46 replies to this topic

[stephen_b]

I received this PM from user alexcone3:

Is this a new crack in the forum software, or has it always been here? I'm wondering if it's an automated thing.

By the way, is there a list of moderators somewhere?

Stephen

Message Forwarded From alexcone3

This Is About My Inheritance and Legacy

Dear One!

Please do not let this my letter keep you wondering why should it be you that I will trust with these information’s that I am about to reveal to you
[...]

(edited by Matthias: post set visible again and pm cut short)

Edited by Matthias, 02 April 2008 - 02:50 PM.

[Matthias]

Thanks for reporting this.
Now his account is suspended.

By the way, is there a list of moderators somewhere?

yes, the moderators are listed in the section 'navigators' on this page:
http://www.imminst.org/leadership

[Cyberbrain]

I just got the same PM ... hopefully I'll never have to see it again

[JonesGuy]

I'm going to be rich!

Woo Hooo!

[forever freedom]

yea same here.

[biknut]

Does this mean I'm not going to get the money?

[Live Forever]

Sorry for the inconvenience guys. We blasted him.

[Shannon Vyff]

Yeah, that was annoying.

[Mind]

This is the 3rd time in the last 2 weeks I have gotten a version of the Nigerian Bank/Inheritance scam. Each time from a different account. Each time the account was suspended.

For anyone that is unaware of this scam...DO NOT REPLY TO ANY SOLICITATIONS YOU GET THROUGH EMAIL OR PERSONAL MESSAGE regarding moving sums of money across national borders. It is a scam and you will lose your money!

I suspect that these scammers are moving into forums because email filters are getting very good at deleting their solicitations. PMs are new unfiltered territory. Seeing that many people ended up with the scam PM, I wonder if they have some sort of program that automates the sending of the message once they have set up an account.

We will suspend these accounts as rapidly as possible.

[Hedgehog]

This is the 3rd time in the last 2 weeks I have gotten a version of the Nigerian Bank/Inheritance scam. Each time from a different account. Each time the account was suspended.

For anyone that is unaware of this scam...DO NOT REPLY TO ANY SOLICITATIONS YOU GET THROUGH EMAIL OR PERSONAL MESSAGE regarding moving sums of money across national borders. It is a scam and you will lose your money!

I suspect that these scammers are moving into forums because email filters are getting very good at deleting their solicitations. PMs are new unfiltered territory. Seeing that many people ended up with the scam PM, I wonder if they have some sort of program that automates the sending of the message once they have set up an account.

We will suspend these accounts as rapidly as possible.

Run a query and delete all messages sent by the user.

[rene52]

The conversation going on, reveals very less about the topic. Well, a viable piece of advice would be, please let everybody know what is really going on.

===========================

rene

Online Dating

Edited by Lazarus Long, 10 January 2009 - 03:13 AM.
Spam signature

[suspire]

I got spammed just now too, via PM:

lucydokie2@yahoo.co.uk
I'm just browsing now in the Internet and found your profile at www.imminst.org and it captured my interest i decided to drop few words to you.I'm miss Lucy dokie by name,please i will like us to hold a good relationship with a real love,I'm happy to look at your profile today,you sound so gentle to me that was why i fell very much interested in writing you,contact me through my personal box(lucydokie2@yahoo.co.uk) for more introduction,also i will send my pictures to you so we can know more about each other,i will be happy to see your response my dear,age or colour even distance can't deny any genuine love,so please lets give our self a trial,thanks till i hear from you
miss lucy

I feel loved! Bring on the sexin'!

shepard, why don't you ever write to me like this?

Edited by suspire, 14 January 2009 - 05:27 PM.

[FunkOdyssey]

I banned her about five seconds after I received that PM from her.

[suspire]

I banned her about five seconds after I received that PM from her.

Man, she gets around. I don't feel special anymore.

[Cyberbrain]

Got spammed by her too, good thing FunkOdyssey banned her. Why do people do this?

[StrangeAeons]

Yeah, ditto, I got the same spam message from "Lucy". My reply just prior to blocking:

Greetings, Spambot!
I'm not sure why you decided to send silly messages in broken engrish to this forum of all forums, where we by and large pride ourselves in not being dupes, but I suggest you take your "me love you long time" crap elsewhere.

What can I say, I have rage against the machine

[rwac]

I banned her about five seconds after I received that PM from her.

Well, she came back.

Whats the quickest way to get a spambot banned?
PM a nav or start a thread ?

[niner]

I banned her about five seconds after I received that PM from her.

Well, she came back.

Whats the quickest way to get a spambot banned?
PM a nav or start a thread ?

PM'ing a nav or director who's logged on at the moment is probably the fastest way. I think we may need some technology to fix the spambot problem, like something that allows new logins less than a certain number of PMs per day for some period of time. By the time we're on top of a spambot, it could have already spammed everyone. We use captchas for account creation, don't we? That would mean that there has to be a human at the other end, but they could have come in at any point in time and created a bunch of zombie accounts. I hope this doesn't become the new frontier of spamming.

[Ben]

Got a message from lucy as well.

How are they able to do this? Surely this represents a serious security flaw with the site.

Edited by Ben - Aus, 15 January 2009 - 04:10 AM.

[lightowl]

How are they able to do this? Surely this represents a serious security flaw with the site.

Its easy and its not a security flaw. They simply create an account, then proceed to send a message to anyone on the members list or people who have posted in the forums.

There is a simple solution to this problem. It involves adding a hidden parameter via JavaScript on the registration page. It is almost 100% effective. I implemented it in the Methuselah Foundation forums a few weeks ago. I have suggested this fix before but it seems nobody is interested in solving this spam problem for good. I even offered to implement it myself and gave detailed instruction on how to do it.

How many bogus accounts are created each day? If its only a few, then moderators are probably not in sufficient distress to take it seriously. Anyways, its a waste of time that could easily be saved.

[kismet]

I don't know how this javascript parameter would work, but what about not allowing URL posting for members with 0 posts? It's done on the stanford folding forums for instance. It would certainly help with bots trying to spread malware and advertising. Although personally I find this method a little too restrictive.

[fawnie]

Oh great. Here just about a month now and my first porn spam. I won't attach the picture that "deleted member" sent me. Poor thing - his member prob is deleted or he wouldn't be sending that stuff! gah.

[Shepard]

Did you just get it in your inbox today? I wasn't aware that we were getting free porn.

[eternaltraveler]

Did you just get it in your inbox today? I wasn't aware that we were getting free porn.

some people have all the luck

[caliban]

Dear fawnie

we are very sorry for the inconvenience, shock and offense this must have given you. Such behavior is NOT the norm and not tolerated at the Institute.
As you have guessed, the tag "deleted member" indicates that this user has already been banned from the forum.

While this would not not rule out that this happens ever again, but we are currently thinking of disabling the message function for registered users who have never posted.

Again, please accept our sincere apologies.

[Basket Case]

i think the forum admins here should possibly upgrade to the latest release of IPB (if you havent already), it helps against spam.

I get too many emails about new pms here which are all spam. I just logged in here to disable the notification, which is kinda sad because i would like to know if anyone here has info about stuff i posted, but yea. anyways.

[hilarleo]

I got my first Imminst spam today: "Important" from busy member "NuzGirba"

Next it will be "Look @ my Imminst profile" from "SexeeSupps".
Can't find any Imminst pref setting for 'no email'-
S0- Do i hqave to un-register to stop the pissing on my leg?

leo

i think the forum admins here should possibly upgrade to the latest release of IPB (if you havent already), it helps against spam.

I get too many emails about new pms here which are all spam. I just logged in here to disable the notification, which is kinda sad because i would like to know if anyone here has info about stuff i posted, but yea. anyways.

[cyborgdreamer]

I got my first Imminst spam today: "Important" from busy member "NuzGirba"

Next it will be "Look @ my Imminst profile" from "SexeeSupps".
Can't find any Imminst pref setting for 'no email'-
S0- Do i hqave to un-register to stop the pissing on my leg?

leo

I got spam from the same person/bot. Did it send you to some random sex and dating website? Anyway, you can put NuzGirba on your block list, although that won't stop spam from other members.

[niner]

I got my first Imminst spam today: "Important" from busy member "NuzGirba"

Next it will be "Look @ my Imminst profile" from "SexeeSupps".
Can't find any Imminst pref setting for 'no email'-
S0- Do i hqave to un-register to stop the pissing on my leg?

leo

I got spam from the same person/bot. Did it send you to some random sex and dating website? Anyway, you can put NuzGirba on your block list, although that won't stop spam from other members.

NuzGirba's account has been suspended. I think we have some fixes for the PM spam problem in the queue.

[cyborgdreamer]

I got my first Imminst spam today: "Important" from busy member "NuzGirba"

Next it will be "Look @ my Imminst profile" from "SexeeSupps".
Can't find any Imminst pref setting for 'no email'-
S0- Do i hqave to un-register to stop the pissing on my leg?

leo

I got spam from the same person/bot. Did it send you to some random sex and dating website? Anyway, you can put NuzGirba on your block list, although that won't stop spam from other members.

NuzGirba's account has been suspended. I think we have some fixes for the PM spam problem in the queue.

I'm glad NuzGirba was just a spammer; I was afraid that PM was some creepy attempt to hit on me.