Marlin Crawler Online Forum and Spammers

[BigMike]

Not wanting to encourage Spammers, I did not post a thread about what happened this morning to the forum and to it's many members. By complaining and advertising what occurred is +1 point for the spammers because they have indeed achieved what they were trying to do: Create chaos and waste our time.

But since threads have been created regarding this matter, I figured I should make a public statement to reassure the members (and guests) of this community that the Marlin Crawler Online Forum has had and always will have a ZERO TOLERANCE Policy to spam.

All of our moderators all have each others phone number and many are contacted personally via home, work, or cell phone when a serious problem arises.

In the case of this morning, I was contacted via cell phone by FFC at 12:20am, and within precisely 32 mins of the Spam user creating his account he was completely banned and his 29 threads/posts were removed from the system by me. Then at apprx. 2am I was contacted again via cell phone where upon a second account was created by this same Spamer using a unique IP address and email account (logically) to which his 25 posts were removed and the Shout Box! was cleared. Again, my responce time on this was well within 1 hour having it all cleared by apprx. 2:15am PST.

It was at that time that I began receiving multiple emails that had trouble during the delivery system (since my email account receives all of the server error mail) which brought to my attention that this spammer was able to send PMs out to many of our members before he was banned.



Understanding the Marlin Crawler Online Forum

• This is the first very serious account of Spam in the 5 Years this forum has been in service. We do NOT tolerate Spam and it is certainly NOT welcomed here.
• To protect your privacy, administrators (myself included) and moderators have absolutely NO access to ANYONE's Private Messages through the forum. We can not list, view, read, reply to, quote from, delete, or forward any Private Message except for our own. Therefore, your identity and privacy are 100% preserved at the cost of the admins and mods having no way of knowing which members are sending or receiving Spam messages.

It is awfully difficult to stop Spam no matter what kind of software is used. However there are many different ways that we make it impossible or very difficult for Spam to accumulate. Below are *some* of the security systems implemented here.


Understanding Security

• Virius's can NOT be transfered via PM since attachments are not allowed in Private Messages.


• This Forum uses a CAPTCHA-based code verification for all new Members. CAPTCHA is an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" which is a challenge-response test that requires a human to operate a computer in order to become a new member of the Marlin Crawler Online Forum Community. It is an advanced system that is resistant even to OCR (optical character recognition) attacks by automated systems.


• Member's Email Addresses are FULLY HIDDEN (by default) from all out-side sources (non-members).


• Member's Contact Details are FULLY HIDDEN (by default) from all out-side sources (non-members).


• User's IP address is "Suspended" on multiple failed log-in attempts.


• There is FULL ERROR Reporting Support to Admins (myself included). This allows tracing and behavioural patterns to be learnt from members who create errors (ie. hacking attempts).


• There is a 30 second time limit between posting new threads and replies.


• There is a maximum character limit per post, both public and private.


• Multiple and Repetitive Password checks are required to administrate. In other words, it is extremely difficult for a non-administrator to gain administrative privileges.


• As of this morning, there was a 10-member limit per Private Message. That means that if this Spammer had sent 100 Private messages, then he would have had to do it 10 times. In responce to what happened this morning, I have now temporarily set this limit to 4-members per PM. Work has begun on a better system to better control this in the future while still allowing functionality out of the PM system.


• Work has already begun on requiring the CAPTCHA image verification on ALL Private Messages sent to multiple recipients.


• We have very useful "Report to Moderator" buttons on both public threads and private messages alike.


• We have an advanced Ban Interface that also uses DNS Hostname checks to help prevent quick IP changes and decrease Ban run-arounds.

Marlin Crawler Online Forum sincerely apologizes for the offensive material that was Spammed here this morning. I am very sorry that this had to happen to such a great bunch of members. Please remain assured that I am doing everything in my power to restrict and filter as much Spam as possible.

I am working on a couple of things right now to aid in both blocking and preventing this sort of activity from happening again.

Regards,
BigMike
Marlin Crawler Online Forum Administrator

[cruzila]

Below you will find the text of the registration agreement everyone is required to accept upon membership acceptance.

I have reset permissions for new members. Due to this and other less intrusive issues in the past.

So, from now on new members, until you have several posts, may not:

View the memberlist
Change other people's karma
Create events in the calendar
Read or Send personal messages
View profile summary and stats
Edit "most" account settings
Post attachments


Registration Agreement
1. No pornography.
2. No attacking members.
3. No spam.

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.

Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this forum to confirm the validity of posts. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this forum, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this forum's owner. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The staff and the owner of this forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, please realize that they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.

You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason.  We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.

After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.

Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.

Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.

[BigMike]

Thankyou Scott.

[Blingn]

keep up the good work!

[Cheesemaker]

I've got to say that it was taken care of very quickly!  It's harder at night, not knowing who's up and if they are online!  Luckily, FFC had her significant other wake her up to call Mike!  And he dropped the hammer!  I didn't know he attacked the second time!  I know everybody that was online last nite kept things cool and it didn't get out of hand!  This site is the best, I hate going to PBB, it just seems a little too wild for me!  I love the family atmosphere here!  And Good Job Mike!  Thank You!!

[knmhoffman]

Thanks for all of your hard work keeping this site true to all of us who come here - you guys are the best!! Just shows how far you guys go to keep your readers/customers happy, we love you!
Nikki

[kiyul4130]

this sounds kinda dumb, but that yellow font above the shout box is bright and kinda hard to read. maybe red would be better? i dont know, i already know what it says so it doesnt matter anymore.
edit: spam is stupid

[kiyul4130]

 8) hahaha. that was fast. less than a minute. 

[blackwolf00]

i hate spam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[46&2]

Thanks for your efforts against the annoying spammers. Good work.

[yotadork83]

yeah if you are going to send me some porn it better be good porn. just kidding thanks for taking care of the problem fast as you did it took me by suprise this morning and i was hoping this forum was not going to come to that kind of nonsense.

[pickemup81]

Yeah thanks a lot. It did get extremely ridiculous.

[TheBandit]

I am glad you guys took care of it. I just hope no one gets in trouble from viewing that at work. I was on my home computer, so it was no big deal for me.

[bigbluefj]

cool thank you for taking care of this right quick..

[AaronB]

thanks guys

[paradisetoyota]

keep up the good work Mike.

[Destruct O]

Thank you!! Marlin Admin Staff,
                                         Unfortunately there is always some sort of degenerate out there trying to ruin a good thing. Thanks again and keep up the good work

[79coyotefrg]

Due to the recent attacks  steps have been taken  to  ,hopefully  deter  future attacks,   so  new members  can only post  in the open forum,  until you get to a predetermined point  you cant pm,  or  post attachments.


We  are sorry for the inconvenience  but  feel this  must  be done to prevent future attacks. 

JUST  SAY NO TO 

[johnboy]

well i was about to pm mike about this till i saw the announcement on the main page about this problem. scared the crap out of me what i saw on my screen... *shivers* just wrong. thanks for tackling this prob.

[hendo]

thanks mile for taking care of that, i thought it was somebody mad at me at first for something i did,nt do
and you had straightened it out

[79coyotefrg]

scared the crap out of me what i saw on my screen... *shivers* just wrong.

yea  thats a understatement,  i  got  the spam  pm also     


very bad     

BUT ITS BEEN TAKEN CARE OF

[Rocksurfer]

I just noticed that Campfire Girl had a PM notification sent to her on the board from the infamous spammer so I just logged in under her user name and the PM is there. Also since she doesn't post much the PM block is on her so I can't get to it and delete it. So the question I have is does that PM still exsist until the person logs in and gets the PM or did you administratively delete them all?

[Co-Pilot]

Rocksurfer here again on RFB's username and he has the PM, and this is very urgent that I know he will not get this PM once he gets enough posts. I understand the reason behind blocking the PM's but I don't want him opening this thing if it still exsists here.

[Willy Mammoth]

It would seem to me that purging all pms would be a small sacrifice to know there are no mor of these messages still out there waiting to spring on someone.

Wipe them all out and start fresh.

[DTB]

Rocksurfer here again on RFB's username and he has the PM, and this is very urgent that I know he will not get this PM once he gets enough posts. I understand the reason behind blocking the PM's but I don't want him opening this thing if it still exsists here.

uhh yea probably not a good idea, he's what 8 years old?

[79coyotefrg]

Ron,  can you send me a email with the email  notification  he  and campgirl  got in there email

[Co-Pilot]

So this means that everyone that got the PM's will have them until they log in even if it's months from now! That sucks, maybe they should clear all old PM's to get rid of them.

[79coyotefrg]

 

[DTB]

That sucks, maybe they should clear all old PM's to get rid of them.

good idea but i know i have some important PMs i have held onto like members addresses and numbers and important links, things like that

[Rocksurfer]

good idea but i know i have some important PMs i have held onto like members addresses and numbers and important links, things like that

Problem is this will be a continous issue until everyone that got it logs in or gets enough posts to make PM's available to them. It's not just a link there is an actual image in the PM itself.