Spam messages

[sensei]

We have had a series of spambot registrations of late, which result in threads appearing that give links to sites that allege to sell you Cialis without a prescription. Obviously you should not click on these links as they are likely unsafe sites that will try to load malware onto your computer. More to the point, please report these messages: in the toolbar of icons to the right of the subject header you'll see one with an exclamation point [!].

Click that, and the admin. team will get right onto it. We will eliminate these messages and the accounts that post these, and check to see that registration procedures are tightened up to keep out these nuisances.

[sensei]

Bumping topic, as we had another spambot incident earlier today. Let the team know immediately if you see a suspicious topic, and do not click on any urls unless you are certain that the message is legitimate.

[sensei]

Bumping topic yet again, as I see there have been more of these with some "whatever shall we do about this problem?" chatter.

Just report the post as spam (look for the icon with the ) and The Team will deal with this matter.

[sensei]

Thanks to the users who reported the Russian porn spammer. While there is much that I don't know about the Administrative Control Panel, there is a red button that handles such events quickly and (despite the number of spam messages scattered through the forums) completely. Please let me know quickly if any were missed or if the incident is repeated. I also have options to ban access by the user in a variety of ways before nuking his/her posts.

[sensei]

Just a note (as another nuisance has appeared and been nuked): if a spammer appears, it is only necessary to report one post by that person, and action will be taken to delete ALL the posts left by that pest. I appreciate the diligence of some regular members in looking for and reporting multiple spam messages in several forums. But such is the power of the Admin. menu that one can delete posts and threads one at a time or, in the case of multi-posting spammers, simply ban the source with one click (I also ban by IP address too to make sure) and nuke all the posts with one more click.

[Jadeduo]

LOL Thanks Sensei! Good to know we only need to report one!

[sensei]

A reminder that if a post appears that consists entirely of a url with no other content, the site which you're being invited to visit is likely to be (at best) spam in content and (at worst) a source of unwanted spyware and malware. Do not click on such links and report the post immediately to The Team, using the exclam [!] icon (to the right of the Subject header and to the left of the avatar space), or to me via PM.

Action will be taken quickly.

[sensei]

Due to an increase in spam registrations, new members now need to be manually approved by one of the Team with admin. privileges. Before approval, the member's email and/or IP is checked against a database of known spammers. This may not catch them all, but it should slow down the process. However, genuine members should keep in mind that there will now be a lag time between registering and being able to post their first messages.

Please continue to report posts that are unwanted. I will be offline for a week, but the rest of the Team has been notified of this and can step in to nuke spammers and approve new members.

[JWR]

So far we have been able to catch a lot of spammers before they can post thru the new approval process.

What I worry about is deleting an actual potential new member by mistake cause their IP or email group show up in spammer databases.

If you are in contact with a potential new member you wish to recommend please do contact myself or Sensei and give us a heads up with what member name they wish to use so we can approve them without delays.

Thanks in advance- JWR

[sensei]

We had a spammer get through the revised registration process today. Our apology. The pest has now been banished, and we are doing the necessary to stiffen up our procedure. Meantime, please do not get into conversations with spammers, and certainly do not click on any links they provide as they are likely to expose your computer to malware. Do report the post at once and, if action does not take place within the next hour or so, please PM me or any of the Team, alerting us to an issue that needs to be handled ASAP.

As the mod/admin job is a volunteer one (though one that brings us pride in doing) we are not on the board 24/7 and so at times a little holler is needed to get us on the job.

[sensei]

Calling attention once more to this thread, which members should read through, as we have had a few spammers slip through our security measures. Briefly:

• Do not click on any links in a message that does not deal with collecting animation art, no matter how bodacious you've heard that Ukrainian babes can be or how much they may know about Hunter Biden. Doing so may expose your computer, and others linked to it, to serious malware, e.g., ransomware.
• Do not respond to such messages on the board. Look for the icon at the top right of the message with an exclamation point and click it. That will send a complaint to The Team and one of us will swat and clean up the pest in short order.
• If this doesn't happen in a timely way, send one of us a PM to bug us, and we will take action as soon as we can. Keep in mind that being an admin. for this forum is a volunteer task, and all of us have the usual unpredictable lives, so forgive us if we seem slow to respond.

[sensei]

A reminder to beware of clicking on external links embedded in new messages, even if the message itself initially appears to be on topic. In at least two cases these links have been to pornography sites that are, in addition, likely to expose your computers to malware, e.g., ransomware.

In general, do not click on any external link unless you know the poster to be a long-time and reputable member of this forum. And examine the link cautiously if it does not appear to link to an anime gallery or to a known auction/dealer site.