Stop the spam

[annielinz]

Boy, what can we do to alleviate the spammers on this site. They've been busy this weekend.Go away we don't want you here.:mad:

[RoseMary]

There do seem to be a lot of them lately:mad:. I've seen so many forums that are practically taken over by them. Isn't there a way to keep them out:confused:?

[ChapterTwo]

I wrote to Hillary and to Clev about it yesterday.

When I looked in the FAQ section, it said:

What if I see something offensive?
You will find 'Report' links in many places throughout the board. These links allow you to alert the board staff to anything which you find to be offensive, objectionable or illegal.

...but I don't see any "Report" links, do you ladies? :(

[rubyslippers]

I broke down and wrote No Trespassing on one of them because those signs go against most of what we believe around here ... I figure someone at C & B is working on it and as annoyed as we are ... I say we just keep the conversation going and TRY to ignore as best as possible. It is sort of like someone cranked up the music to loud isn't it?

[Zuzu's Garden]

No, I don't see any 'Report' links anywhere - they must be disabled. I just clicked on 'View Forum Leaders', chose 'cbforumadmin', and sent him/her a PM.

This is the reason I did not join the Romantic Homes forum. Too much unwanted spam!

Zuzu

[ChapterTwo]

Yes, that's what I was trying to do too...ignore it while alerting "the authorities"! :o

[chyna]

The button for spammers here is the same as the button at CL but instead of top of the post is on the lower left hand side. I've used it quite a few times since we started in here. :rolleyes: I used to enjoy reporting bad people to Rex because he'd respond sometimes and we were just bad kiddies about the spammers.

Remember the sex spam a few years ago. That at least was good for a laugh.:p

[ChapterTwo]

Well, I see we have a batch of new spam. :mad: What worries me a bit is that ominous green arrow next to one of them. Does anyone know what that means?

[RoseMary]

I wondered that, too. I see we're all being cautious and not opening it:D. I'm still trying to figure out what sort of 'thrill' these people get out of this activity:confused:.

[Clev]

Well, I see we have a batch of new spam. :mad: What worries me a bit is that ominous green arrow next to one of them. Does anyone know what that means?

You'll notice when you reply that one of the icon options is the green arrow. Those same icons can be used on a thread.

Are you guys still seeing the gross spam, or has that abated in the past couple of weeks?

[ChapterTwo]

Honestly, I haven't opened any of the spam lately...I saw enough that other time! :eek:

Oh, yes, I did see that green arrow when I replied.

[RoseMary]

I don't open them anymore either. Which means I can't report them. But like CT, I've seen enough of it. Hopefully, they'll get tired of us soon and GO AWAY.

[Gigi]

Spam spam go away---- it was hard to visit here for a while :mad: because of this....

[Clev]

Spam spam go away---- it was hard to visit here for a while :mad: because of this....

I understand. I'm working on getting a software update that will further address the issue--and I added a "Recent Posts" link to my bookmarks bar, and will click it a few times a day to make sure these things get caught quickly.

[mac78]

Just wondering,,,,,is this guy the "real" administrator, or just an imposter? Never saw him before.

[ChapterTwo]

Yup, Marie...we haven't seen Clev around here that much, but he's the real deal! :)

Thanks for your attention to this Clev. We don't like to have avoid any part of the
C & B Forums.

[mac78]

Oops!;) Sorry Clev!

[Clev]

Oops!;) Sorry Clev!

No worries. I brought this on myself by being away too long. :-)

[ChapterTwo]

Has anyone recently received a "friend" request through PM? I did, today, but the odd thing was that the person's name is not on the Members List. I denied the request, of course. I just wonder how she could access the PM if she was not a member. :(

[Gigi]

Hi Chaptertwo- No I haven't received the message (yet)--- I'll do the same thing...DELETE!

[Clev]

Has anyone recently received a "friend" request through PM? I did, today, but the odd thing was that the person's name is not on the Members List. I denied the request, of course. I just wonder how she could access the PM if she was not a member. :(

What day was the PM actually sent? Do you have the username? I preemptively killed off a bunch of spammers a couple of days ago, but maybe it was sent before then?

[Heather]

I had the friend request emailed to me on the email account I use for here and then the same person sent me an email regarding advertising on C&B to my blog email address. This all happened yesterday between 1:13 and 1:35 my time.

[ChapterTwo]

I'm glad you didn't get it, Gigi!

Interesting, Heather. Gee, aren't we lucky? :rolleyes:

[yarborough house]

Yeah I got an email from someone from Cottages and Bungalows presumably saying they looked at my blog and thought it was the exact type site that would benefit from advertising in their magazine. I replied (because it was the second time) that had she really seen my blog she'd realize a stay at home mom who crafts and decorates does not need to advertise in a magazine..haha

here is her email address:

Aubrey Tan" <atan@beckett.com

[Heather]

Yes, that is what I got. I didn't reply though.

[RoseMary]

I got the same email and I also refused the friend request. Sorry if it was really an administrator. They hadn't made any posts and I wasn't sure.

[ChapterTwo]

Oh, RoseMary - You did the right thing! It wasn't an administrator. The only people from C & B who might contact us directly would be Hillary or Clev.

I guess maybe this person was trying to sneak his/her way in, through PM, cuz we're savvy to the spam forum posts. I can't figure out how they could send a PM without being a member. :confused:

I didn't get an email, just the PM...I guess it's because I don't have a blog.

[Clev]

Interesting. There actually is an Aubrey Tan at Beckett, and I think she's not in the members list because she was wiped out in the last sweep (six months old and no posts.) Either way, I'll send an email into the void and suggest that there are better ways to get advertising dollars than shaking down readers. :)

[ChapterTwo]

I'll send an email into the void and suggest that there are better ways to get advertising dollars than shaking down readers. :)

Ha! We're so paranoid now, after the things we've seen...:eek:

Thanks, Clev!

[ChapterTwo]

We've got another advertising spamster under "Small Bedrooms" and "Painting Furniture"...ERNIE MILES. You can always tell when they're wackos by their names! :rolleyes:

[Clev]

Banned him. Thanks.

[ChapterTwo]

I'm sure you've seen that spam is back. Apparently one of our members viewed it and hopefully, reported it (tnx!) Let's not even "go there". Maybe if they see that few people look, they will GO AWAY. :mad:

I have also been seeing more devious ones where the person jabbers on about something for a sentence or two, and then lists an advertising link at the bottom of the post. :(

[RoseMary]

They really are getting more clever~I can't believe they actually get much business from a place like this. Looks like we have several on here:mad:.

[ChapterTwo]

Ya know, RoseMary, I always wonder about that too. Who, in their right mind, would order from somebody who's spamming? I think the same thing in the comments section after articles...people suddenly start talking about face creams or dating sites or shoes. I can't imagine they get enough "takers" to make it worthwhile...but maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong before! :o

[vintage girl]

They are not trying to actually get sales from their advertising. That is a fake ploy to have you go to their link and than they put spyware on your computer or even worse. I deal with this all the time at work. Rule of thumb, never ever click on a link or open an email from someone you do not know. I am very frustrated that Hilary or Clev does not check out this forum on a regular basis to police this. It is more than obvious who is a spammer and who is not. It only takes 5 minutes out of the day to check the forum for this type of junk. At one time they talked about appointing some members to help them with this, but it never went anywhere:confused:

[ChapterTwo]

They are not trying to actually get sales from their advertising. That is a fake ploy to have you go to their link and than they put spyware on your computer or even worse.

Sometimes I get pfishing emails, pretending to write to me about something I'm selling on eBay.

It feels like we're kinda "on our own" here now. :rolleyes: I agree that would have been a good idea to give someone here "the power" too. It's just annoying to see all that gobbledygook on our forums.

[chyna]

My computer is out of service at home so I'm checking in at work and already got to report three different spams. My sneaking in here is wrecked by these spams not being taken care of. :(

Has anybody else gotten calls from Beckett about renewing their subscription? they are quite persistent if you don't answer the phone and don't call at the best time of the day either. :mad: I'm not impressed with that in the least! Told her that I'm not interested and no I have no answer about Romantic (Living???) either.

[ChapterTwo]

This morning I had sent a private message to Clev but as I said before to VG, it seems like we're on our own here now.

There was talk of giving some members the authority to get rid of the spam, but we've heard no more about that. It's just annoying to come on here and see that garbage in our forums.

I don't subscribe to C and B, so I've had no annoying calls. That's very wrong - it's like they're badgering you into subscribing.

[vintage girl]

Actually I have not purchased the last two C&B mags. I looked through them at the store and was not that impressed. I do like Romantic Homes and buy that a lot. More my style. I really really miss Cottage Living Mag. It was the best.

[Hillary Black]

Happy day before Thanksgiving!

Thanks so much for the heads up. We appreciate getting the spam alerts and we try to respond as quickly as possible. But we will check in more often. Thanks for your understanding.

This forum is relatively clean compared to others I've seen. But I know it is annoying. I think it gets worse from time to time as so many are struggling to make a buck these days. :-(
We just need to keep it clean and we appreciate your help so much.

I thought you might enjoy knowing that we launched two food magazines--YUM Food & Fun and YUM Food & Fun for Kids to go with our other titles (Romantic Homes, Victorian Homes and of course, Cottages & Bungalows).

This recipe is for you, from our November issue.
It's a delish twist on mashed potatoes you will love!

BAKED MASHED POTATOES WITH ROASTED GARLIC
By Marie Olsen
From YUM FOOD & FUN, NOVEMBER 2010 issue

1. Place a bulb of garlic on a piece of foil, cover with about 1 Tablespoon oil and wrap foil to make a closed pouch.

2. Wash about a dozen russet potatoes and prick each a few times with a fork.

3. Bake along with the garlic at 350°F for 1 hour or until done.

4. Remove from oven and, using a clean dishcloth or paper towel to hold the potatoes, scoop out the potato from the skins and place into a large bowl.

5. In a saucepan on low heat, warm 1 cup milk or half and half with butter--you decide how much butter ;-)

6. Add roasted garlic cloves, to taste (squeeze them out of the skins).

7. Mix about half of the milk mixture into the potatoes, then add more of the milk mixture until it reaches desired texture.

9. Add salt and white pepper to taste and enjoy!

Here are YUM magazine covers now on newsstands, FYI.

[RoseMary]

I see we have MORE spam:mad:. They seem to be taking over this last week.

Thanks for reporting the ones you saw, Tanya~I don't even bother to click on them anymore.

[ChapterTwo]

Spam is getting to be a daily occurrence, it seems. :(:eek::mad:

[RoseMary]

It is very annoying to click on here every morning and see all of it:(. It's so common that we sometimes mistake actual new members for spammers:o.

We need a spam zapper:D.

[ChapterTwo]

It is very annoying to click on here every morning and see all of it:(. It's so common that we sometimes mistake actual new members for spammers.

We need a spam zapper:D.

LOL Very true! Shabbychick thought one of our newbies was a spammer at first, and so had I! :o We've now got our guard up, unfortunately.

Maybe Santa will bring us a spam zapper if we all leave him milk and cookies? :rolleyes:

[RoseMary]

I see they have dropped back in to wish us a late Merry Christmas! I wish they couldn't register so easily:(.

[shabbychick]

I've reported the spammers from today and yesterday, so they should be gone soon.

[ChapterTwo]

Sooooooooo annoying, isn't it? :(:eek::mad:

[shabbychick]

Annoying, yes, but just a fact of life. Every account I have gets spammed. I report the spam here when I see it, and they've been pretty good about deleting it. I see the stuff I reporting this morning is gone now. The sooner it gets reported, the sooner it's gone.

Sadly, something, somewhere launched a trojan horse on my computer system, and I'm not sure if it was from a message here or on one of the online shopping sites I went to around xmas. I tend to think it was the latter. That's where I hope we will eventually perfect our technology. It sucks having to worry about all your technology being attacked by some stupid bit of code. My Norton found it, but it took a lot longer than it ought to have...several days.

[RoseMary]

I can't believe we have so much of this! I think we've managed to get on some sort of spam list:eek:.

[RoseMary]

I don't think I have time to click on and report all of these:eek:. What a mess:mad:

[mac78]

I am a little confused why they won't allow a couple members to have access to delete it. I have volunteered before to help delete it out. I was on here earlier this morning, and it wasn't here....came back at lunch time and WOW, terrible.

[koolmimi]

I agree. These spammers have really been busy today. GRRRRRRRR

[jabbrley]

HOW ANNOYING is this! :mad:

~Kathleen

[jabbrley]

Is there a way to contact the spammers? If we ALL wrote to them and told them we'll boycott their products because of their Spam, I wonder if it would make any difference?

~Kathleen:p

[RoseMary]

I don't think we ought to click on anything they put on here, jabbrley (if you do, please be careful!). I think they want us to click on them so they can start to 'track' us. They are soooooo annoying, though. They took a lot of time to do this today:mad:.

[vintage girl]

They are not on here to sell their products. They spam to get you to click on the link so they can track you and get your IP addresses.. Has anyone send Hilary an email to let her know what is going on? I will send her one.

[Hillary Black]

What makes a company think spam is a good marketing idea?!

They've been deleted.

Thanks for your help!

Hillary

[RoseMary]

Wow~guess we are getting more popular with the spammers! I'll send a PM to Hillary.

I tried to PM Hillary, but she has too much in her box right now. Maybe the rest of you beat me to it:).

[Hillary Black]

Thanks for your help everyone!
Hillary