Stop the Spam!!

[agesilaus]

Can't the SKP tech people ban/block that person who is spamming the lists? I didn't count them, if I can count that high, but there must have been over fifty spam msgs this morning. The number seems to be increasing every day. Soon it will be impossible to read the list anymore.

If the in house tech people don't know how to stop it then it's time to bring in outside help.

Edited March 5, 2022 by agesilaus

[Dutch_12078]

The forums are not monitored 24/7, and how soon spam gets hidden away depends on when one of the volunteer "weekend moderators" checks in. The weekend moderators do not have the ability to ban or block anyone, just the ability to remove posts from public view until an administrator can review them.

[Kirk W]

3 minutes ago, Dutch_12078 said:

The weekend moderators do not have the ability to ban or block anyone, just the ability to remove posts from public view until an administrator can review them.

We do flag the person posting the spam to prevent their posting more. Also the forums are not on the Escapee owned server but are hosted by server company that provides service to public forums. Since Escapees have only a very small IT department they are not open 24/7 but keep typical working hours so admin isn't there to address the problems with the host site until Monday. SPAM generators know that many forums are less protected on weekends and that is why it tends to happen on Friday nights and Saturdays. 

[agesilaus]

6 minutes ago, Dutch_12078 said:

The forums are not monitored 24/7, and how soon spam gets hidden away depends on when one of the volunteer "weekend moderators" checks in. The weekend moderators do not have the ability to ban or block anyone, just the ability to remove posts from public view until an administrator can review them.

This spammer has been operating for more than a week now so that is not the problem. They don't need a spam blocker they need to ban the IP addresses of whoever is doing it.

[Dutch_12078]

Just now, Kirk W said:

We do flag the person posting the spam to prevent their posting more. Also the forums are not on the Escapee owned server but are hosted by server company that provides service to public forums. Since Escapees have only a very small IT department they are not open 24/7 but keep typical working hours so admin isn't there to address the problems with the host site until Monday. SPAM generators know that many forums are less protected on weekends and that is why it tends to happen on Friday nights and Saturdays. 

Oh yeah, I forgot you could flag accounts. That's good...

[Dutch_12078]

1 minute ago, agesilaus said:

This spammer has been operating for more than a week now so that is not the problem. They don't need a spam blocker they need to ban the IP addresses of whoever is doing it.

You do know it's quite easy to change IP addresses, don't you?

[Kirk W]

5 minutes ago, agesilaus said:

They don't need a spam blocker they need to ban the IP addresses of whoever is doing it.

Have you not heard of cloned or spoofed phone numbers on your spam phone calls? They do that same thing with IP.  

Edited March 5, 2022 by Kirk W

[Dutch_12078]

6 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

Have you not heard of cloned or spoofed phone numbers on your spam phone calls? They do that same thing with IP.  

Even easier, the VPN I use for security when needed has servers in many cities in many countries. Each one of them uses a different IP address, and I can change servers with a couple of clicks.

[agesilaus]

If it keeps up you may have to require registration to post on the list then

[Kirk W]

1 minute ago, agesilaus said:

If it keeps up you may have to require registration to post on the list then

That has been the case for about 15 years. It just isn't a simple problem. Have you blocked all of the spam from your cell phone? Since it is so easy to do, why not?

Edited March 5, 2022 by Kirk W

[agesilaus]

I am using a spam blocker. To be effective registration has to be paired with approval by a human, usually with a short message from the person asking for access and showing that they are human. I was a moderator on several photography lists and ran a major Windows forum on Compuserve (remember that?).

This requires appointing a few volunteer mods to do the user approval.

[LindaH]

Anytime we find spam, we flag the author as a spammer so s/he can no longer post.  That doesn't stop them from signing up under a new name and posting spam again.

We're in discussions now about various ways we can stop the proliferation of spam.  However,  as Kirk said, these forums are hosted by a 3rd party company, not by the Escapees, so our options may be limited, but we're working on it.

[2gypsies]

3 hours ago, agesilaus said:

Can't the SKP tech people ban/block that person who is spamming the lists? I didn't count them, if I can count that high, but there must have been over fifty spam msgs this morning. The number seems to be increasing every day. Soon it will be impossible to read the list anymore.

If the in house tech people don't know how to stop it then it's time to bring in outside help.

I didn't get a one spam msgs.  ????

[Kirk W]

6 minutes ago, 2gypsies said:

I didn't get a one spam msgs.  ????

Do you feel cheated?  😉    I guess we could leave them up longer so that you can help agesilaus?

Edited March 5, 2022 by Kirk W

[sandsys]

I didn't get any this time, either. Because I don't usually sign on before noon so they are gone by then. But I did get a bunch the other day when I was signed on at 1 am. So, to miss them you just have to give the mods time to catch them.

Linda

[Pappy Yokum]

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

Do you feel cheated?  😉    I guess we could leave them up longer so that you can help agesilaus?

😄...😄...😁

.