A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Spammer blocking question

We're now to a size where we are attractive to these spam bots that want to place links in here. In order to block them I have a captcha in place in the application process, and I read every application (and reject about half of them) but I'm thinking we can do more. Someone has suggested to me that we should put a logic question in the application process, like "what is one and one?". But we might as well have some fun with this, right? So I was thinking of "how do fish move through the water?" But does anyone have any better ideas?

2 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Bob Terrell on March 28, 2013 at 7:27pm

duh what movie?

Paul Letby said:

I just watched that movie again after like 20 years! It's a classic.

It's just a flesh wound!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa Tingle on April 29, 2013 at 9:18pm

Hopefully this is the right place to post this... I just got an email (not the inbox here) from a member who wants me to contact him off the "public" site. Something about it seems fishy (pun intended). ;) His email address is from Hong Kong and his profile says he's from Africa. The email alone raised a flag the way it was written. I have had my fair share of the Phishing emails from Kenya and elsewhere... I know them well enough to spot them a mile away. I do not like, nor want, that kind of solicitation. Here is the text from his email to me:

FRANK KWABENA added a comment to your profile on Aquaponic Gardening

------------
Good Day,

How is everything with you, I picked interest on you after going through your

short profile and deemed it necessary to write you immediately. I have something

very vital to disclose to you, but I found it difficult to express myself here,

since it's a public site.Could you please get back to me on:(

mr.frankkwabena0022@yahoo.com.hk ) for the full details.

Have a nice day

Thanks God bless.

▶ Reply

ModeratorPermalink Reply by Bob Terrell on April 29, 2013 at 9:25pm

Lisa ,That is a scam e mail if I ever saw one. Please cc that email to Sylvia B. so she can nuke him. We don't need that kind of stuff here.

Lisa Tingle said:

Hopefully this is the right place to post this... I just got an email (not the inbox here) from a member who wants me to contact him off the "public" site. Something about it seems fishy (pun intended). His email address is from Hong Kong and his profile says he's from Africa. The email alone raised a flag the way it was written. I have had my fair share of the Phishing emails from Kenya and elsewhere... I know them well enough to spot them a mile away. I do not like, nor want, that kind of solicitation. Here is the text from his email to me:

FRANK KWABENA added a comment to your profile on Aquaponic Gardening

------------
Good Day,

How is everything with you, I picked interest on you after going through your

short profile and deemed it necessary to write you immediately. I have something

very vital to disclose to you, but I found it difficult to express myself here,

since it's a public site.Could you please get back to me on:(

mr.frankkwabena0022@yahoo.com.hk ) for the full details.

Have a nice day

Thanks God bless.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa Tingle on April 29, 2013 at 9:58pm

Will do. Thanks, Bob.

Bob Terrell said:

Lisa ,That is a scam e mail if I ever saw one. Please cc that email to Sylvia B. so she can nuke him. We don't need that kind of stuff here.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David - WI on April 30, 2013 at 7:55am

Yes, if you google "frankkwabena0022" you get 1,100 results that are basically identical to the message posted here; but I don't understand how he could have gotten your e-mail address from this forum???

Are you sure you didn't just get the e-mail copy of his message to you, from the board? I don't see any place that you've made your e-mail address public on here?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lisa Tingle on April 30, 2013 at 8:12am

No idea. You are probably correct. It came through AP Gardening, but wasn't in my inbox here, so I just saw it as being in my "email". No worries, I didn't answer it, I just immediately posted here since he is listed as a member here.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David - WI on April 30, 2013 at 8:21am

Cool... otherwise I would have said the board's database was hacked and there was a BIG problem.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Beth Medeiros on April 30, 2013 at 11:47am

I got an iffy response from someone just two days into signing up. So I thank you for trying to head it off. Should we report it to you, Sylvia, if we do get one?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David - WI on April 30, 2013 at 11:55am

If you're just getting an e-mail from Aquaponic Gardening saying that someone added a comment, like the one above:

"FRANK KWABENA added a comment to your profile on Aquaponic Gardening"

Then there is no direct link to you - he isn't contacting you directly and doesn't have your contact info; it's just the board software sending you a "notification" that someone posted a comment on your profile.

I would suggest (just a suggestion) that you go to your profile and look under "Privacy Settings" where you can check a box that requires any comments to your profile to be "approved" by you before they get published.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alex Veidel on April 30, 2013 at 2:11pm

Yeah, I got one of those too on the very first day. Someone random person named "Sylvia Bernstein" commented on my wall the following:

Welcome Alex,

Thanks for joining the Aquaponic Gardening community! I hope you find it a fun place to explore aquaponics. There is a real blend of experienced and new aquapons in this community, so please don’t hesitate to get in there and start asking questions. Everyone is quite happy to help out new members – no question is too basic. A great place to start is to read the “How to Use This Site” link on the upper right corner, “Start Here” section of the Home page. You might also find the “Aquaponic Gardening Rules of Thumb” guidelines helpful. Please add a profile image, participate and check in with us every day! We are constantly posting news about aquaponics and the good food movement.Thanks again for joining us, and I look forward to getting to know you."

I ran a search on this comment and found that someone had posted the exact same thing on every single profile in the community. I don't know... seems mighty suspicious to me :/ "Sylvia Bernstein" might be one that needs to be nuked, Sylvia. ;)

Beth Medeiros said:

I got an iffy response from someone just two days into signing up. So I thank you for trying to head it off. Should we report it to you, Sylvia, if we do get one?