email spam via forum

[CrackRabbit]

I received the following email today, I know it is spam but I didn't know that email could be sent via the forum software.
Edit: I found where they were sending it from. Looks like it is just a spammer going through profiles looking for valid public emails.

Just thought I would give a heads up that someone is abusing it.

This is a message from mon02 at AnandTech Forums ( http://forums.anandtech.com/index.php ). The AnandTech Forums owners cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of the email.

To email mon02, you can use this online form:
http://forums.anandtech.com/sendmessage.php?do=mailmember&u=323040

OR, by email:
mailto:membabe@ymail.com

This is the message:

Hi Dear,
Am miss Mercy, interested in you, &
i wish to have you as my friend,
for friend is all about Respect, Admiration and love passion,
and sharing of ideas,
i intend to send my picture for you, if you reply me.(mercymabu@yahoo.in)
thanks from Mercy.

 

[esquared]

Thanks. That member is now banned.

 

[Gillbot]

I believe you can turn off "receive email from members" in your user control panel as well, and that will stop this.

 

[Gillbot]

You can allow other members to send you email messages.
Receive Email from Other Members

 

[CrackRabbit]

I believe you can turn off "receive email from members" in your user control panel as well, and that will stop this.

Thanks! I turned it off.

 

[allisolm]

If you participate in the For Sale/Trade forums you need to have the 'receive email from other members' enabled. Here.

 

[Harvey]

I thought the rule was that you had to show your FS/T e-mail address in the "About me" tab of your profile. I didn't even know about the requirement to set the account to "receive email from members." However, that shouldn't result in spam because, if e-mail is sent through the forums because the sender never sees the address... unless the spammers have bots that automatically send spam that way.

 

[Gillbot]

I thought the rule was that you had to show your FS/T e-mail address in the "About me" tab of your profile. I didn't even know about the requirement to set the account to "receive email from members." However, that shouldn't result in spam because, if e-mail is sent through the forums because the sender never sees the address... unless the spammers have bots that automatically send spam that way.

As alli posted, it's still listed in the rules because initially you needed to enable this portion and the vcard to show your address. With the new field, there really isn't a need for the vcard portion.

 

[Harvey]

As alli posted, it's still listed in the rules because initially you needed to enable this portion and the vcard to show your address. With the new field, there really isn't a need for the vcard portion.

The potential for spammers to harvest the addresses is the same either way, but I think the need to verify traders' real addresses has always been a deterent to scammers which outweighs the desire for privacy. Of the two, the rule requiring showing the FS/T rule is better than the vcard because it's easier for other traders to get to.

Short story - We can dump the requirement for the vcard.

Hope I'm not missing anything.

 

[Gillbot]

The potential for spammers to harvest the addresses is the same either way, but I think the need to verify traders' real addresses has always been a deterent to scammers which outweighs the desire for privacy. Of the two, the rule requiring showing the FS/T rule is better than the vcard because it's easier for other traders to get to.

Short story - We can dump the requirement for the vcard.

Hope I'm not missing anything.

:thumbsup:

The main issue is, there are bots that can farm for the vcard or register and mass mail. The manual field is a little better imho.