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Author Topic:   Forum Spam and your email address
Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 02-27-2007 12:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Members

Spammers come in all shapes and sizes...

At the Silver Salon Forums we have had a enormous increase in SPAM registrations. The spammers are now using Internet robots to register. We have been pretty lucky so far as we have been able to block most of their posts.

The bulk of these SPAM robot registrations come from "free" email domains.

Also, some of these "free" email servers have been hacked. So users of these "free" email services privacy is not assured.

Additionally legitimate forum registrations by a true silverphile who is using a "free" account may find their Password/ID is stolen and used to post SPAM. If this happens with your SSF USER ID then your SSF USER ID will be blocked from ever being able to post again.

My advice is to change your "free" e-mail address to a more secure respected paid ISP email address. An ISP who will ferret out their SPAMMER customers and kill their accounts.

You may change your email address by editing/modifying your profile (click here).

quote:
Warning: Because we require email verification, if you change your email address, a new password will be created for you and emailed to the new email address you list. Thus, do not change your email address unless you can retrieve email from it to get your new password. Please also make sure you haven't made a typeo.

After you change your email address & receive your new password, I suggest you change the random password to something you will remember. You do this by updating your User Profile. Use the profile link.

The profile link is found on the SSF forum's index page, a forum's subject index page and the thread/post page:


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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-16-2007 10:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
If your registered SSF email is via gmail or yahoo Please be aware that the majority of SPAM robots which now register at the SSF are coming form those sites. We are seriously considering banding registrations from those sites entirely --


Please seriously consider the advice posted above in this thread on 02-27-2007 12:20 PM

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-16-2007 10:57 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
FYI

We have already blocked registrations from over 375 sites. Many of those sites are international free web mail sites like gmail & yahoo.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-19-2007 11:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In the next day or so we will block registrations using the "free" email addresses from @Yahoo.com & @gmail.com.

Weekly, more than 50% of the SPAM / robot registrations are from those domains.

We are not sure what (if any) affect this will have on SSF members who have already registered using the "Free" yahoo.com & Gmail.com email addresses.

Our advice is to change your "free" e-mail address to a more secure respected paid ISP email address. An ISP who will ferret out their SPAMing customers and kill the SPAMmer's accounts.

Please see the beginning of this thread for more info about changing your email address.

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FredZ

Posts: 1070
Registered: Jun 99

iconnumber posted 03-19-2007 03:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FredZ     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Scott, I understand fully and will have to wait until I create my email address using my current ISP.

Fred

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-19-2007 03:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Fred,

I haven't had the opportunity to check everything that this change might do to existing members. I don't think it will material until possibly when a gmail/yahoo member requests their password to be re-sent or when they try to change their email address.

Since I will recognize your e-mail address, you can let me know if you have problems

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-22-2007 10:25 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yahoo & Gmail were added to the new registration e-mails ban list.

The ban list is now 610 domains. frown

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FredZ

Posts: 1070
Registered: Jun 99

iconnumber posted 03-22-2007 01:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FredZ     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I guess I missunderstood. I thought that the change would not allow me to post.

Fred

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-22-2007 02:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was assuming existing SSF users should be able to post but I had not tested this. So the post you just did was the test.

What I was suggesting was that a SFF user with banned registration email domains may have problems getting the system to send password reminders and/or changing passwords. I haven't tested this either.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-25-2007 01:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Although the ban list has helped with the problem of SPAM Robots (SPAMbots).... the problem continues.

I am contemplating some changes in the programing we use to register users.... Some of the easier to implement changes are frowned upon by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) because it makes it difficult (not impossible) for a blind person to register.

I don't know if we have any visually impaired members? Silver being so wonderfully tactile, I would suspect we have visually impaired visitors to the Silver Salon Forums.

The contemplated changes will only affect the way people register and will not change a thing for visitors or existing registered users.

If there are visually impaired SSF members it would be helpful for us to know. Even more helpful would be for visually impaired SSF members to send me an e-mail about their SSF experiences. Please makes sure the email subject line starts with Silver or it may be lost to our SPAM filters. Info@SMPub.com

Thanks

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 01-28-2008 04:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The e-mail domains which are currently being blocked from registering now total 1060 domains eek .

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 03-05-2008 11:20 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
FYI


What most of members never see is the efforts of our moderators to keep the SSF SPAM free.

In addition to the email domains (where most spam originates), we have had to individually block the posts of 4890 registrations of SPAMers eek mad who have successfully used automated WEB Bots to register at the SSF.

Even though it a relatively small number of registrations the effort to keep the forum SPAM free is a manual process and has significantly grown.

I mention this because at times our moderators may not comment as they may be busy with behind the scenes work.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 08-29-2010 11:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The banned list now totals 1433 email domains (i.e., @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, Freemail.net, etc.) frown

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 11-27-2010 01:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The banned list now totals 1620 email domains (i.e., @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @Freemail.net, etc.)

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Polly

Posts: 1970
Registered: Nov 2004

iconnumber posted 11-27-2010 11:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Polly     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you again for your hard work, Scott.

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adelapt

Posts: 418
Registered: May 2003

iconnumber posted 12-02-2010 12:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for adelapt     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes indeed - thanks also from me.
What a lot of work just to combat a brainless and pointless activity.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 05-07-2011 06:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The banned list now totals 1819 email domains (i.e., @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @Freemail.net, etc.)

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 06-14-2011 09:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The banned list now totals 1949 email domains (i.e., @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @Freemail.net, etc.).

We just found a small bug in the ban list that prevented a very few legit email address from registering. We believe it has been fixed.

Also please know we can manually register any banned email address. To do that we need you to:


  1. Agree to be bound by the SSF Guidelines
  2. Agree to the Terms of Service, Rules, Policies, and Disclaimers.
  3. Provide us with your preferred forum name (aka Handle/ID).

Please respond via email with clear acknowledgment that you have read and agree to 1 & 2 above. And then provide us your preferred forum name (aka Handle/ID).

Send email to info@SMPub.com with a subject line "Please register me at the SSF" and with the above we will register you at your email address.

The system will then email you your password.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 06-22-2011 09:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
We don’t email the Silver Salon Forum Membership very often.

It has come to our attention that some of our members who have sent us email at info@SMPub.com are not getting our replies or even the occasional forum notice.

Sometimes, but rarely, it is just the Internet screwing things up. Most often it is your ISP/mail server treating mail from SMPub.com as SPAM.

If you want to get mail from SMPub.com please white list email from SMPub.com.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 01-29-2013 11:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
    If you want to get mail from SMPub.com please white list email from SMPub.com.
The above is very important. Every email service and ISP whitelists in different ways. Check your SPAM bucket if you are expecting email from us.

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Scott Martin
Forum Master

Posts: 11520
Registered: Apr 93

iconnumber posted 02-19-2013 10:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Scott Martin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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