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Caution - virus spreading via PM on message board

Started by jamespetts, February 08, 2010, 12:34:25 AM

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jamespetts

I have received a PM from a fake user called "forumteam" which tries to get me to download this virus/trojan (link to discussion of the virus, not the download for the virus itself). Board users should be aware of this sort of scam, and remember never to follow links, much less install unknown software, from unsolicited messages.
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Isaac Eiland-Hall

The user was real, and has been banned. Also, "forum" and "team" are disallowed from usernames. Personal messages are a little more restricted than previous.

Also, I normally look at new users who sign up; I hadn't caught up on emails before this happened; but I will continue to monitor them (while catching up, I caught a spammer who hadn't posted yet thankfully).

Thank you to James for immediately reporting the PM - that was actually the first thing I noticed when I did open email, was his report of the PM. Well done, sir.

z9999+

Quote from: Isaac.Eiland-Hall on February 08, 2010, 03:20:16 AM
(while catching up, I caught a spammer who hadn't posted yet thankfully).
This site might help a little to check spam. http://www.stopforumspam.com/
This site also provide SMF Mod and result is shared with DNSBL.

Isaac Eiland-Hall

That is a mod I would consider installing, but for now, I would highly prefer to continue not to install any forum mods.

I think the *most* effective defense against this type of attack is to continue to watch the usernames that sign up, and look for authoritative-sounding keywords, and prevent users from using them.

If "ForumTeam" sends out a PM, it might fool some; but if "j3rj3fskdcv0" sends one out, I would hope it would not.

I think the next step would be to require admins to approve new accounts, rather than install mods.

In fact, I may make that change for now anyway...