2018-06-03 03:43:19

I'm wondering if anyone else is getting spam private messages. I thought this forum required new members to be approved. It's not a big issue since I've never interacted meaningfully with anyone on here through PM (does anyone even use the thing?) but I don't like when things don't add up xD

2018-06-03 04:19:20

Well, I never look into my PM inbox much, but whenever I look at it, I never getting spam messages sent to me.

2018-06-03 04:36:32

Not really, but I don't check my PM's that much.

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2018-06-03 06:20:55

Hello.
I've checked my inbox, and it was full of spam messages. there are around 28 messages there all of them are spams.

All the best,
Adel, Akbari.

2018-06-03 06:27:47

@Adel same here. That's why I'm wondering how these messages are getting through if the forum is moderated. Unless the bots are smart now and don't care about posting publicly, just sending PM's to people, which, I assume, you don't need to be approved for.

2018-06-03 13:00:35

If you're comfortable with it, would you mind sharing some of them or giving us a basic idea of what they say?

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2018-06-03 13:12:17

Mostly it's in foreign-language script that NVDA can't read, along with a bunch of links.

2018-06-03 13:19:08

Moderation!

Firstly I'll move this topic to site and forum feedback as its about the site.

Secondly about private messages. Yes,unfortunately at the moment the private messaging function is open to restricted users who haven't been approved, so yes, spambots can send pms to users.

The best thing to do is tell myself or the other mods, letting us know the username of the offender, say by sending us a pm or email and we can see about getting them banned.

I will mention this to Richard and Sander, our actual webmasters and see if we can get some forum updates sorted, but in the mean time, just let myself or the other mods know where to throw the ban hammer and we'll be glad to give potential spambots the boot as per usual.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-06-03 14:07:19

I check my private messages only when I think of it or someone asks me to. I just checked this minute and my inbox is empty.

2018-06-03 14:37:09

I'd love to see something like private messages, followed by a number.

Said number representing how many messages you have.

The zoneBBS use to have something like that.

that way you don't have to keep going into your messages section to check.

2018-06-03 17:27:41

I think there is a PunBB extension that would work like that Cooltirk, at least that is how it works on the project.aon forums and they also use PunBB, but again installing extensions is something Richard and Sander need to do.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-06-04 09:01:08

@dark,
thank you.

I can repost some of the messages here but I don't know it is against the rules or not.

All the best,
Adel, Akbari.

2018-06-14 22:26:26

Huh, I didn't think this had affected me, but I went to check just now and found my inbox flooded with spam. Previously I never really checked my PM's, but I suppose this is a more widespread problem than I thought.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-06-20 22:12:02

I am the biggest horder of messages ever big_smile. So I just combed through my inbox and collected all the usernames that had sent me messages that looked spammy. My list has no less than 25 usernames collected over the past year or so. I'm pretty sure I checked all of them and they're all restricted, but not banned. Here is the list of usernames. Hopefully this will make a dent in the spam situation until the admins can implement a better solution!
LouisTeN
Der Sextourist
Davidzef
MargretTus
IvanSeineeFH
ColinLyday
RichardSab
capednub
Tavvhzik
Axpgqzev
SexxySweety
XRumerTest
Richardfluon
kuklaLob
anasiutty
bithow
AntonioRup
Chasesoota
Dashaspots
hapednub
ClaudeLek
WBMPM
SvetaSexWar
kapednub
JulieTaili

Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
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2018-06-24 10:19:08

Wow, musicalman, quite the gang of spammers there! 
I've introduced them all to that lovely lady Anne site ban big_smile.

Hopefully that should reduce the pm spam situation a good bit, also if anyone else sees  spambot on restricted status with no posts chucking around spam pms, please just let me know the username and I'll be glad to give them the heave hoe too.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-07-02 09:15:39

I like SvettaSexWar, like an ultrafemmonist viking.

2018-07-03 09:50:35

Well I think I've just seen the world's most stupid spambot, one that actually posted spam to the report link big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-07-04 08:57:30 (edited by Ethin 2018-07-04 08:58:19)

@17, rofl! Wow! Definitely stupid.... you know, if we could somehow get the IP ranges and correlate them to their locations via geolocation, we could ban the entire IP range (or entire country if need be). That's one thing I've had to do to get scripts to stop hacking my server: had to ban Ukraine from my server because a script kept trying to hack SSH. I'm trying to get fail2ban to work to deal with the problem and then I'll lift the ban and let fail2ban ban them for 68 years. big_smile

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
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2018-11-05 21:51:14

Hi. The pest seems to have returned, I just checked my pms and noticed that I've received two spam messages from two bots, HannahsoypE and monmbranywv. I hope that the mods get rid of them so nobody else gets threatened to buy christmass gifts and iphone X cases from them. smile

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
Stephen King

2018-11-06 00:02:23 (edited by musicalman 2018-11-06 00:02:44)

Lol I got those same two messages from them.

Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
If you like what you're reading, please give a thumbs-up.

2019-02-20 13:41:14 (edited by Dark 2019-02-20 13:41:28)

Well I've fallen fowl of the spam pms too, this one with a message in russian and a link I have absolutely no intention of clicking big_smile.

The user is amusingly named DanielBag.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-02-20 23:40:40

I've also got a metric ton of spam private messages as well. So, next time I go to check my pms, I'm going to start banning these spammers.