Spammers are getting creative! Be careful.

I am doing my best to keep up with the spammers. I try to log in most mornings and delete new users that are clearly NOT actual users but be cautious. If what you see is very clearly NOT a scrapbooking type post just do NOT click a link.

Use the report a post function as then I get an email to let me know and I can delete it as soon as I see that email, rather than say the next morning.

Luckily most of the crap is just people sending ME messages as unregistered users and not posting but a few sneak thru.

Thanks MaryAnne, I’d noticed a couple recently and just ignored them.
Where is the report a post function?

The thing I don’t like is they seem to use long term members names, are they hacking accounts?

I have no idea how they are doing it, and trying to stop it. I made c r y p t o and p u m p_upp a banned word, so maybe that will thwart them? But the plan is to check and delete the POSTS when I see them (aiming for every morning but things don't always go to plan :)

Oh, MaryAnne, what a blooming pain for you. But, for me at least, your efforts are much appreciated.

I’ve deleted about half a dozen threads In the last few days

Definitely a pain. They obviously haven’t researched the site or they would realise that scrappers spend their spare cash on supplies not that kind of thing.

As they are clearly somehow hacking the accounts of dormant users, what I am doing is moderating those users. I suppose they feel that using actual users to post their spam means we won't delete the users. It may come to that but I cannot see any way to effectively ban them - using an account that is not theirs means they don't trip any of the safeguards already in place, including the alter ego tool, an because they are using IP addresses of the member I also can't ban THAT. Every one of them has more than one user associated with that IP address. Most ISP roll the IP addresses and many people share them.

Also they bury the URL in many many fields in those user's accounts - that tells me they have hacked the user accounts rather than posting on the site.

SO, right now it is important that I capture every user they hack so I can make that user's post Moderated - which means I have to approve them before they appear.

Keep reporting them.

Mary Anne I deleted another yesterday … do you want me to stop deleting them and leave the deleting to you so you can check them out each time