membership on the SOTW Forum* per se. If you receive a SPAM email message from admin (att) saxontheweb.net or someone (att) saxontheweb.net it is not originated from me or from SOTW Forum. Yet, I haven't seen any evidence that your SOTW Forum email addresses were available to any outsiders. If you disagree, please send me the full header information. The routing path can be seen there.

*Spam posts on the Forum*

New users' first posts are screened if they contain links or certain keywords. This (together with alert admin team) has kept this type of spam in minimum.

*Spam in Private Messages*

Perhaps because #2 has failed the spammers have now discovered a new avenue. Because they are Registered users this option is available for them. The only solution I see is to disable Private messaging from the user users or users without certain amount of posts?

As Kim pointed out, the staff is working on these problems. Hang in there,

-Harri


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## jazzbluescat

I feel left out. I've not gotten any more than the usual amount of spam.


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## jazzbluescat

Hey, my Quick Reply worked!!! Oh, joyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyjoyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappy!


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## Harri Rautiainen

Jazz House said:


> I received a spam message from StrasbourgJV. This robot has a realistic name, so it seemed like it could've been a person. It certainly wasn't.


Please clarify, was that a SOTW Private message?

A robot cannot register here. They all are real people.



warp x said:


> Curious to know how much money they are actually making..


Some spammers are only looking for using SOTW's high ranking to advance their own site's search engine ranking.

E.g. they do not post anything, just have their site's URL in the signature.
(Search engines are not allowed to go to user profiles, so that is a wasted effort.)


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## SaxMoose

How do you report a PM?


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## Jazz House

^ That was a private message. 

I am only assuming that it's a robot and whoever could actually spend time spamming is just a boring sad person.


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## Harri Rautiainen

*PM spam*



Jazz House said:


> ^ That was a private message.
> 
> I am only assuming that it's a robot and whoever could actually spend time spamming is just a boring sad person.


Looks to me that in some Asian countries they people to do that.



SaxMoose said:


> How do you report a PM?


If it is not already listed here, please report it in this thread.


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## kcp

^To clarify: with the new vBulletin update you can now report PMs by clicking on the report icon ->







which is located at the top right corner of the PM.


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## meth

Harri Rautiainen said:


> A robot cannot register here. They all are real people.


There are quite a few automated programs that auto-register through vbulletin.

Adding recaptcha, an extra question to the registration, or installing the enhanced image captcha hack would stop this.


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## Enviroguy

Yep,

One of these SPAM messages ended up in my inbox today. These guys are vicious.


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