Important Warning for ALL members - please read as a matter of urgency!

[RedStarRocket91]

It has recently been brought to our attention that several members have been receiving spam messages via the PM and profile feed system, including but not limited to offers for Microsoft Points, advertisements for dating websites, and contact requests from off-site persons.

 

We'd like all of our members to please take note that responding to any of these messages can have extremely serious consequences beyond our site's control, and that under absolutely no circumstances whatsoever should you do so, for any reason. Such spam messages are often scams, with the intention of data harvesting or theft of personal information, and your responding to them may result in the hijack of any associated Microsoft services including email, Skype and Xbox LIVE accounts, financial fraud and identity theft.

 

If you receive any suspicious messages, please inform the moderating team immediately by using the 'Report This Member' button located at the bottom right-hand side of the sender's profile page: you'll then be asked to give a short description of why you're submitting the report. Please use this to let us know that you've received a suspicious message, as we do not normally monitor members' personal intra-site correspondence and therefore will not otherwise be alerted.

 

If you have any questions or require any additional information about this warning, please do not hesitate to respond to this thread. However, this thread is to be used for questions only, not the reporting of any suspicious messages.

 

The moderating team would like to thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter. Your help ensures that our site and members stay as safe and secure as possible.

[Azaxx]

Very informing Red/Mod team, glad to know what crazy stuff has been happening recently.

Also like to ask, could this be pinned to the shoutbox banner. Would be helpful.

Thanks once again Mods.

[Frankenzer]

This post made me feel more safe. I hope those people who spam would just go away and do something else even their messages aren't close to something an average person would believe

[BaconShelf]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one.

[SatanicBagels]

So does this mean that that Arabian princess that messaged me wasn't real.

 

[Absolute Dog]

So does this mean that that Arabian princess that messaged me wasn't real.

 

She is real, but 'he' doesn't want to cuddle! lol

[RedStarRocket91]

So does this mean that that Arabian princess that messaged me wasn't real.

 

 

Whoops, sorry, thought I'd sent that from this account.

 

 

She is real, but 'he' doesn't want to cuddle! lol

 

...damn it, ninja'd!

Edited May 13, 2013 by RedStarRocket91

[haloman 2]

thanks for everything about this. helped me and ill tell any of you if i see this. also even though this said comments are only for questions i just want to say well said for the whole thread. one more thing if you don't mind but is there anyway of finding these things before the messages get sent to someone

[RedStarRocket91]

thanks for everything about this. helped me and ill tell any of you if i see this. also even though this said comments are only for questions i just want to say well said for the whole thread. one more thing if you don't mind but is there anyway of finding these things before the messages get sent to someone

 

We have filters which prevent most of the spambots from joining the site and creating accounts: last time I checked, there were several hundred spambots blocked in a single day. We've now got new filters which are even better, so there's a lot less of them managing to get through than before.

 

However, the system isn't perfect and there's always a few which manage to join the site: sadly once someone has signed up, there's no way for us to tell whether they're here to cause trouble or legitimate members until they start posting. We also don't want to start banning people just because we're suspicious that they're here to spam: we need to wait for proof.

 

Part of why we've made this announcement is to help ensure these spammers are dealt with as soon as possible: the faster our members report them, the faster we can deal with them, meaning the less likely other members are to be spammed as well.

[Caboose The Ace]

well at least I know what to do know if any Arabian princess PM me

[Sp4rkFloW]

I deleted the message already, so I can't report the person now.

[тυcкєя]

If anyone I mean anyone trys to spam me.

Oh, they wont be doing it again because, they will be in

deep doo doo when I am finished with them.

[Joshua Addison]

I'll leave this here......

 

 

 

[Silent Orbis]

So... there goes Miss Pascalina, or whatever the hell her name was. I did find it suspicious, but I'll be honest. I never understood how great moderators are, I only thought you guys were there to make us obey the rules, but now I realize you protect us as well, as making sure we follow the rules. Thank you so much. I cannot express HOW MUCH I appreciate you guys right now. Thanks.

[CrimsonVolver]

Yeah, just recieved a message yesterday of a "single woman" wanting to start a relationship with me, and show me pictures. I did not click on the message on the forums, just read it from my email on my phone. I smell porn spam a mile away. CV

[muflapjackie]

Already gave my banking info to eight people. Your post prevented number nine.

[TheGodfatherS117]

If a person try to hack my accounts, I gonna send him an SQL injection that will destroy his computer informations. The people who do those things sucks at hacking accounts lol.

[haloman 2]

We have filters which prevent most of the spambots from joining the site and creating accounts: last time I checked, there were several hundred spambots blocked in a single day. We've now got new filters which are even better, so there's a lot less of them managing to get through than before.

 

However, the system isn't perfect and there's always a few which manage to join the site: sadly once someone has signed up, there's no way for us to tell whether they're here to cause trouble or legitimate members until they start posting. We also don't want to start banning people just because we're suspicious that they're here to spam: we need to wait for proof.

 

Part of why we've made this announcement is to help ensure these spammers are dealt with as soon as possible: the faster our members report them, the faster we can deal with them, meaning the less likely other members are to be spammed as well.

thank you for everything. this helps. actually i did report someone to total mayh3m. caboose the ace i think you remember who he is. he spammed like crazy about halo 4 being a bad game. so if you want i can PM you his name. i saved my conversation with total about it

[BaconShelf]

I think I remember the shout box guy too.

[Frankenzer]

So... there goes Miss Pascalina, or whatever the hell her name was. I did find it suspicious, but I'll be honest. I never understood how great moderators are, I only thought you guys were there to make us obey the rules, but now I realize you protect us as well, as making sure we follow the rules. Thank you so much. I cannot express HOW MUCH I appreciate you guys right now. Thanks.

I got a message from her too, I was glad The Director was there to help me

[Is not JL]

Good, I kept the PM in case this happened.

 

I'd report....

 

Except I've never had to and as such don't know how. Anyone? 

 

EDIT: NVM found it. 

[a live dinosaur]

I couldn't help but comment on the "These offers are often scams" part. I don't think bull offers like that are anything but scams lol

[GryffinGuy007]

I did get a seemingly suspicious "woman" add me on Skype.

She then tried to link me to a dating site, of course I denied, however.

 

I'm not sure this had anything to do with this site, as I'm unsure as to whether or not it was a member from here - or just an everyday scam. Anyway, it's great that you're informing us of these recent scams and scandals. I hope nobody has been dramatically affected by these events yet.

[RedStarRocket91]

I did get a seemingly suspicious "woman" add me on Skype.

She then tried to link me to a dating site, of course I denied, however.

 

I'm not sure this had anything to do with this site, as I'm unsure as to whether or not it was a member from here - or just an everyday scam. Anyway, it's great that you're informing us of these recent scams and scandals. I hope nobody has been dramatically affected by these events yet.

 

'Fortunately' - a word I use in the loosest possible sense - this kind of thing has been going on for years in MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger, so it's almost certainly just a continuation of that rather than anything to do with our site. You definitely made the right decision though, pretty much any site which advertises through irregular methods is going to be involved with something shady.

 

As far as we know, we've caught and disabled all of the spammers so far before they've had a chance to cause any actual harm: we're hoping that some new security features we're adding to all new accounts, plus making a public statement, will help deter spammers from targeting our members.

[MissSuzumiya]

It's a good thing I'm only attracted to aliens, time travellers, sliders and espers!