Spammers using this site
 

Can something not be done by the administrators of this forum to stop spammers not only using it to post threads about viagra etc, but also posting our e'mail addresses on the web?
My Mcafee site advisor, states that people who sign up to this site have their addresses posted on the web, and I am sure 99% of my spam e'mails received is because I use this site.
This is the only forum I use that seems to have this problem!

Ice?? lol


10101010

I get a lot of spam sent to the e-mail address I use here too- a lot of "your cheque is waiting" nonsense.

Well according to Ice that's not possible, and he thinks he's the expert, so you both talking bullocks

And you only ever use that email address here? No chance it got signed up for spam anywhere else, at all?

Ice obviously knows what he is talking about, and you obviously don't, so your opinion on the subject means **** all.

Once again you're making a fool of yourself. Spam bots do not send emails, they post on messageboard. Moron.

The emails are collected by harvesters. And they do collect emails off messageboards, which is why you should never give out your email on a messageboard. Always use a Hotmail or similar when registering to a message board. If you don't, it's your fault, not the messageboard admins.

And most Hotmail, Yahoo etc. email addresses get a fair shair of random spam as well. The spammer programs that send spam just pick reciever emails from a list of words, or in some cases they just send emails to random addresses and hope that something gets through.

You should always have at least 2 emails, one for your personal use and one to use on messageboards and the like.

Ice

Funnily enough, I only use that address with a very small number of sites, out of which this has the weakest security. It may not be through this site that they got my address, but then again it may, and if I were to choose one site I'd say this is most likely where they got it. I don't give a **** how much spam I get, it all goes the same way - DELETE - but it would be pretty naive to think this site couldn't possibly be contributing, considering the volume of spammers and the time recently when the site was hacked.

Ok, you clearly don't know much about message boards or their security.

Your email address is not shown, so it can not be taken from this site. And the only way it could be taken from this site is if someone somehow were to crack the admin password or the database. And neither has happened as far as I know. So your email wasn't taken from this site, unless Peter sells emails to spammers and I don't hink he does.

More likely explanation is that you've used your email in plain text on some web page, where harvesters have picked it up. Or you've shared your email on some site to register on a mailing list, or you've participated in a contest or a survey using your email. Basically anything you've typed your email in is a possible spammer.

So, don't blame this site, it's very improbable that your emails taken from here. It's more likely that you've given it yourself somewhere. Which is why you should never use your own email unless you're certain the company you give it to is legit.

Ice

Are McAfee lying then?

About what? You're email being taken off this particular site? Probably yes. You can only harves e-mails if they are shown to people. If they're not, like on this site, it's very, very difficult to get them. That would require admin-rights and getting them is no easy task. No one is going to spend time hacking a site like this for emails when you can buy a list of millions of working email addresses for a few bucks.

Also, did it ever occur to you that the security companies will say anything to get you to buy their product? There have been instances where one anti-virus software has decided that the anti-virus software of another company is a virus and deleted it, resulting in a big mess.

Ice

So McAffee just randomly picks a site from your history, just randomly refers to that site as the orgin of the spam/virus etc, even though it isn't like that. McAffee also say I get spam from this site, especcialy when first going to main page.
I don't beleive McAffee are just lyring and just blaming a random site for it. If that was the case, several law-suites have would have been taken place in the last few years.

Suppose you have a site, with not spam coming from it. But McAffee is telling most of your users it is. What would you do as a owner of that site? Especcialy when its a commercial site?

And one competiter hassling the other one as you described is a lot different than accusing innocent sites. Wich I don't believe it's the case....

Also if Peter would have sold the addresses then there would be no reference at all to his webaddress.

You can write all, and it can sound very OK and plausible (esp when writing in mother-language on international board), but it just doesn't make sence and it's complete bullocks. It doesn't need a expert to figure that out, being a noob is enough

Well, once again you're wrong.

Read this:
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/the...locks-programs

then this:
http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20070818/4731/

then this:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/foru...hp/t64030.html

then this:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/ezone.com

Then you can use Google and try the keywords "mcafee siteadvisor problem" and get dozens of more cases. Don't believe everything you see, get informed.

I would let McAfee know they are wrong. And if they wouldn't do anything about it (like they don't, see the links) I wouldn't have much chance. It's not like I'd have the money to sue anyone.

Think what you want, but it is very different. Deleting someone elses program is a crime, telling you this site spams is just misinformation.

WTF? If Peter sold the emails to someone, you wouldn't know anything about it and neither would McAfee.

Moron. I'm not a native, my mother tongue is Finnish. I can just write a hell of a lot better than you can. And I'm usually understood. You, on the other hand, seem to have problems with both writing and understanding what you read.

And everything I've written so far about spam are facts. You can look them up, if you want to. The internet is full of information on the subject. Just don't believe one site. If you find the same thing on many sites, then you can start to believe.

Oh, and it also helps if you actually KNOW something about how computers, the internet and spammers work. I know, I've studied it for 5 years and worked as a web programmer and a project manager for web programmers for another 5. What about your professional knowledge?

Ice

So, you're 100% certain that I haven't received spam because of this site?

Unless you've shared your email here in text form, then yeah, I'm pretty much certain. It's a lot more probable that you've given the email to a contest or similar or you've posted in on a web page somewhere.

Ice