Stop the spam

[111venom111]

Hi,

I'm really happy to have joined this forum, but since signing up my mailbox is being hammered with spam.

Can the administrators please do something to prevent this?

 

[dhn]

I don't know what you are referring to. What kind of spam are you receiving? Click on User CP at the top, then Edit Options. (on the left column) There are various selections to receive email or not. Just UNcheck them if they are checked.

 

[Andy_P]

Sounds totally unrelated to me....
I didn't get any more spam after signing up here.

 

[Ian]

What sort of spam is it you are getting - do you mean thread notification e-mails or the nasty marketing spam sort? We don't sell/give-out/spam user details and e-mail addresses aren't made public on the site for others to use - I'm vehemently against spamming!

 

[111venom111]

As soon as I signed up for this site, my email inbox was hit with lots of gambling and medication spam emails.

I used an address that isn't that well used, so as a result doesn't receive much mail.

The moment I registered on here the inbox was inundated with messages.

I thought I'd point it out, as you seem like a strong community and somewhere there must be a security hole that needs patching.

Thanks.

 

[dhn]

I'm sure the admin, Ian, will check it out. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[- et -]

As soon as I signed up for this site, my email inbox was hit with lots of gambling and medication spam emails.

I used an address that isn't that well used, so as a result doesn't receive much mail.

The moment I registered on here the inbox was inundated with messages.

I thought I'd point it out, as you seem like a strong community and somewhere there must be a security hole that needs patching.

Thanks.

FWIW, I have not seen any increase in spam since signing up here, and I definitely have seen essentially NO spam related to gambling or medication. Historically, I get very little of that type of spam, and I would notice any increase.

I have been active on the net for many years in several forums that require the use of e-mail, and I get a lot of spam as a result - which is why I have a very aggressive spam filter. It kicks all potential spam into a separate folder that I scan to make sure that there has not been a false positive. If I were to have started receiving spam as a result of signing up here, I would have noticed it.

One potential source of your problem is if your e-mail is in the address book of a friend whose computer has been compromised. I have seen that happen several times over the years.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[111venom111]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for looking into this, I value the time you've put in.

It may have just been a coincidence, but it happened soon enough after sign-up that I thought I'd bring it to your attention.

I have strengthened my spam filters

 

[Chris__M]

For what it is worth, I have been here since April 2012, and signed up with an almost unique email address for this forum - tomtom@<mydomain>. This email address has only been used here, and for product registration of my new GPS with TomTom themselves.

I have received zero unsolicited mail to the address.

So while anything is possible, I suspect that the source of you spam is somewhere else, and the timing with you joining here was coincidental.

 

[Ian]

It may have just been a coincidence, but it happened soon enough after sign-up that I thought I'd bring it to your attention.

I've had a good look around this site and can't see anywhere that your e-mail address could be accessed - I do think it's just an unfortunate co-incidence. I do appreciate you bringing it to my attention though, as it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to things like this.

edit: I did some more digging and I think I know where your e-mail address could have been picked up from. I typed it in to google and your site came up, with your e-mail visible on the terms of use page and couple of others. It may be better to change this to use a contact form, as having an e-mail address anywhere in plain text means that it's liable to be crawled by spambots.