Scam Posts

[SH20]

Question: why can't the Forum filter out scam e mails which quote a genuine thread title and are sent to members who either created the Post or contributed to the post thereby being included in the e mail going to members e mail addresses when  clearly the content  to the Post via the Lexus Forum is actually offering fake documents and fake currency for cash.    I accept the internet is the conduit for scammers to gain access to members but of late this seems to be more and more common even though deletion is the obvious fix.     Do Moderators and Forum Staff not see these scam e mails?   I deleted 6 today all with different thread titles that were all originally a legitimate post and ones I contributed to at some point.     Now I just delete all Forum e mails and sign in to read the latest posts.  

[Steve]

One of the mods did spot this first thing this morning. It's very difficult to identify these posts automatically. We do have other meaures in place such as members outside the UK registering but they are using fresh gmail accounts and VPN ip addresses that show them from the UK, but looking at their timezone they are from Lagos.

Trust me we do filter a lot of stuff and usually posts are filtered to new members, but the clever part is they post non scammy information to bypass the new post limits, so they get through. We don't want to try and inspect every post as many members are legit, it's just the new members we inspect the first few posts.

Last 7 days we have cleaned over 1000 attempted spammy sign-ups and 107 were allowed, you can see the level we have to deal with.
Colin is like lightning when it comes to banning them out. 

if the emails are too much you can reduce them to once every 24 hours and you can get a digest of the day.

[Steve]

Oh one more thing to mention, all these posts are created with software and posted as a bot. they posted 165 posts in a very short period, but we ban with one click, unfortunately, there was a lot of emails sent out.  😞

 

[LenT]

20 hours ago, Steve said:

Last 7 days we have cleaned over 1000 attempted spammy sign-ups and 107 were allowed, you can see the level we have to deal with.
Colin is like lightning when it comes to banning them out. 

What intrigues me, Steve, is that I suspect that the services these ‘posters’ are offering is….how can I put this?…illegal!

I appreciate that they are probably non-UK, but are they forwarded to some appropriate investigative agency so that they can be tracked down and a mild clubbing administered?

[SH20]

8 billion people on the planet,  I wonder just how many people there are, probably tens of millions who spend their entire lives trying to scam, steal, defraud, burglarise, kill, assault, traffic, attack, bully, discriminate and generally do not and never will contribute anything positive or good to this world. They will all answer for their actions and need some sun factor 10,000 where they are headed.  

 

[Boomer54]

Fortunately the groups mentioned above are easily identified and avoided. Invariably they have names that start with the letter A through Z.

[ALAW]

I regularly get txt or calls now some emails come through all scams. Like Steve says I've had unsolicited calls from other non uk destinations yes Lagos also Liberia. Len mentions reporting to authorities etc. For years I've reported to action fraud or the ICO but still they come. Got to be on your guard I'm afraid folks. I'm sure Steve & Colin will be doing there utmost.  

[dutchie01]

just did a quick google. 208 million scam emails were received by UK residents in 2023.  69000 cases of identity theft were reported.  46% of UK consumers have been victim of cybercrime.

I knew it was bad but this?

[GMB]

2 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

just did a quick google. 208 million scam emails were received by UK residents in 2023.  69000 cases of identity theft were reported.  46% of UK consumers have been victim of cybercrime.

I knew it was bad but this?

I got 207 million of those last week.  There is a way of stopping this but some people would see it as government snooping or censorship. I for one would be happy to use an alternative "safe" internet as, like many folk, I have nothing to hide and I don't even care if the chinese or our gov't thought police know that I am reading the guardian newspaper website or ordering stuff from amazon.

Just an example - Malwarebytes browser guard detected 53,000 ads and trackers blocked on my system in the last 30 days.

 

[LenT]

14 hours ago, GMB said:

I don't even care if the chinese or our gov't thought police know that I am reading the guardian newspaper website or ordering stuff from amazon.

Hmm…..veeeery interesting!!   🤔