Are you getting odd or annoying Personal Messages?

[Jim Dandy]

Hey Jim,
I know you already deleted James, but I forwarded a couple to you anyway.
Thanks

Jim

[TFP Admin]

Thanks, Jim. Got 'em. I discovered a couple others yesterday too. I don't know if they sent spam to anyone, but they have been active with spamming other message boards ( I belong to a few forum owner support forums). I cleaned up the membership list. Kinda disappointing because the other day we had 1801 members. Now we're down to 1794 - and that's with a couple new members since the cleanup.

It's still beyond me, after 16 years online, why there hasn't been laws enforced over this crap. These people get slaps on the wrist and they go back to doing it all over again, or get high paying jobs to work for spam prevention software developers. I'm surprised they don't have big awards ceremonies - like the Emmy for best religious spam, an Academy Award for best porn spam.

Oh yeah, freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Right.

Jim

[Nick Arrera]

I deleted another one yesterday from someone selling some pill ..

[TFP Admin]

Yeah, me too. Maybe from the same person. But only staff will see those because of another spam prevention measure I took a long time ago. Anyone who posts a message with certain words or any links and is a member with less than 5 posts, has the message sent to "moderation" for approval, editing or deleting. Unregistered users who post messages of any kind have their posts sent to moderation first. I usually get notified of these at least once a day and I know other staff clear them too (there's also a feature in the adminCP that tells me when moderators use their mod powers, but I don't look at that often).

Jim

[Bud Cline]

"A pill called Tramadol"???

I've torpedoed that two or three times in the past few days.

[TFP Admin]

Yes and others. There has been a rash of spamming in all vBulletin forums the past week or so (maybe other forum software too, but I don't belong to any of their support groups). They must be ramping up their holiday ad campaigns. We just need to keep deleting them. At least the members aren't having to deal with them.

Jim

[Lo Down]

TFP Admin said It has come to my attention that some of you may be receiving some strange Personal Messages. These messages are usually titled something like "Re: [your forum name]" - in other words, member Stan may have received a PM titled "Re: Stan". The message always has a link in it. DO NOT FOLLOW THE LINK! So far, the links have not been reported as bad for your computer or your security, but it could happen. The message many times has comments about Buddhism and always asks the question, "How's it going?" Other than that, there is nothing more in the message. The sender is always a member who has zero post count. The name of the person sending these messages changes and, unfortunately, we may have several of them here. I just deleted the member "James" but there could be others. Please report these PMs to me. You can forward them to me or any other staff member and I will delete their account. I just installed a new "feature" on the forum that will now require all new members to have a post count of at least 3 messages on the forum before they can send PMs. They can still receive PMs and they can send PMs to me, but they will not be able to send any other PMs until they have posted a few times on the board. The unfortunate part is that anyone who joined before today can still send these PMs out. The new "feature" does not affect current members, only new ones. I apologize to any of you that have received these spam Personal Messages. This problem has been reported on other forums for months now and I thought we were secured from them. None of you complained about them. But I want you to. I want you to complain to me about anything you think is bad for this site and bad for our members. I want this site to be the best, but I need your feedback to help do that. Thanks, Jim PS: remember, if you report a spammer or bad member, you must include their forum name. the best way is to forward their PM to me (TFP Admin).

......yea, but what if her name is Bambi, and all she asks is some assistance for rent money?

rgfloor said Jim, I would like to report member TFP Admin. He keeps posting these looooooong messages and with my sleep Apnea I fall asleep at the keyboard before I finish them. So far I have a split lip, a bloody nose and I think I may have cracked a tooth! Don't ban him, but tell him to shorten up the posts.

Hey bucko.........I resemble that remark!

[Lo Down]

TFP Admin said Yes and others. There has been a rash of spamming in all vBulletin forums the past week or so (maybe other forum software too, but I don't belong to any of their support groups). They must be ramping up their holiday ad campaigns. We just need to keep deleting them. At least the members aren't having to deal with them. Jim

Thanks for defending the territory T, we appreciate your efforts to keep us free from crap like that.