Update on the spam situation

Hello,

When we see a duplicate posts appear we do endeavour to delete them, but of course some do slip through. If you spot any that have been in place for a while just let us know.

Thanks,

Alexandra 

I know its not really spam, but can mods pls delete duplicate threats (caused by slow response to the "submit" button resulting in multiple presses) and integrate the threads whereas there is activity on more than one duplicate. This to increase efficiency of communication.

Thnx

Hi all,

Amy - if it works as advertised, you should very rarely see any sort of spam test. If we find it's a problem, we'll get rid of it. 

Longman/Paull - that's a good idea and I've passed it onto our developers to see if it's feasible. The cash payments one was removed by our volunteer mod. It was our hope with this module that it'd be seamless, but that may not be the case. 

The "feedback to NAS" button doesn't hide anything, just alerts us to a given post. Whilst we'll have a new mod in the new year, it may be some time at the moment until we see that alert. 

David - sorry to hear that. I'd make two suggestions here (but I'm not an expert by any means)

-Be sure to use a unique and difficult to guess password. Don't repeat it on other sites. 

-Both Outlook & Gmail support two factor authentication. This means you'll need your password and a code from a mobile app/text message to log into your account. It isn't foolproof, but it's about as good a security measure as needed for most people. 

Merry Christmas,

Anil

My Yahoo E Mail address was hacked.

Has anyone got ideas how to prevent hacking of an E Mail Addrss?

A Spam E Mail went round pretending that I was stranded in the Ukraine.

May be because I am on the World Autism Support Network they thought I was a soft touch.

David

Hi

I agree with some of the other people that the tests to prove you are not spam are generally annoying because they are so hard to read as someone else said they are not disability friendly and I although I know I am not here regually I would probaly never use the site if I had to prove I was human (well ASD human, many people consider that alien and spam softweare often does too) every time I wanted to post. 

I also therefore agree a report spam button would be a good idea and make it easier and still easier to use the site.  If it is know to work somewhere else then that's great! However I have just seen the 'feedback to the NAS' button? Does that not already include spam and or a way to report anything bad? 

Not really anything to add, just that I support ideas and maybe 2 people agreeing with something is better than 1. 

Agreed, Paull's idea may be the better solution - just give us a more effective way of flagging up spam.

Incidentally we had a weird one within the last twenty-four hours - apparently selling cash repayment loans, but written in goodness knows what translation - it has vanished so I guess it was spam.

One of the problems with the fake passports gang, and indeed most others, is they do it at weekends, particularly holiday weekends. It can be twenty-four hours or even the whole weekend before NAS moderators spot it, which is why several of us endeavour to dilute the effect by creating new threads.

If as Paull suggests, a certain quota of spam clicks suspended the offending item until the moderators could check, that might be very effective.

Also remember, with the fake passports lot, they do a number of sites every week, I think working through the alphabet. There's a lot of people out there fed up with them - not just us. Can't forums act collectively?

And then there's a government, that private club we pay all out taxes to - can't they take action against the host countries from which this rubbish comes - like ban them from access to the internet? It must be possible if there is an agreement amongst affected countries. But then same applies to those emails telling us we've been specially chosen to moneylaunder some cash, or that Royal Mail is holding a parcel back unless we send our bank account details (which is the latest one) - can't our government just close down relations with the banana republic in question, until they sort out their criminal activities.

I have worked on forums and I can tell you this kind of thing does not work and can be an annoyance to normal users. Besides, these spam bots are ultra sophisticated and bypassing capcha's is a doddle to them.

What does work is having a REPORT SPAM button next to every post and if several people click it them the post gets immediately removed until a moderator can check it also any first post by any new account should be checked before going live - this basically puts an end to all automated spam.

longman -

You say it as it is and there's nowt wrong with that, I find your posts refreshingly honest - please keep on "sounding off!" 

We've been testing it today (on our test site, not on here), and it does still need work. I'm not going to be happy with it until CAPTCHAs are at an absolute minimum, because of the issues you've mentioned. Interestingly, having seen the module's CAPTCHA now, it may not always be a random mix of letters and words, but rather a basic "Pick the correct phrase" type question. 

It won't be on until the New Year most likely. We had several options we could have implemented and this was the most feasible. We'd hate to lose you or anyone else Longman and would rather turn it off if it reached that point. 

There's a way to go yet, and a bit of a learning curve whilst we train the module. 

Best wishes,
Anil 

Fingers crossed it will be alright on the night................

However these devices are difficult. Some spam checkers used by police forces were found to exclude surnames that were nationalities - Irish, Welsh, French (a not uncommon Scottish surname), German (a frequent Welsh surname) - as racist.

An engineering firm found themselves in trouble with the word "dike" for a drain, the spam filter objected as it was an adverse allusion to sexuality.

The CAPTCHA type device is seldom disability friendly, as the audio option is alright if you have the auditory facility set up. The mixed symbols will impact on people with dyslexia and visual coordination problems - so that will eliminate quite a few of us.

I often cannot successfully use these devices so I may not be able to contribute in future (but that might be a blessing cos I'm sounding off on here too much....)

The security services were using these on public contact websites, so someone wanting to notify a security or terrorist threat would find themselves unable to do so.

Just have to see what happens in practice.  Excuse me for being a misery as ever...