Jackofalltrades Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 1 minute ago, JamesFrance said: I found Cleantalk much more effective than Stopforumspam which missed most of them. I've not heard of Cleantalk, but I'm going back a few years when I was an admin. My experience was that no single line of defence against spammers will work because they'll find and use whatever way in they can. Multiple lines of defence work best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan de Enfield Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 (edited) There has certainly been at least 2 members whose first post has been early to day. One who claims he has been spammed. Would not being a 'member' give them access to the members list, they then could PM whoever / however many they wanted. Edit to add extract of the members list, select and send a PM ? Edited April 16, 2021 by Alan de Enfield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 (edited) As conspiracy theories go, that's an imaginative one! I don't know who the two members are to whom you refer - but is either of them from Mali? A further thought: do these chaps actually expect to sell any bitcoins by this method? If not, why are they sending these messages? Edited April 16, 2021 by Athy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsM Posted April 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 What a complete headache for you poor admins ?. Fortunately I expect that most of us here are unlikely to respond to scammers but it's a pain in the arrus to think they have infiltrated our jolly gang of boaters. M Ps other forums?? You mean there are more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 (edited) The thing that is still mystifying is how they were able to send PM's when as has been pointed out it requires a given number of posts to allow access to the PM system. (EDIT - though I see the forum rules no longer say that, so at some point it changed.) Edited April 16, 2021 by The Happy Nomad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsM Posted April 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 10 minutes ago, Athy said: As conspiracy theories go, that's an imaginative one! I don't know who the two members are to whom you refer - but is either of them from Mali? A further thought: do these chaps actually expect to sell any bitcoins by this method? If not, why are they sending these messages? Probably a dodgy web link that will allow them to hijack computers, empty bank accounts etc etc ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan de Enfield Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Athy said: I don't know who the two members are to whom you refer - but is either of them from Mali? Do you honestly believe the locations shown for members to be correct ? They are whatever / wherever the member wants them to show One new member is 'billpound' who joined in January, has been a 'sleeper' and his 1st post today is to say he's been spammed. Edited April 16, 2021 by Alan de Enfield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said: Do you honestly believe the locations shown for members to be correct ? They are whatever / wherever the member wants them to show Sorry, I was referring to their e-mail addresses - not taking into account that moddies can see these but most members can't. All three of the spam artists had e-mail addresses in Mali. If you can furnish, by P.M., the names of these two new members, they can be checked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackofalltrades Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said: Do you honestly believe the locations shown for members to be correct ? They are whatever / wherever the member wants them to show That is true. It's very easy to spoof an IP address. However I don't think most spammers bother. Or at least that used to be the case. 3 minutes ago, Athy said: Sorry, I was referring to their e-mail addresses - not taking into account that moddies can see these but most members can't. All three of the spam artists had e-mail addresses in Mali. If you can furnish, by P.M., the names of these two new members, they can be checked. Not guilty M'lord (before that nasty Alan bloke grasses me up). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 5 minutes ago, Jackofalltrades said: Not guilty M'lord (before that nasty Alan bloke grasses me up). No, Alan did say that these were two members who had made their first posts today. We're still hearing from a few people - most recently member Zathras, who joined in 2013 but has never made a post. I do wonder why, if someone has shown no interest in the forum for over seven years, they feel the need to report a spam message now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackofalltrades Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 10 minutes ago, Athy said: No, Alan did say that these were two members who had made their first posts today. We're still hearing from a few people - most recently member Zathras, who joined in 2013 but has never made a post. I do wonder why, if someone has shown no interest in the forum for over seven years, they feel the need to report a spam message now. Waiting seven years for the right moment to make a complaint must take some stamina ? Hello Zathras, if you're reading. Say hello ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 1 minute ago, Jackofalltrades said: Waiting seven years for the right moment to make a complaint must take some stamina ? Hello Zathras, if you're reading. Say hello ? Things can slip people's minds. Clearing out a drawer in my office last week, I found my reader's ticket for the Public Records Office at Kew. I last went there to research part of my Mum's side of the family, as there was missing information which she wanted to know. Mum passed away in 2000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 2 hours ago, Athy said: Thank you for that advice, which I'm sure our Site Owner will heed. I must say that, when we have had outbreaks of these posts on the actual forum, and when we've banned the senders, they have rarely, if ever, come back to bother us. I also wonder why many members have received these posts, but many others have not. I didn't get any thing. Surly the old set up where you couldn't message until you had made 5 posts would stop it? 1 hour ago, Athy said: No, Alan did say that these were two members who had made their first posts today. We're still hearing from a few people - most recently member Zathras, who joined in 2013 but has never made a post. I do wonder why, if someone has shown no interest in the forum for over seven years, they feel the need to report a spam message now. Maybe its the first PM he has ever received from the forum. If he joined but never posted no one but a spammer is likely to PM him 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, The Happy Nomad said: The thing that is still mystifying is how they were able to send PM's when as has been pointed out it requires a given number of posts to allow access to the PM system. (EDIT - though I see the forum rules no longer say that, so at some point it changed.) Maybe a members account or computer has been compromised just like the E Bay sales last week Edited April 16, 2021 by ditchcrawler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magpie patrick Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said: I didn't get any thing. For Brian, and others who feel they've missed out "Can You Earn" Hello. 45,379.56 GBP is now worth 1 bitcoin. Here [link removed] I earned 0.3 bitcoin yesterday. And today 0.2 bitcoin. And in the future, bitcoin could be worth a million dollars. Hurry up here you can improve your financial condition. Click [link removed] It's slightly backwards - heading should surely be "you can earn" and personally I'd have put the exchange rate the other way round "1 bitcoin is now worth"... Perhaps Yoda lives in Mali these days... 3 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said: Maybe a members account or computer has been compromised just like the E Bay sales last week These were not existing accounts - they were opened minutes before we were bombarded. Clearly some spambots know how to bypass the message system lock on new members. Not that surprising, it's only a piece of code. I know of computer whizzes who could probably send you a message via the DM system without bothering to access the site Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1st ade Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 7 minutes ago, magpie patrick said: These were not existing accounts - they were opened minutes before we were bombarded. Clearly some spambots know how to bypass the message system lock on new members. Not that surprising, it's only a piece of code. I know of computer whizzes who could probably send you a message via the DM system without bothering to access the site I won't take up the challenge in the last line! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan de Enfield Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 3 minutes ago, magpie patrick said: It's slightly backwards - heading should surely be "you can earn" and personally I'd have put the exchange rate the other way round "1 bitcoin is now worth"... Their English is much better than my Bali-ese. The thing is that in English we may say "little Grey tractor" but in many other languages (even other UK languages) it would be something like "Tractor, little grey" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said: Their English is much better than my Bali-ese. It's a French-speaking country, so that could possibly affect the word order. But in that case you'd expect something like "your condition financial". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryP Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 17 hours ago, The Happy Nomad said: Not just me then. Ive just reported it and will delete it when the mods deal with it. Same here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, MaryP said: Same here. I think the mods have dealt with it, some time ago. No need to delete your report, that's been done (not just yours, all 150 or so of them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davews Posted April 16, 2021 Report Share Posted April 16, 2021 Thanks to all the efforts by our mods to address this issue. I am one of those who has rarely posted - came here a while ago when I was looking for information about Blake's Lock (when I got some useful information thanks) but not posted since. So when I got an email from canal world I had forgotten totally that the forum existed and had to visit here to work out it was a spam as the PM told me nothing. My hunch that it was a spam was right, and I don't need any d***ed bit coins! By the way my email address (but not the username or password) is actually used on a different forum that was hacked recently. But I doubt many members of that one would be lurkers here so probably just a coincidence. Not a boater, just a casual member of the public. But very genuine hi.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post RichM Posted April 17, 2021 Popular Post Report Share Posted April 17, 2021 A little late but we have made it so that users with less than 10 posts can't send PMs at least for now. Can't be having this as not only is it unwanted from a user perspective, it also has implications on the site as a whole. Appreciate the mods have done a great job keeping on top of this as always. Just as a FYI though - if enough people report a spammer, the forum system will take corrective action automatically, in most cases. Obviously we can't give full details as to how this works exactly but please bear this in mind. That said, the risk of this attack happening again in this particular form is now reduced. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan de Enfield Posted April 17, 2021 Report Share Posted April 17, 2021 3 minutes ago, RichM said: Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this Thank you for your help and the update. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree monkey Posted April 17, 2021 Report Share Posted April 17, 2021 49 minutes ago, RichM said: A little late but we have made it so that users with less than 10 posts can't send PMs at least for now. Can't be having this as not only is it unwanted from a user perspective, it also has implications on the site as a whole. Appreciate the mods have done a great job keeping on top of this as always. Just as a FYI though - if enough people report a spammer, the forum system will take corrective action automatically, in most cases. Obviously we can't give full details as to how this works exactly but please bear this in mind. That said, the risk of this attack happening again in this particular form is now reduced. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this As always thank you for your work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted April 17, 2021 Report Share Posted April 17, 2021 When I read the title of this thread I thought it was about an evening meal ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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