I know this is spam, but how do we get rid of it? I think it is on here every morning. It is about movies and tickets. It is really annoying. I report it as spam every time I see it. The number is the OP. I decided to leave one of them on here so others can see it.
Hi All, Hopefully, most users will create a name to display with their posts. Those that don't are assigned a random name until they take a moment to update it. These changes were necessitated by GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) that all sites must be in compliance with as of a short while ago. Unfortunately, spammers that routinely hit the site (we are constantly adjusting our filters to fight them) are not likely to create names, so they also appear with randomly generated usernames. There are also actual real people behind many of the accounts though, so please do welcome those folks as you would any other user.
It is to get you to click on the link so they can infect your computer with a virus. Just flag. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK. The spammers have been using several names. It is not just this name.
I'm up early and flag them as well. I also just flagged one that was advertising art totally unrelated to the thread. Until or unless House wants to police these types of things, I think it's up to the early risers to get rid of them.
Emily responded a week or so ago, when all new people were "Houzz User" that they were working on a better way. So now it's HU and a number. What happened to people giving themselves real (or made up) user names?
That is different from this. This is a phishing operation. They do use names sometimes. It is probably from somewhere overseas, since they show up in the very early morning central time.
This is from Emily on June 22nd.
For the spam users mentioned above - THANK YOU FOR REPORTING. They are removed as soon as we can find them and we do have other tricks up their sleeves to keep them away. Unfortunately, so do they. :) We will win this battle in the long run, however.
Click on the little flag icon at the top right of a post or comment. You can "flag" it as spam, inappropriate, or I just don't like it. The moderators will take a look at the first two and it has been said the the don't like it, just removes it from your view. I haven't used that one. I flag the spam posts.
Unfortunately, I did not sleep well last night. At 4:30 a.m. there were five of them, all about some movie things. Most of the posts used one name. I flagged them all and they quickly went bye-bye. It is irritating that we have to pay big bucks to be here and then stuff like that happens!!!!!!!!
I'm guessing Houzz let's Jim_1 stay here in exchange for all the biggest deer he can put on ice and send to the Houzz offices. Me, I just send in my little thoughts.
Oh I sure hope I did not get a virus! I clicked on it one day last week or the week before and then thought that it might be a virus and quickly shut my computer down and unplugged the whole thing. Gosh, don't people have better things to do than to reek havoc on other people? What a miserable person that has got to be!
I didn't look too deeply but it appears what they do may go something like this:
Entice you with a free recent movie.
Make it look like it's right there in front of you on your screen, all ready to play but first...
You need to create a "free" account.
Because you need to verify you don't live in a country where the movie is prohibited to be shown (or sometimes your age). To do that, all they need is your credit card info... don't worry, you won't be charged.
You get charged! Month after month you get charged until you put a stop to it.
If I'm right, you're probably fine as long as you didn't give them credit info.
The virus scan is a good idea though. Just in case.
bengardening thanked Richard (Vero Beach, Florida)
Some times I can't sleep but I've yet to run into them. Just the luck of the draw I suppose. Will keep eyes out, and yep, that would be the one thing I'd flag.
Getting hits on a site earns you money with advertisers. There are other such movie sites. Yes, recent movies are available to watch for free. As I understand it, someone pays for a ticket to go into a movie theatre and video tapes the movie, then up loads it to the movie site.
Ever been to Hawaii? There's a guy on every street corner selling $1 movies and Cd's....new releases.
I appreciate all the effort your putting into flagging these people. Good job!
Hi George - these usernames with the HU-#### are actual accounts. They are registered users. I also understand the frustration about this. This is a new change due to GDPR, so look for some other product adaptations as time goes on. It can sometimes take some time to make adjustments around changes like this.
There is another ongoing thread for people to document how many of the movie posts we flag. I usually get a couple when I'm up early (East Coast), but this morning I flagged 27 movie posts! Some were HU - with the same long number and others had "names" instead. Many of the movies were repeats. Others caught posts before and after I did. It sure isn't getting any better yet.
I just can't believe that Emily told us to welcome them and that there are real people behind some of these accounts. I think that really makes us look stupid and that we aren't smart enough to know if it is spam or not. I agree all it is is about getting more advertisers because it shows more accounts for Houzz
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