Reporting Spam

[Mike Roque]

Even better, click the report post icon ()to report it to the moderator.

[Mike Roque]

We've been experiencing an elevated amount of automated account registrations that, in addition to posting to SPAM to topics, have also been sending SPAM via private messages, so you may have received a notification that you've received a new PM only to find no new message in your inbox. This occurs because the bad accounts are often deleted before you visit the site to read your new PM, so you can simply ignore it when it occurs.

Although it is not possible to completely stop them, we have taken additional steps to minimize these automated registrations.

[JimBoylan]

There is a way by clicking on a picture of an exclamation mark to flag a message as "Inappropriate". Another topic says that is also how to notify the administrators about possible Spam messages. Is there a way to do the same for the actual poster, instead of opening every one of the suspect messages? Some members have warned about even viewing the Spam, suspecting that just looking at a message can spread computer viruses.
Why would I accuse someone of being a possible spammer without reading all of his messages? I would cite accounts that post a lot of messages in a short time with the same or similar titles that seem like ads or gibberish. For instance, someone who posts a lot of messages with the words "Cheap Insurance" or "Brand Name Medicine" in the title, but a different state name or percentage in each title.

[JimBoylan]

I looked at the profiles of a few recent Spammers. They may be evolving.
Near the end of April, they waited about 5 days before making the 1st post. The names looked like alpha-numeric passwords.
On May 9, I noticed that some of the names seemed like imitations of Chinese words, pronounceable but meaningless in English, with "Oriental" sounds like xou in them. The 1st posts (still after a 4 or 5 day wait) were innocent, but not about railroads.
I hope this is helpful to the administrators.

[Otto Vondrak]

Hi Jim!

Right on our home page, thre's a link to... http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=67117&f=117

It only looks like a "spam attack" because both Mike and I were away this weekend. We're constantly removing spam and suspicious accounts so that most RAILROAD.NET users barely notice anything at all. It's when we're not around that the posts pile up and people start to notice! Thanks in advance for your help in ridding the site of spam posts.

-otto-

[RussNelson]

Can the round posting status icon on the left be changed so that it reports whether a posting has already been reported as spam? I don't know how many changes you've made to phpBB, if any, but that would be a really handy tool when we're under a spam attack.

[Otto Vondrak]

Can the round posting status icon on the left be changed so that it reports whether a posting has already been reported as spam? I don't know how many changes you've made to phpBB, if any, but that would be a really handy tool when we're under a spam attack.

Threads and posts that have been flagged show up with a red "!" icon next to it.

-otto-

[Ken V]

Threads and posts that have been flagged show up with a red "!" icon next to it.

-otto-

That's only true for the moderator(s) of the forum in question (or for administrators). Most members see nothing different.

[Otto Vondrak]

Threads and posts that have been flagged show up with a red "!" icon next to it.

-otto-

That's only true for the moderator(s) of the forum in question (or for administrators). Most members see nothing different.

Oh.

Then, no.

-otto-

[GOLDEN-ARM]

well, the spammers are back. i dont understand, i see a supposed post in the emd section, by the latest spammer, but there's no post, in the emd forum. i have refreshed several times, and the main page shows a post by him, as the last post in the topic, and it shows as unread, by me. it's not there, however. once again, we need to be able to flag spammers, as such, thus invising all of their posts. we also need a way to flag a profile, as a spammer, or for whatever reason (a report button) so by reporting it, the only person on the forum, thats handling these problems, can see the problem member.

[Otto Vondrak]

well, the spammers are back.

They never left.

i dont understand, i see a supposed post in the emd section, by the latest spammer, but there's no post, in the emd forum. i have refreshed several times, and the main page shows a post by him, as the last post in the topic, and it shows as unread, by me. it's not there, however.

Sometimes it takes a day or two for the database to catch up to our activity.

once again, we need to be able to flag spammers, as such, thus invising all of their posts. we also need a way to flag a profile, as a spammer, or for whatever reason (a report button) so by reporting it, the only person on the forum, thats handling these problems, can see the problem member.

All you can do is flag a post, and then Mike or I are able to delete all of that account's posts in one fell swoop. I check the reports in the morning and evening, and sometimes during the day. I don't know any other way at this time, maybe Mike Roque can shed some light on it.

Thanks for your assistance.

-otto-

[Jeff Smith]

Most spam is now gone before you even see it. Mike and Otto have changed the site so that posts by new registrants must first be approved.

However, in the case that you do see "spam" from someone who has somehow evaded this safeguard, please use the reporting feature as noted above.

Jeff Smith
Site Admin