12-12-2009, 11:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-12-2009, 11:29 AM by Questioner.)
Not only that, Ayadew, a bought from a spammer who's about to lose their web hosting if we follow up right.
Since the original poster brought up spam in its boating store link, I'll discuss spam a bit. (I will not it buy spam on a boat, Sam I Am!)
whois (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp) shows the target of the spammed link is registered with bluehost.com, a legitimate hosting company in Utah with terms of service that clearly disallow spamming. (http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/k...cle/000491: "We do not allow you to send unsolicited mass emails via email, newsgroup, etc. to others using our servers. People do not welcome unwanted advertisements for products or services being sent to them. It is usually illegal and almost always a breech of our Terms of Service (see Sec. 9, Paragraph 2). If we receive complaints of spamming and bulk email, we will remove you from our network.")
I know that because I use them to host a couple of sites (that don't spam, thank you very much!). I just used the chat feature at bluehost.com to ask where to make a report:
RyanC [7:46:16 AM]: Welcome to our real-time support chat. I do answer multiple chats at a time and will get to you asap. Thank you for your patience!
FIRST TIME SALES QUESTION [7:46:16 AM]: Good morning, how do I report a spam-sending domain registered through Bluehost? I suspect it's violating your terms of service.
RyanC [7:47:00 AM]: we have a zero-tolerance policy towards abuse. Please submit details of any offenders to abuse@bluehost.com
FIRST TIME SALES QUESTION [7:48:14 AM]: Thanks, I'll use that email address. I'm already a Bluehost customer myself (and not a spammer myself) so I'm glad to know where to make the report. that's all I need today!
RyanC [7:51:38 AM]: you're welcome. Have a nice day and please contact us if you have any additional questions
I recommend moderators have a form letter ready to cut and paste to hosting providers. Here's an example:
I participate in a discussion forum about particular books that discuss an unusual perspective on spirituality. The forum has few members and a low discussion volume compared to the typical web forum. New members almost always start with lengthy and well-reasoned discussions of their spiritual journey and what the teachings mean to them.
Recently we have had apparent new members who post a series of totally inane and generic one-line posts, that say things like: Hi, nice forum. I love sports and TV, just like everyone. Why does it say my inbox full? Everyone loves scary stories, don't we? I stopped smoking but I cough up green goo, should I see a doctor?
There is never a response to other people's replies to these new topics, only more and more of these threads until the account is banned, locked and disabled. This is obviously a hassle nobody needs.
Apparently the only purpose of these threads is to promote a web site linked in the signature line, no matter whether it has any relevance to the forum.
[next paragraph changed for the occasion]
For the new spam account that showed up last night, we saw that the target link is registered with bluehost and is a seller of boat acccessories with a contact page listing Jersey, Channel Islands as the address. Here are the links showing the spam activity:
... [links go here]...
This activity almost certainly violates any non-spam clause you might have in your hosting terms of service. Please block any further activity from this host, or any other host registered by the same people, from access to our domain, and do whatever else you do to investigate abusive misuse of your resources.
If you happen to know how to contact anti-spam, fraud investigation, or consumer protection type of services in the Channel Islands, we'd appreciate any help you could provide getting in touch with them too, so that the vendor can't get away with jumping from your service to other hosting providers it can abuse.
We'd also welcome any advice you might have about how to improve our forum software to reduce susceptibility to this kind of abuse, while still offering an easy to use service for people who want to join our conversation.
Thank you for your help.
---
I don't remember if the signup here has an anti-spam provision. Might be worthwhile discussing it. My suggestion is to have the signup form include the title of any of Carla's books, chosen at random from a list that doesn't include the Ra books. The challenge is to match the title's first and last words out of a random selection of other titles' first words. "One of Carla's books is titled Secrets of the UFO. To confirm that you're a person, not a spambot, please click below on the first word of this book's title: []Light []Secrets []A []The []What []All []Living, and please click here on the last word of this book's title: []sweetwater []mosaics []years []choice []handbook []UFO []love"
I prefer this to a generic captcha because it can all be done onsite, and is an easy puzzle for any real person to solve while almost impossible to guess by chance. It's also unique to this forum which I like.
Since the original poster brought up spam in its boating store link, I'll discuss spam a bit. (I will not it buy spam on a boat, Sam I Am!)
whois (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp) shows the target of the spammed link is registered with bluehost.com, a legitimate hosting company in Utah with terms of service that clearly disallow spamming. (http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/k...cle/000491: "We do not allow you to send unsolicited mass emails via email, newsgroup, etc. to others using our servers. People do not welcome unwanted advertisements for products or services being sent to them. It is usually illegal and almost always a breech of our Terms of Service (see Sec. 9, Paragraph 2). If we receive complaints of spamming and bulk email, we will remove you from our network.")
I know that because I use them to host a couple of sites (that don't spam, thank you very much!). I just used the chat feature at bluehost.com to ask where to make a report:
RyanC [7:46:16 AM]: Welcome to our real-time support chat. I do answer multiple chats at a time and will get to you asap. Thank you for your patience!
FIRST TIME SALES QUESTION [7:46:16 AM]: Good morning, how do I report a spam-sending domain registered through Bluehost? I suspect it's violating your terms of service.
RyanC [7:47:00 AM]: we have a zero-tolerance policy towards abuse. Please submit details of any offenders to abuse@bluehost.com
FIRST TIME SALES QUESTION [7:48:14 AM]: Thanks, I'll use that email address. I'm already a Bluehost customer myself (and not a spammer myself) so I'm glad to know where to make the report. that's all I need today!
RyanC [7:51:38 AM]: you're welcome. Have a nice day and please contact us if you have any additional questions
I recommend moderators have a form letter ready to cut and paste to hosting providers. Here's an example:
I participate in a discussion forum about particular books that discuss an unusual perspective on spirituality. The forum has few members and a low discussion volume compared to the typical web forum. New members almost always start with lengthy and well-reasoned discussions of their spiritual journey and what the teachings mean to them.
Recently we have had apparent new members who post a series of totally inane and generic one-line posts, that say things like: Hi, nice forum. I love sports and TV, just like everyone. Why does it say my inbox full? Everyone loves scary stories, don't we? I stopped smoking but I cough up green goo, should I see a doctor?
There is never a response to other people's replies to these new topics, only more and more of these threads until the account is banned, locked and disabled. This is obviously a hassle nobody needs.
Apparently the only purpose of these threads is to promote a web site linked in the signature line, no matter whether it has any relevance to the forum.
[next paragraph changed for the occasion]
For the new spam account that showed up last night, we saw that the target link is registered with bluehost and is a seller of boat acccessories with a contact page listing Jersey, Channel Islands as the address. Here are the links showing the spam activity:
... [links go here]...
This activity almost certainly violates any non-spam clause you might have in your hosting terms of service. Please block any further activity from this host, or any other host registered by the same people, from access to our domain, and do whatever else you do to investigate abusive misuse of your resources.
If you happen to know how to contact anti-spam, fraud investigation, or consumer protection type of services in the Channel Islands, we'd appreciate any help you could provide getting in touch with them too, so that the vendor can't get away with jumping from your service to other hosting providers it can abuse.
We'd also welcome any advice you might have about how to improve our forum software to reduce susceptibility to this kind of abuse, while still offering an easy to use service for people who want to join our conversation.
Thank you for your help.
---
I don't remember if the signup here has an anti-spam provision. Might be worthwhile discussing it. My suggestion is to have the signup form include the title of any of Carla's books, chosen at random from a list that doesn't include the Ra books. The challenge is to match the title's first and last words out of a random selection of other titles' first words. "One of Carla's books is titled Secrets of the UFO. To confirm that you're a person, not a spambot, please click below on the first word of this book's title: []Light []Secrets []A []The []What []All []Living, and please click here on the last word of this book's title: []sweetwater []mosaics []years []choice []handbook []UFO []love"
I prefer this to a generic captcha because it can all be done onsite, and is an easy puzzle for any real person to solve while almost impossible to guess by chance. It's also unique to this forum which I like.