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Messaging Spammer Blocked

GEide's picture

Messaging Spammer Blocked (post #169619)

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GEide on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 07:17
in

Hi Folks,

A spammer joined our forum this morning and sent about six of you Private Message spam between 6 and 7 a.m. EST.

I blocked the user and am working with developers to implement fixes so this doesn't happen in future. Hopefully we can roll something out soon.

If you notice any other spam issues, please let us know.

Thanks, Gina
FineWoodworking.com

-A +A
hammer1's picture

Gina, there was a similar (post #169619, reply #1 of 4)

by hammer1 in reply to
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GEide [original] on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 07:33

Gina, there was a similar message over at Breaktime, too. When I see spam, I use the 'inappropriate'  marker but don't know if that ever gets to anyone. I think some others do the same.

Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

RalphBarker's picture

Flagging spam posts (post #169619, reply #2 of 4)

by RalphBarker in reply to
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GEide [original] on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 10:14

I've also been flagging actual posts as "Inappropriate", but with mixed results in that where ever those flags reside doesn't seem to be monitored on a regular basis. That, of course, doesn't deal with private-message spam.

On another forum where I'm one of the admins, we use a module available for the vBulletin forum software that checks new registrants against an online database of known spammers at stopforumspam.com. This has been quite effective for us, since the database includes the e-mail address being used in the registration, the user name, and IP address. Perhaps a similar module is available for the open-source software being used here?

Note that this approach stops most spammers at the registration stage, so we have avoided implementing the text-verification process that is such a pain here.

swenson's picture

New spam (post #169619, reply #3 of 4)

by swenson in reply to
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GEide [original] on Fri, 01/20/2012 - 07:49

Heights Woodworking has a new one on New to Woodworking.  Sure looks like spam to me.

GEide's picture

Thanks (post #169619, reply #4 of 4)

by
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GEide in reply to swenson [original] on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 06:23

Hi Swenson,

Thanks for the heads up. Will keep an eye out.

In other news, I've tested a fix to the private message system. It's ready to be rolled out. Just waiting for that to happen. Will post back when it's implemented.

Gina
FineWoodworking.com