"Dearest one in Christ..." Spam already?

C

Cruxshadow

New Member
I have just signed on to CGA in the last week, and I have already a criminal fraud solicitation by private message promising me cash for exposing my financial information (user mau123 "maureenxxy002@yahoo.fr:eek:"). What's that all about?
 
It happens but it is by no means common. A con artist signs up, sends out some spam and quickly gets banned. I think it has happened 2-3 times since I joined.

...Wait you mean I am not rich?!?!? :p She forgot to mention in that PM she is routinely abused by evil non-Christians and a meteorite impacted her house and she wears hand me down's from a leper colony and her dog died after converting to Islam and she can never find her favorite snack food in the store and... :D
 
Its always a good read. The forums weak point is, you can not post on the forums until you are approved to do so, but you can spam PMs. Its happened less then a handful of times, its rare. I've been on these forums forever, and you are likely to get more spam from me then some stranger :)
 
No, we don't allow spam on the private messaging system.

User mau123 has been banned from the forums. I'll try to do some research soon and see if there's a way to report the person to federal authorities.

This is the reason why I am no longer manually registering users without direct interaction by the user. If you find that your posts are appearing in the moderation queue, send me a PM or, failing that, post a new thread in the CGA Forums requesting manual registration.

DON'T PANIC! The vast majority of users do not need to be manually registered as they can click the registration link in the e-mail they receive from forums AT cgalliance DOT org after creating a new account.

Please be patient as I'm juggling about ten different responsibilities within the CGA and Tribe of Judah right now, on top of getting ready to move this week, trying to finish a job application for a position with BioWare (that requires me to write 3,000 and build a module using the Neverwinter Nights toolkit), and working 8-hour days until Feb. 21.

/me breathes into a brown paper bag

I hope to appoint a new Forums Admin soon; hopefully things will settle down after that.
 
Yeah - this is pretty uncommon on this forum but common in the "world" of forums. I run my own forum and every once in a while some shmuck makes it through the system and spams like this. It's been a quite a while since I've had one from CGA though.

Tek - are you able to ban by IP as well?
 
MadTurki said:
Tek - are you able to ban by IP as well?
Click to expand...
If I can't ban users by IP at the forum level, I can do it at the server level (since we rent and have root access to the entire physical machine used to run the CGA forums, web site, and TeamSpeak Server).

To be honest, though, I don't know how to do that right now.
 
Tek7 said:
If I can't ban users by IP at the forum level, I can do it at the server level (since we rent and have root access to the entire physical machine used to run the CGA forums, web site, and TeamSpeak Server).

To be honest, though, I don't know how to do that right now.
Click to expand...

edit /etc/hosts.deny

add this line:
ALL: ipaddresshere

I believe that takes care of it. I can't remember if apache uses hosts.deny but you can edit iptables to block an ip address, that is a bit more complex though.
 
I have been on the forums for a long time and have only received a PM like that one once before... However, I did not get this one...
 
When i was forums admin we had to fight this all of the time. Sir thom took it over after that. Tek has always been there as the head of state so to speak. I can guarantee you that spam is not sanctioned by CGA, any affiliate, or any legitimate poster on these forums. When something like that pops up..report it and it will be dealt with ..we can't stop it all..but the record of these forums against spammers i would dare to hold against just about any other forum on the entire net. Make sure you read the CGA terms of service. Once you read that you will the staff's dedication to stopping this garbage. Ask any long term member about how much spam gets through..not much. The admins are dedicated to a safe, spam and illegal post free experience..while they aren't perfect..they get 99% at least of all the spammers..can't ask for more than that.
 
vibrokatana said:
edit /etc/hosts.deny

add this line:
ALL: ipaddresshere

I believe that takes care of it. I can't remember if apache uses hosts.deny but you can edit iptables to block an ip address, that is a bit more complex though.
Click to expand...

banning by ip address e-mail, and FQDN is built into the forums..don't have to mess with apache at all..:)
 
Tek7 said:
If I can't ban users by IP at the forum level, I can do it at the server level (since we rent and have root access to the entire physical machine used to run the CGA forums, web site, and TeamSpeak Server).

To be honest, though, I don't know how to do that right now.
Click to expand...

actually tek the ban list in the admin control panel accepts ip's, e-mails, and domains. It's spread across a few sections but the capabilities are in the forums themselves. if you want to ban at he server level that's done via the firewall software built into the control panel..if you want details call or pm me..<G>
 
mau123 strikes again

Tek7 said:
mau123 has been banned from the forums.
Click to expand...
Reference post #8 here. It is dated 19FEB2008, or three days ago.

Today's date is 22FEB2008, and I just received the same PM/spam from Maureen myself.
(user mau123 "maureenxxy002@yahoo.fr")
Apparently your BAN controls are faulty? I do not mean that beligerently, but only that an Admin can recheck the BAN controls?

Before I found this Thread, I did respond via my yahoo email address, with the following...
Dear "mau123",

I'm unsure what you want here. If you wish to bless me financially from your inheritance, then answer this email to make that perfectly clear, and I shall surely respond with my attorney's mailing address. He will verify your intent and provide you a name to make out my Certified Check to.

Otherwise, I pray you shall have peace as you spend your last six months on crummy old Earth. I am almost jealous that you will be with Jesus soon, and I must remain.

I hope this response doesn't seem to harsh, but unfortunately my wife receives emails to this same tune and they always turned out to be a scam of some kind, so please forgive my suspicion.

~JimL2112
www.cgalliance.org
Click to expand...
 
I checked the "Banned" usergroup; PMs are disabled for all users in that group, according to the Control Panel.

I don't know how PMs are getting through.

JimL2112: Would you mind forwarding the PM you received from mau123? I'd like to take a look at it if I might.

EDIT: I've also given mau123 a level 6 Infraction (which effectively bans him/her all over again). Maybe that will be sufficient to block future PMs.
 
JimL2112 said:
Reference post #8 here. It is dated 19FEB2008, or three days ago.

Today's date is 22FEB2008, and I just received the same PM/spam from Maureen myself.
(user mau123 "maureenxxy002@yahoo.fr")
Apparently your BAN controls are faulty? I do not mean that beligerently, but only that an Admin can recheck the BAN controls?

Before I found this Thread, I did respond via my yahoo email address, with the following...
Click to expand...

ehh, I hope you don't get a virus or something mailed back.
 
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