Instant Messaging Spamming Problem & Spammers Report!

[chenchow]

Hi fellow ReComers. If you haven't read the updates, please do so. Unfortunately the feature of Instant Messaging has to be temporarily suspended.

We have received complaints from many ReComers about some irresponsible members, who choose to spam others. Come on! ReCom is a friendly community and we hope everyone can be here to engage and network with each other and not to send spam or disturbing message.

Hence, ReCom Anchors would like to solve this problem and bring back the wonderful feature of Instant Messaging for every ReCom members. I believe many ReCom members find this feature pretty useful and we hope that it would not be abused.

So, we want your opinion, idea etc to help solve this problem. Please put on your thinking caps and together lets solve it!

[__earth]

reveal their IP so spammers will remember the day their comp BIOS suddenly become useless.

[bachok83]

should we create a poll on this? well somehow i think this issue is more important than the current poll (no offend)

[silverblue]

I was out of touch with Recom lately and when I got back, I was shocked to hear that we are under attack by spammers...

Can u guys please clarify what these spammers did? What did they send and how many members actually complained? And how serious was it to have caused the instant messenger to be temporarily suspended? I feel that we should penalize those who are at fault but don't completely remove the instant messenger just bcos of a few culprits.

[jiinjoo]

In addition to silverblue's questions, can there be a more detail description of the problem? e.g. is it the person who spam known in person by anyone? Which username is it? I was hoping to check the logs of all other activity of this person etc. on our service.

Also, what is "spam" in this case? Did the person randomly pick unknown people to send messages one by one? or is there a broadcast mechanism that allows people to send messages to more than one person at one time?

On a not so related note - I noticed that Member's List is public, that opens an avenue for spam or people running scripts against our website and collecting information. Can all personal information be private (also encourages people to register + give more details about themselves maybe?) and we only present statistical information to the public? (e.g. where in the world, or member count etc.?)

[silverblue]

Oh yeah, Bachok, what do you mean create a poll on this? What will the poll be like and what's its purpose?

[bachok83]

to silverblue:

some sort of whether or not to include instant messenger.

well to me, the messenger thingy is very handy. I get to talk to masterof_none mostly from the messenger about ongoing stuff. I really liked it.

Gosh i missed it.. hahaha

[__earth]

how about simply banning the spammers and still continue the IM.

[bachok83]

to __earth:

that's what chenchow proposed to me before. Well, if that is the solution, we need to recode the messenger.

and to be honest, i'm not that good at it. Probably luke might be able to do it. However, he's done tons of things for recom. We cant ask him anymore.

Anyway, i'll try my best...

[luke]

Also, what is "spam" in this case? Did the person randomly pick unknown people to send messages one by one? or is there a broadcast mechanism that allows people to send messages to more than one person at one time?
I received this bombarding msg after msg from this one guy and all the contents are stu-noHarmImplied-pid jokes like "why is YAMAHA named like that?" etc etc ... i dunno what's his purpose but it really annoyed me ...

I know I myself send messages out of the blue but all my msgs are something I was sincere about ... I remember 1st IM'ing budakkerek and namirays joking about their username but that's it .. and I don't think if anyone would be annoyed by that .. but sending meaningless msgs is different and it's an annoyance ...

ok, my words might sound offensive but won't you feel even more offended if someone (especially strangers) spams you ... imagine the IM system as your telephone @<hidden> ReCom's world ... now someone calls you on the telephone and asks you a why-does-the-chicken-cross-the-road question ... how do you feel?

p/s to bachok83: I'm more than happy to recode the IM .. I'm thinking about a "Block user" function ... now I've studied the code and I think it's fairly simple to add the feature .. what I need is another column on the SQL table where we can store each user's blocked buddies ..

[chenchow]

On Silverblue's questions: "Can u guys please clarify what these spammers did? What did they send and how many members actually complained? And how serious was it to have caused the instant messenger to be temporarily suspended? I feel that we should penalize those who are at fault but don't completely remove the instant messenger just bcos of a few culprits."

Syamsul has the record of those users that spam. I was not hit, but according to Yusuf, quite a number of people were affected. From what I heard, I know of some disturbing messages, vulgar languages etc. I don't have the stats, I will leave it for Syamsul to reply on this.

Yeah, the temporary suspension was done to stop it from ongoing. I have trekked down some people who have used fake email address to sign on as ReCom members and spam people. I know of people who just send empty messages (numerous of those) to people.

Definitely, we will have the instant messenger back, but the temporary suspension is just to prevent further harm and we would like to get everyone's opinion on how to solve the problem. Instant Messenger is here to stay, it is just how we are going to deal with this problem.

Jiin Joo, on the data, you need to get from Syamsul. May be Jiin Joo, you could help to look into the log of instant messaging and try to see any trends of people sending a lot of such message.

Currently the email address is only available for those registered user, I believe. But that is a very good suggestion and I think we should do something to protect ReCom members.

_earth, do you have any idea on how to do that. Sorry for my innocence.

I believe Syamsul will address everyone soon on this matter. Hope everyone can be patient.

Yeah, I would like those who are affected by spams, to help us, by disclosing the kind of spams that you were affected etc. I am not sure revealing their username here is good or not, but you can decide, but of course to those affected by spams, please report to us.

Sorry for all the inconveniences. My hope would be that we could resume Instant Messenger within the next 24 or 48 hours.

[silverblue]

I feel that we should keep the messenger. And I think most people will agree that it has been very useful.... it's a really important networking tool for us, as we get to communicate among members instantly to make friends, clarify things, discuss about issues, send urgent messages, etc... we definitely shouldn't lose it.

I still want to know how we discovered that we had been spammed? I didnt get spammed at all. and I hope that the relevant anchors can divulge a little about how all this started before making decisions to ban people or to do something about the messenger... thanks!

[bachok83]

i have no further comments on this, i'll keep on reading thos thread after this.

however, we wont ban ppl instantaneously, i'm sure that we can implement some sort of warning levels.

[chenchow]

I would suggest that we appoint someone to be in charge of Instant Messaging. So, what would happen is that those who get spammed would copy out the spamming message and username. Post it on a thread in forum. Since no one can just simply post anything based on anonymous, hopefully no one will abuse this.

If 3 people have complained about a user, final warning would be issued to the user and if there is any complaint of the user within the next 1 month, the user would be suspended!

What do you guys think of this idea? We really need everyone's idea and help to solve.

Yeah, I have been using instant messaging a lot and I have to say that it is one of the most useful tools in ReCom. We should not lose it and we will definitely not lose it. It is just a matter of how we are going to deal with it. Hope everyone can be patient, as we together help to solve this problem.

(One thing, if we feel that the loss of instant messenger is an inconvenience, that really means that ReCom has helped a lot in our life~!)

[royston]

humm... spammer huh?

I have 2 suggestions here, maybe a little bit useless but hope you guys can think about it:

1. Disable the Broadcast Public Message. If there is something important and need attention from everyone, we may start a thread. I don't think so within 255 characters is sufficient for something that need to be broadcasted.

2. During registration, do something like... send an email to the a/c provided by the new users, include a link there in order to "activate" their a/c sort of like an acknowledgement from new members in the meantime automatically prove that no fake email a/c is provided.

~ roy ~

[chenchow]

Royston, thanks a lot for your idea! Both are good ideas. What do other ReComers think?

Personally I haven't tried any of the broadcast public message and not sure whether any of the spammers actually use that, but that is a good call. I am sure it will be looked into!

[royston]

Well, I have another idea to get rid of this issue.

When we receive a msg, and immediately we "assume" that it is something anonying or a spam. Can we have an extra feature in our Instant Message to "ignore" the msg from any particular user?

For example, if I received a "Yamaha" msg from masterof_none (joking...) and this masterof_none keeps sending me those nonsense. I can actually ignore his msg from poping out on my screen. If other members encountered the same thing, they can also use this ignore features to disable the opposite party's msg.

Meanwhile, after I have ignore masterof_none and he tried again to send msg to me, he will receive a msg saying that I have put him in my iggy list. How does this sound? I am not sure how tough to do this...

~ roy ~

[chenchow]

Royston, I think it would be a very good idea. Especially it would work like we are able to ignore certain members. But I am just afraid that some people who would like to abuse would actually experiment with it and see how many people would put them on ignore list. Who knows what those people could do. But it is a good idea.

Royston, you have given us suggestions when we really need it. Really hope that other ReCom members could put on their thinking cap and together lets wade through this tough moments.

[masterof_none]

HI guys,
I've read the thread and we can see that a lot of people still love this features. Well, me too.

THere are more than one user spamming me, and I believe that it's not only hapening to me. ANd then they ask all these random questions, with some kind of boring threat, u know, like, if you don't answer, you're this and that. Just now, I suddenly feel that I open a website full of pop-up ads whenever I open the beloved ReCom website.

We really want ReCom to be a healthy community. but we don't want to be a spam community.
Luke, me, and Bachok are working on adding some new features on IM that let us block the spammers. From now, we can just warn and suspend users who spam.

If you have any suggestions/comments on how to improve this features, just buzz them here. Thanks.

[luke]

royston,

I'm currently working on that .. it seems not so hard .. maybe I'll finish it by the day after tomorrow ..

here is what I plan:
- a "block/ignore user" button in the msg popup windows
- a "you are in X's ignore list" error msg
- an unblock/unignore button in the IM frame ..

post here if thre are anything else to add in ..

[royston]

lokman, har... what can I say? You are pretty COOL !!! hahaa... :lol:

Well, for the block/ignore list, I hope that... how to put in words...

Ok, let's say, each time when a user block/ignore someone, there should be a record in a single file and that file can be viewed by the administrator only, not for members, not for anchors.

Even when someone has been released from iggy list, the name still there, only with certain remark but the old record must be there. We will know precisely who are those spamming gang.

Will it be too tough for you? Well, I have been off for quite some time but I know your contribution, I admire you!

~ roy ~

[chenchow]

I would propose that we resume the Instant Messenger now, since I think it is an inconvenience to many genuine users of ReCom.

I would suggest that we would use the "gempar and heboh" method, where if anyone spams you, copy and paste the message and the username and post it in this forum thread.

What do you guys think? I think this will be the temporary solvent.

Luke, thanks a lot! You are very efficient!

[royston]

Ok... I fully agree with you chenchow for this temporary-solution.

Maybe that thread that used to post spammers' message need to be "sticky" ??

Assuming that I am one of the spammer, and I know that my name has been posted out as a spammer, not welcome anymore. I will create a new a/c and continue with the spam. Get caught and posted again, I create another new a/c.

From this, you can see that if we fix the "activation" part in our registration procedures, and probably 1 email a/c can be used for 2 recom a/c only, then those spammers will be very tired keep register for new email a/c and new recom a/c. Hahaha... !!

~ roy ~

[luke]

wow! people who sanggup to register a new account just to spam people! what a determination! how I wish they could use the same determination to promote ReCom! man, couldn't stop using exclamation mark!

[royston]

Gentlemen,

I just realized that we have left out another portion which allows members to broadcast message -- the Shout Box.

Lokman, if I suggest that, put another features for chenchow, masterof_none, yusof and yourself to disable a certain member's "shouting" ability, will it be another tough job for you?

The reason is, if this features added to all users, then it could be a new weapon/toy for those spammers, right? Unless u tell me anyone of you 4 guys is a spammer... hahaa!!

~ roy ~

[z]

regarding the issue of random ppl in the member list, do you ppl think that a member list "clean up" would be useful?

the email activation scheme sounds good.

as for ppl who are already registered, maybe we could send out a mail to get their confirmation/activation. that way, we could also "clean up" (i.e. remove duplicated accounts due to forgotten password/registration/etc., remove users with fake email...) the list, and provide a more realistic representation of our membership (unless, of course, if we really think that the high numbers are of utmost importance.)

[luke]

Lokman, if I suggest that, put another features for chenchow, masterof_none, yusof and yourself to disable a certain member's "shouting" ability, will it be another tough job for you?

The reason is, if this features added to all users, then it could be a new weapon/toy for those spammers, right? Unless u tell me anyone of you 4 guys is a spammer... hahaa!!
IMO the shoutbox is a litle bit different .. because no matter even if all ReCom members use it to spam, it won't annoy you as much as the IM ... IM uses popup windows everytime another user sends you send a msg but the shoutbox does not ...
also, I think we need some loosen-up place here ... shoutbox would be the place ... let ppl rant there ...
this is just my opinion ...

[royston]

Well Zee, I believe some of the active members in recom use fake email as well...

Why don't we announce in Recom page, telling all the members that there will be an activation mail to send out to their email a/c and whoever uses fake email a/c, please change accordingly. This notice can be posted out for 1-2 weeks then we start sending the activation mail.

For those mails that bounced back due to fake email a/c, we may list out their name OR we may delete their a/c immediately, that is up to the majority decision.

Again, macam mana tentang idea ini?

~ roy ~

[royston]

IMO the shoutbox is a litle bit different .. because no matter even if all ReCom members use it to spam, it won't annoy you as much as the IM ... IM uses popup windows everytime another user sends you send a msg but the shoutbox does not ...
also, I think we need some loosen-up place here ... shoutbox would be the place ... let ppl rant there ...
this is just my opinion ...

Although we both have different point-of-view but I agree with yours. If spammer dare to spam in Shout Box, we will know who are they immediately.

By the way, the Ignore function, do we need to ignore the spammers once or each time we log in we need to ignore them again and again? I hope there will be a record so that we don't need to ignore them more than once.

Again, thanks lokman.

~ roy ~

[budakkerek]

hmm...spammers..i've always hated 'em. annoying, disturbing, simply not cool at all. yesterday my sister got a few IMs from this one user, who kept asking her bout a teka-teka of some sort...it was really annoying..i was with her, so just closed the pop-up window. But that fella kept msging her..

Anyway, i do remember Luke sending me some msgs, bout my nickname..that was a LONG time ago..but i wasn't annoyed coz he said it in a friendly + joking manner (Attention to Lukman: i am not promoting you :wink: ) The IM's really useful, coz it's real fast n sthing like chatting on yahoo...

But spammers, send stupefyingly annoying and totally time-wasting jokes, asking weirdly formed questions that doesn't make sense n insult the intelligence of the mind...

Well, whatever you decide to do, don't disable the IM thingy,. coz that'd mean i can IM ppl...and i need IM bcoz i LOVE to kacau Luke..hahaha...Im is real cool...just "dismember" the spammers..bleh tak?

8)

hey..pleae keep the messenging thingy..it's very useful and it help me to know more recomers

[Schye]

-Maybe we can add a "report" button for the members to report any messages that they are uncomfortable with and we may have a board to manage this.

-By the way, I don?t think we should use the "gempar and heboh" that post the name of the spammer in the forum. This is because:
1st, it wont help anything as some spammers will like free publicity.
2nd, we shouldn?t post their name to public before we got the explanation from the spammer (unless they don?t reply). We may suspend them until we get the explanation from those suspected spammers.
3rd, that may be some misunderstanding

- Get the Forum rules and the agreement before joining as a member ready fast and make sure every member agree on it before they join.

I think that is all for now;)

[laplace]

Seng Chye,

Well, the "report" function is good but again, when u think of it... boring ppl may create a few a/c and we are not able to detect. Furthermore, we can't trace IP either as most of the users don't have fixed IP. If you want to resolve the IP to find out the region/country, this also does not make sense.

For the posting spammers' msg and nickname, I guess before users can post the name up, they should try to respond back to the so-called spammer and ask them to stop sending anonying msg, else their name will be posted. If there is any misunderstanding, it should be clarified between these 2 parties immediately right? If the spammer keep sending msg without bothering our "warning", then I believe they deserve for their name and msg to be posted.


Getting forum rules and agreement will not help much. Ask yourself, each time when u join any single email website, registering any forum, will you read ALL the Terms & Conditions before clicking the "Accept" button? As long as all the members agree and give warning to the spammers, I don't see any problem will exist.

In fact, building up an online forum, we have expected some negative issues will happen such as conflict, miss-understanding, argue and so on but if all of us manage it well and be matured to handle our words, I guess this is also a good chance for us to learn and get us mentally grown.

laplace..

[luke]

Instant Messneger is back!

Ok now I've re-enabled our beloved Instant Messenger ... guess what? you can now block messages from those spammers .. just wait till they spam you and click on the "Ignore user" button on the popup message ..

[laplace]

Anchors, when can we have the sticky thread for the spammers? This morning when I logged in, immediately I have more than 20 msgs. Guess what... among these 20, only 3 are from my friends, the rest is from a member called RONALDO with blank msg. I have added this RONALDO into my iggy list.

laplace..

[chenchow]

Laplace, thanks for letting us know! Yeah, put him on ignore list and if others face the same problem, please let us know or post it here!

The thread for spammers are here. I am going to make it sticky now!

[z]

kudos to the ppl who worked extra hard to make this a better place :)

[masterof_none]

Thanks to everyone who responded quickly to fix the IM problem.
And of course, to Luke , for made it happen ! ;-)

If you guys have anything to complaint,suggest, (anything, not only IM),
just shout it. (and of course , we welcome your solution too!).

[Schye]

Anchors, when can we have the sticky thread for the spammers? This morning when I logged in, immediately I have more than 20 msgs. Guess what... among these 20, only 3 are from my friends, the rest is from a member called RONALDO with blank msg. I have added this RONALDO into my iggy list.

laplace..

Haha,
well, i got 37 messeges from the same people too.
hmm, maybe we should see if there is any reason/pattern why we are picked as his victims such as good-looking etc 8)

[chenchow]

It seems that he is one of the culprits. At last check, his account has been terminated.

[laplace]

Haha,
well, i got 37 messeges from the same people too.
hmm, maybe we should see if there is any reason/pattern why we are picked as his victims such as good-looking etc 8)

Seng Chye, I guess the pattern you mentioned is not valid as I am not a good looking guy, you are the ONLY good-looking man in Recom I believe... :twisted:

anyway, thanks chenchow and whoever the admin that terminated this person. I guess we are going to the correct direction, this ignore function is cool... thanks lukman again for your great job !!

laplace..

[budakkerek]

i got this one stupefyingly annoying n very the menyakitkan hati from this person called ANARCHY tanya bout teka teki whatever....who cares? i mean...help!!

[laplace]

budakkerek, you may try to reply him back and ask him not to do so as you have no interest to his "teka-teki". If he sent u msg again with those junk, I guess you may simply ignore him by clicking the "ignore" button.

By the way, I believe those spammer will read this thread. If you wish to continue make problem with Recom, you are welcome. The more you make damage, the more we improve. I guess officially I got to say thanks to you as you help Recom to grow up, but unfortunately you use the wrong way.

laplace..

[__earth]

e-jo -> another one of those spamming mf's.
I suspect all these lower beings are the same person since the style is the same.
Just give me the IP address and I'll make sure he won't bother us again. Or at least give us the server log.

[laplace]

guys, since this issue become HOT recently. I wish to remind something here... not everyone is culprit. Sometimes, our new member will take the initiative to chat with the old members and try to build up some relationship here.

maybe their words not polite or a little bit long winded. So if possible, before we really ignore them, we may try to reply them, clarify those unclear intention behind.

laplace..

[chenchow]

I agree with laplace. I would suggest that we give others a benefit of doubt. If you just receive one or two emails that you think are like spam, reply to them and politely ask them not to do so. If they continuously do that, then you can put them into ignore list.

[luke]

If you just receive one or two emails that you think are like spam, reply to them and politely ask them not to do so.
The thing you mentioned only applicable to our problem here. I read from PCWorld that you SHOULD NOT reply to a promotion or advertisement email (a.k.a spam) unless you subscribe it ... replying to unsolicited email confirms the existence of your email address and as a result you'd receive even more spams ..

[chenchow]

Thanks Luke for pointing it out.. What I really mean is instant message, not email. Yeah, for email, definitely follow as what Luke is saying.

Sorry for the mistake.