Private message warning

[khaos]

I recieved a Private Message

Hello khaos;bdwellm;jim_vv;pross;briguy
Look your nickname pictures :)

with a link. DO NOT GO TO THE LINK!!! Malware and major issues. I am a nazi about going to links and I caught this before going.

Clicker beware!:eek::mad::eek:

the Jasica site is a know virus/malware hole

[bill.young]

Hey Joe,

The spammers are getting trickier and it's getting harder and harder to figure out the legit registrations from the bogus ones. That account has been deleted and banned, but it had all the right profile info including a picture and a birthday date!

The reality is that eventually spammers are going to get through any registration process no matter how good it is, so in general be wary of any messages from people you don't know, or messages to multiple people with subject lines that don't make sense.

Bill

[dana_swift]

Bill.. those of us who have purchased shopbots are very unlikely to post spam and would be very interested in not spreading viruses. There is no way to know on the forum if someone is a verified owner. In the profile someone can make up anything they wish to claim. Could the user name be green for owners and verified forum friends, and yellow or red for new and unknown sources?

I like private messaging, especially for new owners who are needing help getting going. Knowing a message did not originate from an SB owner would change my interest in it (usually to zero). Potential owners can post in the public areas where other prospective buyers can read the questions and answers and help the whole community.

Just thinking-

D

[burchbot]

I would prefer to just turn off PM’s. Is there a way to do that?
Dan

[myxpykalix]

We didn't seem to have these problems with the old forum...is it too late to go back? lol...

[khaos]

Hey Joe,

The spammers are getting trickier and it's getting harder and harder to figure out the legit registrations from the bogus ones. That account has been deleted and banned, but it had all the right profile info including a picture and a birthday date!

The reality is that eventually spammers are going to get through any registration process no matter how good it is, so in general be wary of any messages from people you don't know, or messages to multiple people with subject lines that don't make sense.

Bill

No doubt. I just wanted to raise awareness for our community. Mosta these guys are out there making a living with a PC and the last thing they need is downtime because of some loser skript kiddie.

Do we have a CAPTCHA for the initial registration? That should stop the (spam)bots from making accounts to spam from.

Yours in sawdust :cool:,
Joe

[coach]

I was a moderator for a woodworking forum a couple years ago.
I spent every evening deleting 20 -30 links to pornographic web sites.
Then one day somebody actually got into the forum and completely wiped out every post and put their own political photo on the forum front page.
That forum has never got back up and running. I hope we can be luckier here. It has useful software so I will post the link.
The web site is
http://www.cabinets-plus.net/

I use the door software on a regular basis. I used the cabinet software prior to owning my shop bot.

[Nancy]

We've added a few features to our registration process since the move. It's been a learning process. The Capcha can be such a pain to read so we are trying to avoid that. A question has been added to the registration form and the new registrant is strongly urged to fill in location and ShopBot use. Each registration must be approved by a moderator and a sensible name, email address, location and ShopBot use take a lot of the guesswork out. Obvious spammy ones are trashed and iffy ones get an email to convince me. I don't think guests or non-approved members can send pm's any more. J..... was the first and, maybe, only one so far. New registrations are down to 5-10 per day as opposed to the 500 or so that popped in during the first few days.

There is no way to require or determine ShopBot ownership - too many 2nd, 3rd- hand owners and we couldn't tell if John Doe was the John Doe who bought a Shopbot. And we wouldn't want to do this.

To turn off private messaging, open the UserCP. Under Setting and Options, select Edit Options. Under Messaging and Options, uncheck the box by "enable private messaging". Scroll down and "Save changes".

[michael_schwartz]

Never click on a link if your unsure about who posted it, or where it leads.

Just like answering the door at 4:00 AM for a stranger who's intentions are not clear. May be wise to think twice.

Look out for people creating accounts that resemble other people as well in an attempt to get people to click links. Misspellings, or ASCII characters such as é á etc... are used many times online to impersonate people.

If somebody unknown with a low post count PM'S you with a link, it may be shady. Short messages are a dead give away, but sooner or later some spammer will wise up and post stuff asking serious questions about shopbots so always think twice.

[cabnet636]

shopbot admin is on the right track, had to do the same on another forum i moderate and it works well have had no more incidents after email varification was required,

jim

[penman]

Hi Nancy,

for your information I had the same message as Joe had. This was a week or so ago. Sorry, never thought to warn anyone, just deleted it.

Roger.