NEW MEMBERS...

[ezdays]

Just had another spam attack, I think we need to make the registration question harder.

The registration question and the CAPTCHA is designed to keep bots from registering. Regardless of the question, when a human comes knocking, we usually open the door. Some of these humans are paid for registering. We can tell these types because they register one day, and it's a day or so later before they come back and post. Other spammers do their own dirty work and seem to post within minutes of registering. In any case, it's difficult to keep spammers from registering once a human is in the equation.

I'll grant you one thing, we need to change our question more often then we do. I think a lot of non-English speaking "human-bots" learn the answer and can continue to register blindly. I will make a change this morning and will do so more often.

Some other things we do that you don't even see is use a filter of known spammers by name and IP address. We also are made aware every time someone registers here and if their username or email address looks fishy, we do a bit of research and frequently can ban them before they have a chance to post. For example, if "johnboy123" registers, but his email address is, "buymeds@yahoo.com", you can be assured he'll be spamming us so we get him before he gets us.

The higher up we get on search engines, the more we will see spammers lining up at our doorstep. Because of people like yourself and others that report spam quickly, and a very vigilant staff, spammers don't stand a chance here. Sometimes it's a game to see how fast we can remove spam from the time it's posted. I know of some forums where spam can sit around for days or weeks without anyone doing anything. :o On the other hand, not too many people visit those sites either and you don't have to wonder why.

[Charlie B]

What I find to be hilarious is some of the spam I receive is worded so as to not identify the spammer so well you don't even know what they are trying to sell.
Not exactly rocket scientist in the spammer business.
It is sad that these guys are not nailed. You have a list of spammer IP's so you know the authorities do too. No one goes after them. Hefty fines should close them down.
Charlie

[Steamtrains]

Charlie....As far as I know, there are no "authorities" that oversee/regulate the Internet. It's up to the users to "police" themselves.

Even if there were...the offenders would hide behind their rights to "free speech" and you would have interminable litigation going on....

[Charlie B]

Actually the FCC and FTC regulate spam, and it is illegal. It isn't like freedom of speech because they are using your bandwidth to send you an unsolicted message. A few have been tried and convicted, but not nearly enough.
When we were running the railroad we were informed of new laws enacted in 1998 or 99, and even though we had a list of subscribers to our news letter we discontinued sending it because it might have accidentially gone to the wrong person and we could have been in hot water. It seems though that no one is really enforcing the rules.
Here is the information
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/spam/">http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/spam/</a><!-- m -->

You can forward spam (as an attachment) to <!-- e --><a href="mailtopam@uce.gov">spam@uce.gov</a><!-- e -->

Charlie

[ezdays]

Yup, there are laws against spamming, just like there are laws against contacting people that are on the "do not call list". I'm on that list, but I still get calls for people wanting to work on my air conditioner, or help me with my credit card interest. Neither of which I want. I've even pushed, "1" to talk to a human, and all I get is rude responses or hang-ups. These people are like roaches, they're creepy and dirty, scumbags at best, they can hid in plain sight, can waste your time dealing with them, and can only cost you money in the long run.

[steinjr]

Because of people like yourself and others that report spam quickly, and a very vigilant staff, spammers don't stand a chance here.

Btw - what is the procedure for reporting spam? A message to one of the admins, or is there some other procedure?

Smile,
Stein

[Sumpter250]

A PM to the moderator, or the admins works. We do try to catch the spam before that becomes necessary, but sometimes it helps.

With phone spam, my current tactic is:

Hey! you made an unsolicited call to me!
Then, I practice my " shipboard vernacular ". ............until they hang up.

[ezdays]

Because of people like yourself and others that report spam quickly, and a very vigilant staff, spammers don't stand a chance here.

Btw - what is the procedure for reporting spam? A message to one of the admins, or is there some other procedure?

Smile,
Stein

You can also report a post, be it spam or something else by clicking on the triangle with the "!" in it that's in the upper right corner of a post. If you mouse over it, "report this post" will appear. Just click on it.

[ezdays]

A PM to the moderator, or the admins works. We do try to catch the spam before that becomes necessary, but sometimes it helps.

With phone spam, my current tactic is:

Hey! you made an unsolicited call to me!
Then, I practice my " shipboard vernacular ". ............until they hang up.

A few weeks ago I got one of those, "this is in regards to your credit card..." calls. I waited, then pushed "1" like I was instructed to do. When a guy came on, I asked him politely "how if the heck can I get you to take me off your freaking phone list". :evil: (Feel free to substitute the words I learned in the barracks where they fit. :o ) His answer was that since I swore at him, I'd be plagued forever with this phone calls. Nothings changed, I still get two or three of them a week, just like before. :cry:

[Sumpter250]

The worst ever, was just the other day when the phone rang, I answered it, and got the following: " Please hold while we connect you to our next available agent."
I called my congressman, and asked him to get a law passed banning the use of frogs in biology classes ----- and replace them with "spammers"!!!, a truly useless form of life.

One of the true beauties of dial-up internet: Disable call waiting, and go online ---- I can't be spammed by phone while I'm on the internet.

Then there is the response:
" I have some really good Chianti, and some Fava beans, and some of my politician friends are in town --- why don't you come over for dinner..."

[Justinmiller171]

A few weeks ago I got one of those, "this is in regards to your credit card..." calls. I waited, then pushed "1" like I was instructed to do. When a guy came on, I asked him politely "how if the heck can I get you to take me off your freaking phone list". :evil: (Feel free to substitute the words I learned in the barracks where they fit. :o ) His answer was that since I swore at him, I'd be plagued forever with this phone calls. Nothings changed, I still get two or three of them a week, just like before. :cry:

I'm pretty sure there is a law where if you ask to get taken off of their call list and they still call, then you can sue them.
You might wanna try mentioning that to them the next time they call

[ezdays]

A few weeks ago I got one of those, "this is in regards to your credit card..." calls. I waited, then pushed "1" like I was instructed to do. When a guy came on, I asked him politely "how if the heck can I get you to take me off your freaking phone list". :evil: (Feel free to substitute the words I learned in the barracks where they fit. :o ) His answer was that since I swore at him, I'd be plagued forever with this phone calls. Nothings changed, I still get two or three of them a week, just like before. :cry:

I'm pretty sure there is a law where if you ask to get taken off of their call list and they still call, then you can sue them.
You might wanna try mentioning that to them the next time they call

There is and I often do, but they don't leave a phone number or even tell you who they are. Most will just hang up when you ask or plea innocent. You get, " I got this list from _________ (insert whatever you want as an excuse), I'll take your name off the list immediately", then hang up....

[BR60103]

Have I mentioned that we now have call display? It costs a little, but we can now see who's calling (and who won't tell us they're calling). Any unknown names go to the recorder and anyone who doesn't leave a message gets ignored. The only hitch so far is that the dentist doesn't have a name on her second phone line.
The recorder also doesn't make a message when they hang up during my spiel/

I used to confuse people by answering "Perth and Exeter Railway Company".

[faraway]

I like to drive those callers nuts with useless talks if I have some spare time. Ask them for their health, their shoe size etc. If you want to make it short refuse to talk to a men because you are straight and it would lead to nowhere or if a lady calls that you are already married and do not search for a second wife. You might add here a longer description about the additional financial burden of a second wife. If I have some more time I do sometimes try to sell them pizza. The special bonus is to fold the pizza for free. But we need to talk how the pizza should be folded. There are 11 possibilities I would like to discuss...
Those people are paid by revenue and call. They hate useless calls as we do. So make sure the call is useless.

[ezdays]

Remember, to a phone spammer, time is money. The longer you keep them on the line, the more of their time is wasted and the less time they have to go to the next call. Although the call is probably dialed by a robot, a human can only take over, one call at a time. I'm sure they'd be happy with a 1-5% return. It's different with spammers, they can send out a million email spam messages a day, looking perhaps for a .0001% return. Spammers that use forums like ours are somewhere in between. They need humans to register and they have to post in those forums one post at a time. One thing we could do here to cut down on spam is to "moderate" new members. By that I mean, all new member posts go into a queue where our staff would have to approve the post before anyone else can see it. Many forums do things that way, but we don't like that kind of delay. We think that's not fair to those that really are interested in what we do here.

So if you do see spam, report it either by PM to a moderator here, or by clicking on the "report this post" triangle in the upper right corner of the post. I guarantee you that it won't stay there very long.