Re: SPAMmers getting smarter

On Aug 4, 9:05 pm, পার্থ চৌধুরী <partha_choudh...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Aug 4, 11:22 am, UVR <u...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Aug 3, 9:12 pm, pdg <prithvi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Aug 3, 2:32 pm, vijaykumark <vijaykum...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jul 10, 10:31 am, "vijaykum...@xxxxxxxxxxx" <vijaykum...@my-

deja.com> wrote:
I see a thread that had interventions from Chetan, Prithviraj Dasgupta
& UVR, but the Spammer managed to resurrect the thread each time...

This does not appear to be the job of some bot...someone is
probably doing this manually...or it is a very smart bot.

Vijay

I discovered something horrifying this weekend...
Some malignant agent has sent out a SPAM e-mail to
every one whose name appears on an e-mail in my
inbox (personal email). The worst part of it is
that the email appears with my name as the "from"
and yes, this SPAM email was touting faux fashion
accessories from a Chinese sounding website.

While I am not sure how this was "achieved", here is
my guess. I have some kind of trojan on my home
computer. This comes to life when I log in to my
personal e-mail on hotmail. It then goes through
all the names in my Contacts or in my Inbox (latter
more likely) and sends them an email in my name.

The reason I am posting this on RMIM is to point
out that there are several people who have news-
group postings directed to their email inboxes.
Maybe such an agent has infiltrated the personal
e-mail inbox of an avid RMIMer and that is causing
the proliferation of SPAM emails on RMIM.

Although I appear to have something similarly
virulent, it is probably NOT me that is causing
this outbreak on RMIM. For one, I do not use
e-mail to follow newsgroup postings. Secondly,
other NGs I frequent have not been affected the
same way.

So, this is an appeal to RMIMers who use e-mail
to track RMIM postings and see if may unwittingly
be the carrier.

On another level, can some tech-savvy RMIMer
confirm if my hypothesis is in the realm of the
possible, and if so, how do I detect and cure
my computer of this :-(

Vijay

Not related to the virus problem mentioned above, but I noticed the
deluge of SPAM posts today and yesterday has pushed many of the active/
valid RMIM discussion topics to the 2nd or 3rd page of Google groups
topics list (list view shows 30 recent topics per page) and removed
them from regular 'eyesight'. Not the best solution...but we might
have to post spurious messages (like "good discussion/keep it up")
just to bump non-spam posts towards the top of the list and keep them
in the 'limelight'. Any other suggestions?

-pdg/

Actually, Dr. PDG, I think that could prove quite counterproductive.
I think the reason they make a beeline for RMIM versus, say, ALUP, is
that they see our group as being one of the more active ones, which
implies that their irrelevant and nonsensical cr*p gets more eyeballs
if posted on RMIM than on one of the less active ones.

Following your suggestion of posting spurious messages to bump certain
discussions to the top of the list will only succeed in getting RMIM
to be classified as even more active (specifically, to go from a
classification of 'medium' to 'high' in Google's group activity
meter).  The exact thing the spammers will need to be spurred on to
post more junk.

It would seem that the right thing to do is for all of us to lay low
for a while and reduce the activity to a minimum.  Counterintuitive,
but there it is.

-UVR.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

A posting can be reported for abuse. So we can do two things with a
spam - label it as spam and report abuse. Hopefully enough report
would suspend / block the id from posting. This is not a full-proof
option because most spammers use generated ids and keeps generating
new ids for this purpose, so chances are that they will generate a new
id when their existing id is blocked. But I'd suggest we give it a try
- something to fight back.

------------------------------------------------------------

Here's how it can be done:

http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46453&ctx=sibling

From the link:

Q. How can I report cases of Usenet abuse from people posting though
Google Groups?

A.  To report cases of Usenet abuse, click the More options link at
the top of the message and select Report this message. On the report
page, describe why you think the post is abusive.

Please be aware that, while we understand how annoying off-topic posts
can be, Google doesn't regularly monitor or censor postings sent to
Google Groups. However, we do try to prevent wide-scale spam and other
forms of Usenet abuse, most notably involving numerous repeat offenses
or the posting of someone's personal information (such as credit card
or social security numbers).

We'll use all of the information we receive regarding abuse and spam
to make large-scale changes to fight all types of abuse. In Google
Groups discussion groups (not Usenet newsgroups), you can also ask the
owner or moderator to remove a post.

---------------------------------------------

I like coming to site and reading posts and I don't like the spammers
hindering that - that's enough reason for me to give it a try...

- Partha

Some two years back I had reported some cases, but there was no action
on part of Google or anyone else.

The only solution I can think of is to appoint moderators (most
probably members of this forum) by the powers that be and given access
rights to delete unwanted messages. If they are not inclined to so so,
then perhaps the best solution is to move en masse to a moderated
forum and leave this one in the lurch.

Regards
Sukesh

.

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