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Posted by: D@V£ Aug 8 2010, 16:03

Good Evening all.

As you've probably noticed, most of our users have received PMs from a spambot. For your own security, please do not open links included in these PMs, as they are usually "phishing" scams. Unfortunately, at the moment we have no way to remove these PMs from your inbox, though you may delete them yourselves.

Though this is the first time such a method has been attempted, it will undoubtedly not the last. The administration team have already been alerted to this issue, methods of preventing it are already being discussed.

Posted by: JdB Aug 8 2010, 16:46

I am not too sure. It's automated, so the bot would have to be programmed for that to work. Most bots aren't that sophisticated right now, as the vast majority of forums is administered very poorly, if at all, so there is no reason for them to go to any great effort to achieve what they want. I know of ways to get rid of most other automated spambots as well, but you will find them too radical

(No, tracking spammers down, flying to [insert country] and shooting people is not included in the options, however much I'd like to opt for this strategy)

Also, IIRC, there is an option that limits the amount of PMs you can send in a certain amount of time ...

As the alternative is that the membername would have to be entered for this to work X 6,396 (normal members cannot PM groups), there would have to be an exploit in the board software that allows for group-PMing to work without access to the Admin CP directly.

Posted by: D@V£ Aug 8 2010, 22:59

To be honest, the only way I can see to really curb these individuals (and we know it is individuals, not bots) is to force moderator approval of all new accounts on their first post/PM, and even that isn't entirely reliable (and even less fair to those who aren't spammers).

Right now we have a system that prevents almost all bots. This, along with the seeming relevance of spammer posts, tells me that we aren't dealing with simple machines here, but people who're either being paid to waste the time of our members, or bots who are getting account details through phishing schemes. There isn't a simple solution to this.

If you want to share your "radical" ideas, you know how to get in touch with us John. Maybe some of your ideas are more workable than you might think?