Is this Spam?

Ok, so I get a new member about a month ago. The person in question has never replied once. His IP is over seas but is not listed in any of the stop spam bot sites. Anyhow, I decided today I would do some posting with some of my other accounts. That is when I noticed this person in question had sent the same PM do both of my other non Mod/Admin accounts.

This person also has a site link in his thread which seems to be his personal web site...his email addresses is link to the site and his user name is part of the web site name. This web site has nothing to do with my sites topic either.

James

I've sent a PM to my friends asking if they go the same email.

Anyhow, I'm thinking this is spam and I should ban this person...what do you guys think?

 

Yes, I would consider this spam. It's out of the ordinary = spam.

Moved to Member and Staff Management.

 

Well 50calray, this is certainly spam.

This seems to be the latest trend spam bots are following and I've noticed it happening more and more frequently across my network. These do not directly advertise their services in their thread/PM content, but instead pose as real users with links to various spam based sites in their signature.

Remove this user as quickly as possibly, they are bad news. I myself have deleted several posts today containing "Hi, I just signed up to this forum in the past few minutes and I'm already addicted" and all users committing said posts had links to irrelevant and often harmful sites.

I hope this helps you.

 

Sorry about placing this where I did Nick.

Anyhow, I didn't want to fly off the handle and be accused of being trigger happy if you'll pardon the pun

edited: I guess the next thing they will to create is a PM spammer list web site.

Anyhow, here is the info on the person

user name: James
Email: [email protected]
IP: 209.59.33.125

 

No problem at all, Ray! I often am not sure if something is spam or not, so I would just leave it there until I get complaints. I'd hate to delete and then ban a legitimate user by mistaking it for spam.

 

I have seen a handful of these other the past year or so. If they follow the Greeting, "quote," and obscure website order, they get banned. Especially if its only via PM and isn't being sent to staff accounts.

 

I guess it pays to have non Admin/Mod accounts.

Anyhow, I banned the person and posted a sticky up letting my members know about PM spammers.

 

Excellent, Ray - this was the best course of action to take and hopefully, it will prove to be effective. These spammers can be... relentless.

 

That guy must be getting around, I got one of those the other day. Previously I'd gotten similar spam advertising a site about Buddhism of all things. So much for rejecting the material world!

You might want to start limiting PMs to those who have made x number of posts.

 

That is a good idea...didn't know you could do it either :o

I figure setting it at a 1-3 post wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings and would hopefully detour PM Spammers.

 

The mod I use for this is: Can't Use Private Message Before X posts and Before X days - vBulletin.org Forum

Edit: eep, I just realized it's now in the modification graveyard. I still have a copy if you like.

 

I wouldn't mind a copy

 

I believe the stock vB promotions will allow all sorts of things that would take care of this
Registered users -> Full User Group

Edit promotions on join date, post count, and many other things.

 

PM me your email address and I'll dig it up later tonight, 50calray

(Liberals and conservatives helping each other... dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!)

 

Oh you should see me and my Liberal friends when we get together :lol:

 

Yeah, this works, too. It's my preferred method of doing things like this, because I can also implement several other restrictions as well, one being that the first post of new members must be approved by a moderator. Once approved, they are promoted to the Full Registered Users group where they can PM and post freely.

 

The exact same user is on my site as well.

Username: James
Email: [email protected]
IP: 128.241.106.216
Join Date: June 7, 2009

I wonder if they trolled here looking for sites.

 

Now that you post his information, I recognize that e-mail address. He must have found a lot of your sites from here (or found all of ours from somewhere else) because he registered here today:

I guess it's safe to go ban him.

 

Okay, yep - definite spammer: Stop Forum Spam - Search

 

Well I don't feel so bad about banning the dude now

Here is another one I banned today if it helps: 3716310558

That one showed up on both spam bot sites. So I just went a head and handed them the Axe.