Spams

[jamesray50]

Do you consider all these posts we have been getting lately about the for sale stuff spam?

[Steve B]

Yes, they are Spam. As soon ad Van Gogh gets up they will be deleted.

[phanio]

Strange to see that kind of stuff on this forum.

[Harold Mansfield]

I got 'em. They usually don't stay long. One of us will get them.

It's just part of forums. Everyone gets it. There's bootleg software out there that attempts to create accounts and auto post on forums under the guise of creating backlinks.
Forums, blog comment sections, Pligg and Social Bookmarking sites, and Multi Site Wordpress installations are the big targets for spammers.

Many times it's unscrupulous SEO "companies". How do you think some of these guys promise stuff like 1000 backlinks to your site? They are spamming somebody.

[vangogh]

Yeah it's pretty standard to see those posts on forums. We're usually good at getting them, but naturally some sneak in while everyone is asleep. When you notice one you can report it, which will bring it to our attention quicker. If you look below anyone's avatar in a post you'll see some icons. The triangle with the exclamation point inside will report spam. That creates a new thread for moderators and you can fill in a quick comment about why you're reporting the post.

[mattbeck]

The main problem with these is it really screws with the usability of the rss feed.

[cbscreative]

I'll second that they don't stay on here long, especially with our robotic vangogh who is usually quicker than the rest of us combined. That's a good point about RSS feeds, and it's an unfortunate side effect that usually can't be avoided. I say usually, because vangogh's instincts are so good he is able to stop many spammers before they post. The rest of us get a few points once in a while, but no one here compares to the spam slapping power of vangogh. I think the rumors that he's actually a robot are true.

[vangogh]

Yeah, I'm not sure what we could do about the rss feed. Off the top of my head all I can think is not to have the feed send anything out right away, but only after a few hours. I'm not sure if that's possible though.

However on the positive side you'll be happy to know that the overwhelming majority of spam accounts we get aren't here long enough to post anything. I usually don't wait for them to post to ban them when I can make the determination based on information in their profile. Doing that I can stop most spam before it even happens.

[KristineS]

Compared to most forums, we have very little spam that hangs around unnoticed. Vangogh does get most of it, and, as he said in his post, stops a lot of it before the spammer even gets to the point where he or she can post.

[jamesray50]

A while back I registered for a virtual assistant forum and before being accepted they had to approve me. Well, they didn't approve me because my website domain and email domain were different. I hadn't set up an email yet for my website. After I did that and registered again I was then approved. But approval was not automatic just because I registered for the forum.

[vangogh]

That sounds like a spam prevention thing. I can understand why the VA forum did that since very often with spammers there's 0 connection between domain and email address. It's one of the things I would consider when deciding if I think a new member is a spammer. However I think the non-matching domain and email would lead to too many false positives like yourself. Many people still use free email like gmail or hotmail for business and people own different sites. Some people also like using a generic email for everything they do online to make sure one of the addresses they use doesn't get flooded with unwanted email.

[jamesray50]

I was kind of offended. I wondered if they had even looked at my website. I know it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either and it did give a lot of information about me and my services. But the email was the reason they gave for not approving me the first time.

[vangogh]

I would hope they weren't judging you based on your site. That would be stupid. The email thing I do get. A lot of spammers use free email address like gmail and yahoo since they're so easy to get. Some forums won't let you register using one. I think that goes a little too far. I want to keep spam out, but I don't want to do it at the expense of losing real members.

[Harold Mansfield]

I was kind of offended. I wondered if they had even looked at my website. I know it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either and it did give a lot of information about me and my services. But the email was the reason they gave for not approving me the first time.

You may want to keep this thread in mind. Many people are prejudiced against businesses that use free email addresses, instead of emails on private domains. Especially when you have a domain.
Free email addresses are a spammer and scammer's best friend.

[jamesray50]

My regular/personal email is not through a free email service though. It is through my internet provider. I do have a couple of free email accounts that I use online when I register for stuff that I think I may get a bunch of spam from.

[Spider]

I have never used a free e-mail account. I say that to show that one does not need a free e-mail account to avoid spam. You can easily de-activate an e-mail address when it is from your own domain. I used frederick@frederickpearce.com for a long time until I started getting too much spam on it. I de-activated it and now use something else at frederickpearce.com (The replacement is on my website, if you need it.)

And, Yes - many people (me included) hold free e-mail accounts as being unprofessional and un-businesslike, and will avoid doing business with people who use yahoo.com, gmail and the likes, for business.

[Harold Mansfield]

My regular/personal email is not through a free email service though. It is through my internet provider. I do have a couple of free email accounts that I use online when I register for stuff that I think I may get a bunch of spam from.

My point is that it looks a lot more credible and professional if your email matches your company's domain. You have already paid for it and it's free to set up.

Whenever I see a contact who uses a different email other than the domain that they supposedly own or work for, my first reaction is "Why aren't they using their own company email?" and, "Are they really a representative of that company?". It raises a red flag that something may be wrong because this is how fraudulent emails and phishing scams work. It's also just unprofessional and confusing.

But the even bigger picture is the branding. Why ignore the opportunity for branding? If you send business emails with some other domain on them, you are missing a prime opportunity to tell people exactly where to find you and your website that they will always be able to refer to. For people who use Outlook or other email management, by using your company email, they now have 4 pieces of information to add you to their contacts...your name, email, company name and website address....all from a simple email address.

Sure Yahoo ( for instance) is a reputable company but you don't work for them. You have your own company. Promote it. Why tell people that you consider another company's email more reliable and credible than your own?

Of course you should have more than one email for personal use, sign ups and all the other stuff that you have to submit one for online...I probably have over 20, but 5 that I use regularly, and respond using which ever one represents the website it's supposed to.

Some people say it's a pain to have more than one email address, but we do more than one thing online. It's almost a necessity.

This is just my opinion and I'm not saying that you are doing anything wrong or detrimental. But you have to be aware of perception. It's not something a customer would ever tell you, but it's the little things like that that turn people off , even if they don't consciously know it.

Just something to think about

[nealrm]

I'll second that Vangogh does a great job of deleting the spam. A suggestion on the RSS feed. How about not sending any thread started by a user with under 10 posts to the feed. With your track record, few of the spammer get to 10 posts and most of the legit user get there within a day or 2.

[vangogh]

Neal I'll have to look into what addons are available in regards to rss. There are limited options in the default vBulletin install, though I would imagine someone has written something to give more control. Maybe I should subscribe to the feed myself to see what actually comes through. That might give me some ideas. I have a hunch holding back the feed for a time is going to be the solution. That will gives one of us time to clean out spam posts before they get pushed to the feed. Even then some may make it through.

The only think with basing it on the post count of the thread starter is no welcome thread would be published to the feed and we really do get a lot of useful threads started by someone new asking a question.