andreas
Joined: May 02
Points: 8309
Posts: 808
|
Posted: 2007-06-12 13:29:00
Hello senior members,
in the last weeks we have found an increased amount of people signing up who do only try to spam members with messages where they try to get them to reply via e-mail or visit a certain site as a promotion or similar.
Those messages are completely useless and the people behind it seem to have enough time to get one ore two messages to the top members through. That seams to be their goal. They do not send those messages to other than top members. Such Spam they send is called "nigeria spam", where they try to trick you into some money thing, the other one is just plain promotion. On the first look it seams to be obvious what they want. But wait a minute? Why only the top members at GLOBO? Why do they invest so much time to get a few e-mails through the already strong Spam filter at GLOBO? Typically response rates for such Spam are below the 0.0x percent rate. So they would need to get tens of thousands of e-mails off, to get a "pay off". But they do only manage to send a few. Hmmm? That is a tricky one, isn't it? If they do not get a "pay off" through the original "intention", what or who pays their bills? So who could have an interest to "annoy" top members on GLOBOsapiens? I leave the thinking up to you, just wanted to let you know that sometimes it might not be the first thought that leads to a reason.
Anyway, I have improved the spam filter to protect you guys from such anoying messages. It is still not impossible to send such messages, but it is really really hard. So everybody who gets such a message through must have a serious reason for it.
Best regards,
Andy
[ This Message was edited by: andreas on 2007-06-12 14:45 ]
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact andreas
|
|
|
|
davidx
Premium account
Joined: Dec 04
Points: 34719
Posts: 440
|
Posted: 2007-06-12 14:56:00
Thanks very much for this, Andy, and for your prompt atention each time I have reportrd dodgy e-mails. It's bad enough getting the masses of spam on my e-mail every day without it filtering through onto Globo. Don't worry too much about it though - surely they'll get fed up. I can't believe they are getting the response they want from any of our senior members.
I would strongly advise no response at all if they still get through and for it to be referred to you as fast as possible. Yes, it's very annoying but in the end it does us no real harm and does them no good at all.
David ---
Grieve not for that which you cannot do but rejoice in that which you can.
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact davidx
|
|
|
|
horourke
Premium account
Joined: Sep 04
Points: 11274
Posts: 142
|
Posted: 2007-06-12 20:59:00
Thought:
If the message is capable of leaving some trace on the member site,(perhaaps by the action of opening the message) it may create a link that will act as a path to every subsequent visitor.
Since the top members are much visited, such a linking device would have value for the spammer.
I wonder if some hidden code remains after the message has been deleted.
I presume such messages come from sites having a text name ending in 4u as two messages were advised to my email but had been removed by very prompt action before i checked my site, ---
Hugh
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact horourke
|
|
|
|
rangutan
Premium account
Joined: Aug 04
Points: 34752
Posts: 1044
|
Posted: 2007-06-13 17:02:00
... I only got spamed once at GLOBOmailbox in all the years but also often get a chat request from very new members from that region which I ignore but will also report in future. Important for members is not to take up direct contact with such spammers, rather note details then delete the spam, reporting the case to staff. Be specially cautious of members that joined the same day without proper profiles or no travel pictures or no suitable travel remarks.
RR ---
Rudolf "Rangutan" Graspointner
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact rangutan
|
|
|
|
akhila
Premium account
Joined: Jun 05
Points: 4113
Posts: 33
|
Posted: 2007-06-14 06:57:00
"Why only top members" - could the fact that the members are listed in a rank order in the page "http://www.globosapiens.net/community"; be a reason why only top members are targets?
While I thank Andy for everything he does to make this such a wonderful community, I also agree that not replying to such spam would definitely discourage them from posting more.
My 2 rupees.
regards, ---
Back with a blast... been such a long time since I was here.. so much to upload ..
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact akhila
|
|
|
|
andreas
Joined: May 02
Points: 8309
Posts: 808
|
Posted: 2007-06-14 13:25:00
Hi,
akhila has a point. This might also be a reason. But, somebody who is searching for such an audience would rather look for somebody who is not so "intelligent", or more naive. If I would be such a spamer I would hand pick the members who I write to, especially as I know that I might only get some messages through and it is a lot of work going through the registration process, bypassing all the filters and everything.
Here is my thought. Did you realize that in the last year or so, the Buzz word "Web 2.0" has made it into the mainstream media. There are so many new sites that try to get their foot on the ground. There is a general formula, that only about 1% of the members actively participate inside such a community. By targeting those members who can easily be identified on GLOBO, due to rankings, they do for one thing discredit the community in question to become known as a community for Spam attacks and secondly annoy the top members. I know this is a dirty thought, but the more I look into the detail data the more suspicious it becomes.
Anyway, I believe the new anti Spam rules have helped to solve the situation for now. Let's see if those people will invest the extra time to overcome the Spam filters. If so, than I do see now doubt in my theory. I have analyzed the pattern for such Spam and there is no correlation in between those two groups from a certain point that has now been set.
Best regards,
Andy
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact andreas
|
|
|
|
