Re: OR SELL SIDEKICK III MOBILE PHONE AT JUST $150usd Sure be great if ads like these never got on here in the first place.
(Ron's post was in reply to another incident of spamming - the spam has been removed, but I transferred Ron's post to a new thread) Other than moderating every single post from new members, it'd be impossible. These posts are at least in part made by humans (as opposed to being fully automated) because the registration system requires more than a default registration (i.e., the location field must be filled out - this extra field would baffle an automated system).
Daniel, Received an email yesterday from "dbr450 @ UBC Botanical Garden Forums <dbrmond@yahoo.com> '' requesting private talk by responding to the email address. Googled "dbr450" and "dbrmond" and the search seemed to lead to a scam. Needing help to get 11-12 million dollars from an account in Ivory Coast. Searched UBC forums previously to googling , used search box at top of this page, but no posts by "dbr450" came up.
Thanks chimera - banned and IP-banned as well. I suppose one way to reduce by @ 80% of these is to not allow registrations from yahoo.com and hotmail.com - those are the main email services used by the spammers. Of course, this creates other problems.
I got that one too, had been going to ask if anything was known about it . . . glad I didn't reply direct to it!
I've removed the ability of newly registered members to email others. That should reduce these incidents.
HI I received one message by dbr450 .....only after I think to controled in view forum leaders! I'm chicken (cc)
I guess I got suckered into this, as I received a "private" message from dbr450 yesterday who called himself Donald and said he wanted to talk privately. I am new to this and have no idea what 'private messages' are for a forum discussion - but is was sent via the Rhododendron thread, so I figured it was something about Rhodo varieties I was seeking out. Hopefully I don't end up with a whack of spam in the next little while - I have disabled my ability to receive "private" messages as I figure the stuff I post is meant for public discussion, as that seems to be the main benefit of these terrific forums anyway! Ah well, live and learn I guess... PS: Daniel Mosquin, you do a terrific job moderating these forums and providing information. Thank you, as it is very much appreciated... although you must spend an awful lot of time online :-)
Laughing Dog, wouldn't expect you should have a problem with Donald, as long as you didn't send him a cheque or anything to help him or his sister retrieve said millions of dollars. If you had replied it seems you would have received a story requesting help and funds, according to another discussion forum he infiltrated, assuming it is the same individual. Think Daniel has closed the crack he came through.
Has one wondering if enough forum administrators and mediators were considering not allowing registrations, if it might encourage yahoo and hotmail to do more screening themselves.
Thanks. You can turn your PM ability back on, if you like. People who haven't reached the 3 posts + 2 days mark can't PM others and can't use the forum email system, so those spammers who register just to use those features (since it is out of sight) are out of luck.
Just today I received a complaint from a lady saying I was sending SPAM. Within an hour I had received similarSPAM using my email address. If any of you receive SPAM from my address@ExoticRainforest.com please forgive the junk mail but be assured it is a forged address and did not come from this computer. I have no idea how to stop these idiots from using my email address. Please just delete it and if you feel it is necessary feel free to block my email address since it is likely I will only attempt to correspond with people via this forum unless I have received a personal request for information.
It is a known flaw with email that both the From and Reply-To fields can be spoofed. Here's a short article on Email Spamming and Spoofing In short, there's nothing that can be done about it other than to educate people to read the (very technical) message headers to verify an email actually originated from a likely server to send the email.
I'd like to second that. Daniel, you've answered questions I didn't even know I was asking, rescued me when I've gotten in (forum) trouble, and responded SO quickly to requests for help and information. It's like you're everywhere, keeping everything in order. And the Botany Photos of the Day system is so well done as well.
All I can say, that with all the internet spam, I'm just glad my email is fairly clean, considering the forums I use, and the fact that my email is on my website contact page. I'm on my second email address, and it has 2 years on it. I only get about one spam email every 2 days. The previous email, I had for about 7 years. It now gets about 30 emails per week - all spam. Its just a backup email. I just go to it once per week and select all - then hit delete. Its the one I use when I need to register somewhere, where an email is required and I'm not wanting to give my email.
