Problems with spamming on the boards and in PMs

[Marshal Halloway]

Howdy members!

The last few weeks, moderators and myself have been working hard to get rid of and prevent spamming on our forum. It seems to me that the spammers have found a new way of getting the "word" out using open forums like ours.

The latest is members who sign in and start sending PMs with offensive content to forum members. We can delete messages on the boards, but we have no control over your PM inbox and cannot access it. As soon as the message comes into your inbox, it is too late for us to do anything.

I have received several complaints about the PMs and this is one of them:

From: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 7/15/2006 11:29:04 PM
I thought I would let you know why I want no part of this CAS website any longer. I thought it would be a safe place for my family and me to read about and share with others about CAS. Today when I opened my messages on your website I was shocked to see a pornographic picture of a naked man, and also recieved an email I have attached.I am thankfull my little girl wasn't sitting here with me as she often is.
I have done business with some of the vendors who advertise on your website, and I don't believe they would like hearing about what their customers are exposed to on the websites they advertise on. For the sake of furture people looking for a place to share thier CAS intrests you find a way to police this type of behavior in your forums. There is noplace in CAS for this stuff.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
xxxxxxx

I am truly sorry about all this, but believe me...

We do whatever we can to prevent this from happening. When the problems started, we changed the membership registration so every new member had to confirm their registration through email. This helped some, but did not solve the problem entirely. Tonight, we changed the rules again and this time, we will approve every new member.

We cannot make a 100% bullet proof forum when it comes to spamming, but we... together with all of you who does not want this to happen, will try to keep it outof CasCity.
We will  do our best to stop it.
Thanks for your support...

[Stoney Pete]

Thanks Marshal.  As always you have my utmost respect and support.

[w44wcf]

Marshal Halloway,

Thank you for the "heads up".   I recieved a message today that indicated that I was a _________(not quotable). At first I thought, hmmm..... someone had a problem with of my posts and has a short temper, but after reading your message, I now understand.

Thank you for all he great work that you do  for this great forum.

Sincerely,
w44wcf

[Big Hext]

That's pretty low..
Spammers are vermin.

[Boston John Doucette]

... probably explains why I've been getiing so many e-mails from "CAS" pards offering me all sorts of pharmacological solutions for every sexual malady known to the middle-aged man!

Hang in there, Marshal... it ain't your fault.
It's unfortunate,  it's going to happen, and some folks will take their blankets and leave. In the case of the e-mail above where young ones might have been involved, probably a good thing.

We know it isn't your fault or  intent-- we'd just like to catch and hang the basta*ds! 

BJD

[Henry Logan]

Thanks for all you do Marshal. I agree with BJD, lets hang 'em!!!!!






Henry

[NARVOUS]

 Marshel the Baldknobbers will help

[Lou Graham]

Is that where those "fun with farm animals" emails were coming from?  I never could figure out how those ended up in even my junk mail.  Went on several cookie-deleting cleanup terrors and it didn't help.

[Col. Riddles]

I've never recived a PM of that sort, thank the Lord. As far as email goes if someone isn't in my address book their mail goes directly into my spam box where itn gets eliminated if I don't know them.

[Fly Cop Fry]

Thanks Marshall!

I'm not getting any spam through the site PM and IF any is coming to my e-mail account it is mixed with all the other junk. IF it has increased recently I was giving credit to the VA for losing all my records.