Open season for spam in GW forums?

18 years ago

There continues to be a problem with supplement dealers openly posting ad messages in the Herbalism forum (the Eastherb company has several such posts on the current forum page), and when such spam posts are reported to GW no action is taken to delete them (or respond in any way).

Is it now policy that anyone can advertise their products on GW through forum posts, instead of paying GW for ads?

Isn't that counterproductive to the goal of providing revenue for the site, as well as keeping blatant ads out of the forums? Could GW clarify its current policy on spam posts?

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Comments (7)

albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
18 years ago
Are these being reported using the the very small 'contact us' link at the bottom of some pages?

I have never been able to post that link in a message or a follow-up. One has to find it and click on it as it seems to be somehow tied to one's home page email.

I don't know if it has ever worked on weekends and holidays. And if the spam is not removed immediately it gets into Google cache and becomes immortal so there is not much point after that.
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
18 years ago
I just did a search for the spammers name (searching the entire site)and it yielded 9 threads...6 at Herbalism, and another 3 (it seems) at Herbs. I then sent the URL of the page showing the 9 spams threads to the Contact Us link, found in the green banner at the bottom of any page.

I lurk at Herbalism, and it does seem to get hit a lot harder than some of the other Forums. Reporting it, and providing the URL in the report, I'm sure helps in them getting it taken care of.

Sue
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You should just mail them directly and tell them to change their password. That should solve all of the problems. As far as hacking GW, I doubt it. How most people phishing for passwords is by making a site that looks just like a site you intend to go to. So, you may type I the address bar: www.yahooo.com, simply an extra o. It could look just like regular yahoo, but when YouTube your user name and password in, they collect it and then sell it off to illegal pharmacies so that they can I turn spam other users. Sometimes it is even simpler to steal your username and password. Say for example you see an advertisement for a free computer or car or whatever and you click on it, or perhaps a contest for the advertised item. It may even be a complete an offer and get this prize type of situation. Anyway, no matter they way, they make you create an account on their website. So you create your username, a password, all your info etc. Well, research has proven that most people use the same username and password for almost all of their accounts, so if they have one, the. Chances are, they can figure them all out. Best thing to do is to make sure your password is difficult, at least 1 captitol letter and a number. Also, always check your address bar to make sure you typed correctly, or better yet, always use google to get to an address, as google won't let you go to a known spamming site. And the biggest thing you can do to protect your accounts and computers.....never click on attachments in a forwarded email. As a matter of fact, don't even open them..they may look innocent, but trust me, they are installing spyware I the background while you watch yet another video of a baby laughing or are looking at pictures, or what have you.
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My REAL email is the one you see here, and the same as my user name, except with @aol.com added to it, and I don't get as many spams on it as you're saying you do, Alicia... maybe if you count the ones AOL automatically sends to my SPAM folder, but they're pretty good, over time, about filtering out SPAM. There was a TIME, however, before AOL DID get good at that, when I'd get 15, 20, 30 SPAMs a day... Of course nowadays I get lots of ad emails each week, but that's because I've bought things online from Circuit City... and Best Buy... and shopped online with Wal-Mart although I've never made an online purchase with them, and I tell them ALL it's OK to send me their email specials because it's A LOT EASIER to delete them when I'm NOT in the market for something than it is to catch the specials some other way when I AM (and I got some pretty good savings over the holidays that way, too!). Of course someone ALSO stole American Express number and charged more than $10,000 on it -- all in SPAIN -- back in September... But I don't think they got it online... I think they looked over my shoulder when I was standing in a line somewhere waiting to use it, so now I keep it covered if it's in my hand, unless I'm swiping it... At any rate, THEY caught the biggest charges as "not looking right" and notified US, and then I caught the rest online, and we weren't responsible for ANY of them... which is really nice (except that some fancy 4-star hotel in Spain and a Spanish airline got stuck with back-charges, but then I guess they should be more careful accepting charges). Now I need to go ahead and post this so I can check out some of those neat, tempting links you posted, Ms. X, which, as usual, I neglected to check BEFORE I started "SPOUTING" (or is that "sprouting?") :-) I figure the truth of the matter is that if you're a target for some reason, or MAKE yourself a target for some reason, the only way you can be safe from internet attacks is to not be connected to the internet, but with so many of us online, most of us aren't real "targets," contrasted with big corporations and the very wealthy, etc. I guess in some ways it pays to be "the little guy," huh? Jeff
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Shee; I was getting similar ones a few months ago; one from my neighbor; another from someone I used to email from another message board & one from my son. I ended up viewing the originating IP because I wanted to know if it was an infection or what- I was getting a lot from these 3- turns out it was not from their computers or cell phones; it originated over seas; so there was nothing we could really do about it except delete it. I did email the originating address so that they knew this happened; I also included everyone else it was sent to so they could email them. This is why I thought it was from their computer because it was legitimate people they know that it was sending to in the same email. My guess is that it started with a trojan that harvested addresses. Tell her to download & install Super Antispyware & to run it a few times.
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Have you seen the remodeling forum today? It is completely filled with spam. Only 2 legitimate threads on page 1. Interesting about the spammer having your email. I rarely get spam email and I post "reported" on spam threads all the time. I do see how it could be a concern. Since there appears to be no moderator this weekend I wonder if we would all get away with using the f word? I block all the ads but if I did see them I would be tempted to contact those advertisers and tell them how the boards are now in chaos with no supervision.
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rusty_blackhaw
Original Author
18 years ago
I reported this spam post to GW 3 days ago via the recommended contact link, but this and other spam are still up on the forum despite being reported.

In the olden days Spike was very prompt about removing spam. The current situation makes one wonder if the webmaster(s) are too busy to take action, don't care about spam's effect on the forums in general (including loss of ad revenue), or whether advertisers are actually paying GW to be allowed to post this stuff.
brendan_of_bonsai
18 years ago
In the past there was a crappy mallzai web shop spamming the hell out of the bonsai section, the only way they ever took down the spam was when I linked it in a thread in suggestions. They scolded me every time too. I also had the gall to suggest that they out the name of the shop as a swear word and that they would have the spam blocked automatically from then on but they ignored that simple 3 second fix and opted instead for spam. Maybe they should have someone who reads every new post with the word spam in it and they could take care of the problem in no time.

Here is a link that might be useful: More spam
aka_peggy
18 years ago
And them freaking casalmedia ads are driving ME beserk!!!
barbe_wa
18 years ago
The spam in the Herbs Forum is getting really bad. I fear the same thing will happen in it that has happened in one of the Yahoo groups I belonged to. There it got so bad that it was hard to find a legitimate post, so I just dropped the group. I really enjoy GardenWeb and it would be very distressing if I had to drop it, too.
tommyr_gw Zone 6
17 years ago
This site is going downhill FAST. It's almost unusable IMHO.

I've about had it....

Open season for spam in GW forums?

Comments (7)

albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana

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rusty_blackhaw
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Open season for spam in GW forums?

Comments (7)

albert_135 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana

Related Discussions

rusty_blackhawOriginal Author

brendan_of_bonsai

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barbe_wa

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COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

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albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.

rusty_blackhaw
Original Author