Topic: PM Spam
Started by: master dwarf
Started on: 7/31/2006
Board: Site Discussion
On 7/31/2006 at 3:00pm, master dwarf wrote:
PM Spam
I just got spammed via the private message feature of the forums. User: Don Johnson. Anybody else encounter this? Could somebody look into this and squash it?
On 7/31/2006 at 3:03pm, Kicker wrote:
Re: PM Spam
Ditto from same. NSFW, lots of exclamation marks. I was trying to figure out how to report or forward the message to the appropriate folk, but if I can just me-too it, that saves me some work.
On 7/31/2006 at 3:03pm, Claudia Cangini wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
master wrote:
I just got spammed via the private message feature of the forums. User: Don Johnson. Anybody else encounter this? Could somebody look into this and squash it?
just happened the same to me.
I doubt we are alone in this...
On 7/31/2006 at 3:08pm, Johanna wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Yes. I need new retinas now.
On 7/31/2006 at 3:10pm, signoftheserpent wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Jo wrote:
Yes. I need new retinas now.
Ditto. I PM'd Mr Edwards as well. Not sure how things like this happened, but then i don't excel in spam and pornography. My loss I guess.
On 7/31/2006 at 3:29pm, ricmadeira wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Got spammed by Don Johnson too.
On 7/31/2006 at 3:44pm, Claudia Cangini wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
ricmadeira wrote:
Got spammed by Don Johnson too.
Guys, I think Admins got the message by now...
On 7/31/2006 at 3:54pm, Gasten wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
The wierd thing is, He can't be bot, can he? He have posted one "good" post on the forum. It's probably som kind of hacking-thing that have guessed his password, or some virus that are ... I dunno.
On 7/31/2006 at 3:59pm, J-MK wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
I got this too. My poor eyes are still bleeding...
On 7/31/2006 at 4:42pm, Hawk wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
It's a bot. It's already struck two other forums that I go to. I'm just hoping that I'm not the subject to some kind of malware that causes this to happen... I've scanned multiple times and nothing shows up, but still...
On 7/31/2006 at 4:44pm, Hawk wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Sorry. There's no edit button.
The reasoning behind me saying that it's a bot.
On the second forum, it mass-PM'd two messages to every user. It then proceeded to reply to every topic and post a new topic under the same name as the ones it replied to with the exact same message. My advice is to IP-ban the sucker before it gets that far.
On 7/31/2006 at 5:24pm, drozdal wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
This is indeed the year of c**k in RPG's.
On 7/31/2006 at 6:42pm, Clinton R. Nixon wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
I banned this guy right afterwards this morning. My apologies to all of you who had to see this.
- Clinton
On 7/31/2006 at 6:52pm, thwaak wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Clinton wrote:
I banned this guy right afterwards this morning. My apologies to all of you who had to see this.
- Clinton
The interesting thing is...the one post (about Heist) he made outside of the spamming was a rather interesting concept for a game and seemed authentic. Any chance his account was hi-jacked somehow?
On 7/31/2006 at 9:21pm, Hawk wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
In my mind, no. There were two other times that this happened, as I said in my previous post. The account was created. That same day, it spammed PMs.
Also, I did a search for "Heist". There were two games in the first page that have that name. One is very similar to that account's post.
Wouldn't a human have to create an account in the first place? There are all of the safeguards to prevent bots, like the misshapen characters that a new account is required to reenter when registering.
On 7/31/2006 at 9:24pm, Silmenume wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Thank you Clinton for taking care of this problem so quickly!
On 7/31/2006 at 11:17pm, Lord Shield wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Cheers for clearing it, Clinton. The plus side is that the email I got telling me had a PM reminded me of this site that I have neglected for some time!
On 8/1/2006 at 5:28am, David Johansen wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Got one here too. Got the E-mail too. I keep thinking there must be something funny to say about the content but all I can come up with is that it's a picture of a very small man...
On 8/1/2006 at 6:27am, greyorm wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
David wrote: ...all I can come up with is that it's a picture of a very small man...
*Cough*Choke*Sputter*Sides Hurt*
On 8/1/2006 at 8:18am, Gasten wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Hawk wrote:
Wouldn't a human have to create an account in the first place? There are all of the safeguards to prevent bots, like the misshapen characters that a new account is required to reenter when registering.
No, it don't have to be. There is bots who can evade those type-stuff-from-the-picture-thingies. And who can click on links in emails. Thou, it's pretty hard to create.
But I can't understand that Heist-post... I don't know how much it's altered from the one it copied/pasted, but if it's just some words the bot could easily change them with a synonym-list. Otherwise I don't know. (and why? because he want us to ask these questions before we ban him, giving him more time)
On 8/1/2006 at 8:46am, Thunder_God wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
I wonder how come I didn't get the PM-notification-email, but damn, that gotta hurt.
On 8/1/2006 at 10:02am, droog wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Clinton wrote:
I banned this guy right afterwards this morning. My apologies to all of you who had to see this.
No need for apologies, Clinton darling. That man was divine!
On 8/1/2006 at 12:20pm, Ron Edwards wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
All right folks, I think we've given the spammer as much attention as we need to.
More "me too" posts and so on aren't needed; it appears that just about everyone got hit.
Best, Ron
On 8/1/2006 at 3:24pm, Jonny Nexus wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Thunder_God wrote:
I wonder how come I didn't get the PM-notification-email,
I did.
but damn, that gotta hurt.
It did.
Worst. Spam. Ever.
Let's just say - as someone who read the PM and scrolled down to the bottom of the message - that I'm damn glad that I have my own private office at work.
Still, on a positive note, it did tempt me into coming to the Forge for the first time since I created my account, so it's not all bad.
On 8/2/2006 at 6:58pm, Bardsandsages wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
If this was known about by the admins two days ago, why was it STILL in the inbox? I haven't been here for a while, and just logged in a fwe minutes ago to see what was going on. If admins knew everyone got the spam, why wasn't it deleted already? I shouldn't have still been in the inboxes two days later.
On 8/3/2006 at 7:52am, Eva Deinum wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Bardsandsages wrote:
If this was known about by the admins two days ago, why was it STILL in the inbox? I haven't been here for a while, and just logged in a fwe minutes ago to see what was going on. If admins knew everyone got the spam, why wasn't it deleted already? I shouldn't have still been in the inboxes two days later.
Can you imagine going through all mailboxes here just to check the pm's - would take them ages. Or go scripting and destroy this message everywhere in the database... Come on.. they are normal people too, having a life and such. And besides: it takes more than a bit of bad photoshopwork to knock me down.
On 8/3/2006 at 3:59pm, epweissengruber wrote:
Porn in my PM
I seem to be getting spammed by someone called "Don Johnson," who is sending pictures of a naked man with a huge, albeitbadly Photoshopped ,penis.
Is anyone else getting this or is someone playing a personal gag on me?
On 8/3/2006 at 7:26pm, Bardsandsages wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Eva wrote:Bardsandsages wrote:
If this was known about by the admins two days ago, why was it STILL in the inbox? I haven't been here for a while, and just logged in a fwe minutes ago to see what was going on. If admins knew everyone got the spam, why wasn't it deleted already? I shouldn't have still been in the inboxes two days later.
Can you imagine going through all mailboxes here just to check the pm's - would take them ages. Or go scripting and destroy this message everywhere in the database... Come on.. they are normal people too, having a life and such. And besides: it takes more than a bit of bad photoshopwork to knock me down.
I can't imagine going through and deleting all of them. But then again I can't imagine having to perform open heart surgery either. That doesn't mean the doctor can use the difficulty of his job as an excuse not to do it. And as far as those I know who do coding for sites tell me, it should have been a small matter of coding to automatically delete all of the guilty party's pornographic messages from the user inboxes.
Maybe this is all funny to some folks, but I check my e-mail on break while at work. And unlike someone else who brought up the subject, I don't have a private office. So unfortunately I have to take this a little more seriously. Because if the wrong person walked by my desk at the wrong time, I could have been fired. *my employer is very lax regarding using the computer for personal use while on breaks, but very strict regarding using it for pornography.*
And again, I ask the question...why is this still in people's inboxes now THREE days removed from the site being made aware of it?
On 8/3/2006 at 7:38pm, Bankuei wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Hi Bards...
Perhaps because the Forge is a completely FREE forum service provided by two people with lives outside of simply running the boards?
If your employer is so lacking in understanding that explaining that a site which is normally free of porn got spammed, then perhaps you shouldn't use the internet at work, or disable images... the internet is a loaded roulette wheel of porn, and frankly, it's really hard NOT to stumble upon it.
Maybe everyone could read back a few posts and actually READ what Ron requested- Clinton and him are aware of the problem and looking into preventing it from happening again. More people saying, "I got spammed TOO!" isn't going to get it fixed any quicker than pushing the button for an elevator 100 times makes it arrive faster.
Chris
On 8/4/2006 at 12:49pm, Bardsandsages wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Perhaps because the Forge is a completely FREE forum service provided by two people with lives outside of simply running the boards?
I frequent a lot of free forums. I've never had the problem. I'm a mod at one. I know code can be written relatively quickly to delete such things. I've seen it done. Don't know how to do it myself, but I know those that do. So I'm not just talking for the point of talking. I'm talking from experience dealing with other forums.
the internet is a loaded roulette wheel of porn, and frankly, it's really hard NOT to stumble upon it.
And this is the first time in years I've "stumbled" upon any. And I use the internet for everything. Shopping. Paying bills. Running my own business. Research. Harassing forum owners. Maybe I'm just a more savvy a user than most and therefore don't normally have this issue.
Sure, I accept and understand the fact that it happens. You can't predict when some troll is gonna do something stupid. My point is, once you are aware of it, you get rid of it. Three days after the fact the stuff is still there, I see as a problem. Just my not-so-humble-opinion.
On 8/4/2006 at 1:33pm, Clinton R. Nixon wrote:
RE: Re: PM Spam
Julie,
Hey, you're right - I probably should have taken action to delete it for you. My apologies. Honestly, I never saw the picture. It was below the fold, and was recognizable as spam before I scrolled down, so I deleted it without looking at it.
With that said, this is not a place to tell Ron or I what we should or shouldn't do, so let's close this thread.