Another Spammer, using PM's now!

[jmnjrpa]

Hey TC,

You are doing a great job! THANKS!

[motorhead]

Got the pm this morning .As with any crap ,I deleted without opening . I use avg free and don't have problems .i also use spybot

[egleaves]

I got it too, but I'm still waiting on that check from the Crown Prince of Nigeria. As soon as that clears I'll look into what this guy is offering.

For what it's worth, I think the Mods and Admins on this site do a great job of fighting spam. It's everywhere I look these days, except for this site. A spammer slipping through the cracks once in awhile is a good way to keep the site's spam police on their toes, and give the armchair spam police something to to talk about.

I don't know exactly who does the work around here, but it seems to be done well.

Keep up the good work.

[madmax-im]

Thers no way the general membership should be subjected to the spammers BS...I know of other sites that spammers never reach the general membership...

TC This is the point I am trying to make...I'm sorry if it pissed you off but I too am very pissed...as you have heard me say other sites I frequent get them too but never is the general membership subjected to their crap. If you want make Me the Mod for the Introduction forum and I'll do the monitoring...I do appreciate all you do for this site and DO NOT expect you to do it all without help... Otherwise I am done here.........................

[Peter421sd]

-I got one too...

[xswilly]

i recieved the email also
i didn't open the link,
i work on computers as a sideline, so i know better
these things are usually malware and can go past your anti virus software

i have a good piece of software that kills malware, but it has to be on your computer
before the infection

check it out
www.malwarebytes.org

[JWSanders]

Hey Folks,

Yep, he was a UKRAINIAN bastard, and has been removed from the list, his IP address RANGE banned/blocked. As for trying to report him to his ISP, that "might" only work if he was in the USA, but most/all of these a$$holes are from such lovely countries as the Ukraine, Korea, China, etc., won't do any good!

BNE, I don't want to get you pissed off, but I'm about to get so.

I've explained that NONE OF US have the time to MONITOR EVERY NEW member that joins the site, REVIEW each ones credentials, and then change their status to authorized to be able to post messages. Some folks get on here just to sell parts, bikes, etc.! Others are looking for sometimes QUICK answers to urgent situations, etc.! Requiring them to first post in TEST forums or such, then WAIT for a MOD....no....has to be an ADMIN or SUPERMOD that would then review, approve, then edit their status BEFORE they would be able to post messages.....AIN'T going to happen.

The site is set up how the OWNER wanted it setup. SO...the occasional spammer...has to be a real person...the spambots can't get thru anymore.... may post 1 or 2 before being spotted by a MOD, posts deleted, spammer banned, and then I come along and clean up....adding their IP address or IP range into the ever increasing list of BLOCKED IP's that we have in the ADMIN security section of the site, and completely deleting their username/membership.

SO...please, don't ask about this again.

I wish I had read that before sending the PM I just sent.....

Correction its JWSanders and I urge you all to Pm him and request that mandatory introductions of newe members be instituted...No new member should be allowed to post anywhere else until they submit a mandatory intro. Thers no way the general membership should be subjected to the spammers BS...I know of other sites that spammers never reach the general membership...

Well, given the level of outrage in the PM you sent me, I would have thought this was a major problem. Reading this thread, it doesn't appear to be so. It happens once every few months and you want to leave the site over it?? Jesus man, calm down....life is too short to let something as trivial as spam have such power over you.

BTW, the site example you gave to me (STowners.com) has over 12,000 members, and 23,000 posts a month. Given that level of volume, It's understandable that they would have to resort to that level of filtering. This site has been around for what, 10 years now? In that time, it has only gained 5,725 users. 3/4 of which are likely inactive now. We have barely a 10th (if even that!) of the volume that site has. Hell, I'd be surprised if we had 23,000 posts the entire year last year.

Sadly, as these bikes disappear, so will the eventual membership of the site....they stopped making them a long time ago. No one appreciates the classics anymore.

[blue giant]

It would appear that most if not all of us that received a PM from this guy recognized it as spam and deleted it.

No Biggie!

[foreda]

Me too!

Being a geek, I recognized and killed it!!

[jmnjrpa]

I can not believe anyone in this day and age goes and opens spam! Oh DUH!

[Bigfoot]

i recieved the email also
i didn't open the link,
i work on computers as a sideline, so i know better
these things are usually malware and can go past your anti virus software

i have a good piece of software that kills malware, but it has to be on your computer
before the infection

check it out
www.malwarebytes.org

Yeah, Malwarebytes Anti-malware works very well.

[RS Thornton]

thanks

I had that PM as well and deleted it without reading it.

[TopCatGr58]

I can not believe anyone in this day and age goes and opens spam! Oh DUH!

I can appreciate a bit of concern with this regarding that it came from a "MEMBER"! However, those of us that are ACTIVE know or recognize members usernames, and so IF I received a questionable PM from someone that I had never seen or heard of before, then I would probably check out THEIR Profile before even thinking about clicking on any kind of link!

Regrettably, folks using home computer email programs like OutLook Express would get duped into opening emails and links because of the Trojans that would harvest the address book and the computer, and send out the bogus emails...and they would be coming from SOMEONE the recipient knows since they were in their address book, and think it was SAFE, and open and click on links, and WHAMMO! Hence the popularity of webmail type services!

So...BNE, I hope you'll rethink your decision regarding your use of this website and it's forums? With a little prudence, this site is relatively safe. But "we" can't totally protect everyone from everything all of the time....I'd have to be SUPERLIBERAL to do that! Just remember that you're still welcome here anytime, no matter what you ride.
T.C.

[Jerry]

TC and the other moderators do a great, and often thankless job. I take this opportunity to thank TC and all the others who work behind the scenes to keep XS11.com up and running!

I received the post, and immediatly deleted it. How would a member know what was going on in my computer? I have a Mac!

Exception to a previous post...whle there are some excellent free anti-virus programs around that also detect spyware and malware, some of the best are pay-for programs. As an IT manager I am always trying different programs to cover / protect our couple dozen traveling laptops and other workstations. These programs work well for us: Malwareytes anti-malware (MBAM). The paid version does nore than the free one, and is only about $10.00 per year. Get the free one at least! Eset NOD32 is excellent for anti-virus protection, think it is about $40.00 per year. I deal with site licenses so don't always know the retail pricing.

Some good programs we also use:
AVG
Evonsoft
Spybot Search and Destroy
SpyWare Blaster
GMER (can be dangerous - use with caution!)
We even use Windows Defender.

We had one virus in the last 3 days that went in and re-mapped protocols to non-standard ports. Could ping sites but not connect to them through a browser. Turns out HTTP: and FTP: as well as TCP/IP ports had been moved. Had to use a port mapping tool to reset the ports.

There is a lot of crap out there. Best defense is to recognize spam and delete it and to fork up a few bucks and get some good programs to help minimize your chance of getting infected. Last of all...back up your critical files!

XS11.com wil continue to get hit, as do most other socal sites. Nothing is going to stop everything, so accept the fact that we will occasionally get spammed...its just a fact of life.

Finally, if you do get one of the nastier varients, such as the ones that run as services: if you take your PC into a shop to have it worked on, the cost can easily run $200.00 - $400.00. Removing this stuff is very labor intensive. Much better to take some precautions. When we have to work on removing some of these fake virus alert programs we plan no less than 3 - 4 hours to do it, average is around 3 hours. MBAM's scans, if you do a deep scan, can easily run a couple hours on a 160 gb hard drive.

Sorry to get so long-winded, but with 110 PCs and a couple dozen laptops to look after, this is an issue I deal with every day. I started with the free programs but moved up to the pay-for stuff, the latest was Malwarebytes, purchased a site license only a few weeks ago.

Its kinda like riding a mootcycle; extra attention must be paid to all the details or the chances of having a crash go up!

If any of you would like more information or details on how we handle virus removeal or prevention, please drop me a PM.