The spambot invasion has begun

[electra225]

Today our little forum has been invaded by female spambots. Real Karens, witnessed by their usernames. They use fictitious email addresses that come back "undeliverable" if you send them an email. So far today I have gotten rid of 32 of them. The record was set last January 23rd with 1253 spambots in one day. Surely these folks can find something more productive to do with their time....

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Thank you Greg for the work that goes into
keeping the forum clean !

[electra225]

I just deleted one whose "email address" was a porn site. I reckon I'm going to quit trying to send replies via the system to these people. They might attach a bug to their email address that could harm the forum. Jeez. I'm not good at this, trying to figure out who's who.

It is important to Bill and me that we keep the nonsense off the forum so you guys can enjoy it. This is just part of it. I wanted to share this with you guys so if you saw something untoward, you'd be more aware of what we are dealing with. Thank you all for your patience with this stuff.....

[electra225]

"Bill the Spambot Slayer" has been working overtime. I think we have deleted exactly 163 active and inactive spambot "members" in the last three days. One spambot username was on its third go-round until I banned him by username. My typical procedure is to merely delete them. Some don't take the hint. I really don't like to ban, but enough is enough.......

[walyfd]

Since new years, I've been personally bombarded with spam emails and phone calls. It's maddening. The one phone number i did a reverse lookup on belons to a 106 year old woman in Wilkes-Barre, Pa... while I'm in the market for a rich widow, this is a bit much...

[electra225]

I believe I deleted a legitimate member a bit ago. Legitimate in that their email address and IP address were in this country. The spambots this year have been 100% from the satellite countries of the old Soviet Union. However this seeming legitimate member did not post and identify themselves and post their location as they have been asked to do. This failure to comply with the rules got them zapped, and, if they try again using the same procedure, they will get zapped again. The bad actions of a few cause real hardship to many. During this difficult time, we need to tighten up on procedures. We have to know who is on our forum.

[TC Chris]

Since the first of the year I have been flooded with spam for services (insurance, warranties), gadget products (flashlights, elec. heaters, miracles (end back pain, knee pain, sciatica), and various mystery promises to make life better. There were at least 35 of them on 1/9 and we are headed to that number again today. Tonight I Googled how to better control them on Thunderbird, which I use for email. We will se how the controls work. I think I inadvertently opened an email from a spammer.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I just zapped 50 inactive spambots, 7 active spambots.

[electra225]

I thought I'd share this as an update......

We have been deleting and "disapproving" the posts by "members" who are spambots. Several have come back more than once, one is currently on his fifth appearance. I don't like banning IP addresses. We have been deleting and moving on. Nothing really works for long. They figure out what we are doing, then they change and we have to adapt to that. Our rule that new members have to have their first three posts moderator approved has been at least keeping their porn and nonsense off the forum. Bill has been "disapproving" their posts, then I delete them. These individuals are pests....

Adding the "Inactive" spambots as well as those who have tried to post, I come up with 753 as of this very moment. Less than last year at this time.....