Email Spamming & Inappropriate Use of This Site

Now there is a NEW person messing with us.

The screen name is testdiabetic and he (assumed gender) has started 2 discussions within the past hour. (click on the newest tab in the discussions) and you'll see them there. I redflagged both of them and asked that testdiabetic be kicked off the site and the posts deleted. Tom (old-n grey-n-wiser answered him on his first posting.

I didn't see that I don't think. I looked for it yesterday and never found the discussion, so maybe they were removed? Thanks for keeping watch, you rock!!

Thanks I will go check that out.

Whoever it was is gone now as are the posts. The community manager was on top of things yesterday. They disappeared not long after I posted the above.

They do keep an eye on stuff with your help. It gets harder as the site grows. Like I said, just use those little red flags. Those are better than calling out on the public forum. They get seen right away.

If there is a red flag available I use it before I post to one of these discussions. If there is not a red flag available as on wall postings and email inbox messages
I highlight, copy and paste into a message to 2 or 3 administrators. then when that is done I will come to a discussion like this and post a warning.

Sounds good to me, I don't see how you could do it any other way? Also, speaking out as well alerts the rest of us while waiting for administraters to get to it.

Good job!!

It does, and warnings are good. But sometimes it gives an impression that this is all we are and it is a very small part of what happens in the site. The other thing is that sometimes we jump to conclusions. So we may be bad mouthing someone in a public way that just needs to know they cannot do certain things. I almost always try to reach out the the member before judging because sometimes (and I know this is hard to believe) people don't read the terms of use.

You know, you don't have to read TOU to know using profanity is not ok, especially what she was using.

i agree gabby I know I didn't read the TOU thoroughly when I first signed on.
I didn't bother till someone took a salesperson to task years ago.

Yes it is only a very small part of what we do but in some cases a word of warning is appreciated by the person. I had warned someone about posting a link to a MLM site where products were sold. That person thanked me for the warning and took down the link. That person is still on DC and contributes regularly. In fact I was "talking" to that person this AM.

In my warnings I try not to badmouth the person and be very polite to them, but say it strongly enough to get their attention. I have developed a template that I can copy into my response to the sales person.

As far as jumping to conclusions I did that this morning because I thought that Pharmacist George might be a salesperson when in reality he was be a new CA introducing himself to us. That was a bit embarassing to give him a hard time needlessly.

That is my point. Sometimes we need to step back and look. There are obvious ones, but sometimes it is not so clear. We have many members here who started out on the wrong foot.

In no way to I want you guys to stop doing what you are doing. I hope you don't take that from my comments. What I am saying is that I try to make sure before I say anything especially in the public format. I usually approach people privately first. I know you don't all have access to every member as I do. That is why we appreciate it when you let us know first so we can check things out.

Are you guys still getting these or are they just left in your email boxes? We found a couple of them in her name. But if you are still getting them, please give us the link to the profile so we can look into it. Thanks for all you guys do. We couldn't do this without you.

I haven't receive anymore.
Thank you for addressing this.

nor have I

I got the same one and just hit delete

I got the same message on my profile,she sent me a email to my email address to,she's from the Ivory coast of africa

I have seen people who are on DC who use their email address as their screen name. And I have seen people post their email addresses in an open discussion which can be visible through a search on Google. I urge those in both categories to get it changed. (yes your screen name CAN be changed if you ask the administrators to get the techs to do it) And of course you yourself can edit your own postings (except for the original post)

Sounds like your email address is set on Public. I recommend that you go to your Privacy Settings page and change that immediately to prevent this from happening again.

I also have mine closed to the public. Have shared it with only a few people as a way to exchange important information.

I actually like your approach. I still view these with abject amazement. It is simply crude and vulgar to go to a site where people share medical, and other, challenges and ignore that content to advance your desire to solicit money (isn't it always money). As an aside, I am sure that every single Nigerian "female" is actually a man.

I think we should all handle it this way, or perhaps even more directly.

Great idea.

Yes, Scott, it is, but to those inside the "third world" we are the crude and vulgar ones in that we are so wealthy and we won't share it. (Even in our "poverty" we really are more wealthy than those in the 3d world, on a $ to $ comparison)

A few years ago just after my divorce I was contacted on a dating website by a "female" from a small town outside of St Petersburg Russia. After a few exchanges with "her" it became clear to me that the thing to whom I was responding was in reality a computer program designed to send out a pre-programed reply whenever I replied to her. It became clear when I replied to "her" with a gibberish email and got a reply back which ignored my gibberish and continued on with "her" agenda.

I am concerned about the population of Nigeria, for if EVERY single Nigerian "female" is male how will they reproduce? LoL!

they have there ways trust I have been there

ROTFL!

I got a new one Just now in my DC email box: I had just read this discussion again and was notified just of the email just now.

Just edited out the email at gabby's request.

Yeah, I just got her too. She has been reported and flagged. The weekends always seem to bring out the worst in folks.

James, if you would please remover her email from your post for us though. We don't want to spread anything out here that curious folks might get into. I know it is out there already, but the fewer places it shows up the better. Thanks

BUT it is only MONDAY

They slept in late and forgot to be with the crowd.

Thank you for taking care of this.
And thank all of you who responded with your suggestions how to address it.

ok will do!

Thanks so much, really appreciate it.

I got the same e-mail yesterday. It really upset me that someone would use a help site for this type of scamm. I just deleted it.

that's awful, some vulnerable people could be tricked by that.. we all must be careful

Just like in my e-mail, if I don't recognize the sender it gets trashed. It is a shame that some of the mail I trash is from people who really want to talk. Oh, watch out for phishing from IRS it's that time of the year.

you mean the phishing SCAMS from folks claiming to be from the IRS. I have it on good authority that the REAL IRS doesn't use email to contact people. They use snail mail for the first contact.

I got the same one, or something very similar. Spam such as this is NOT from some legitimate person looking for a date. It is the work of professional spammers, probably in Asia or eastern Europe. Once they get you to reply to their message with your real e-mail address, you will wind-up on every spam list known to man. Do NOT e-mail them to complain. You will just be giving them what they really want. Your contact information.

Thanks, I got the same one, glanced at it and went on to answer something else. When I went back and read it, I couldn't believe it. I was going to say something, but it was late, was going to do it today. This is not the place for it, I’m glad it was taken care.

I was online late one night while this person was posting. I sent her an email saying this was a health related site, not a dating service, and that her inappropriate postings had been reported to administration. She had posted about 50 times when I saw it. Administration did remove her.

Carol you are awesome! Louise

It was kind of obvious; it went on for pages and pages. Pat says she counted them at 150. Mary Ann had caught someone else doing this a few weeks before. Since most are addressed to adult males or those with more androgenous names, it's kind of obvious this is the cyber equivalent of the mail order bride of the 1900's.

but as I found out not every one who posts these are female. I was emailed through a dating website by a "girl'" from Russia who had seen my profile and was crazy in love with me. As I responded to her it became clearer and clearer to me that what was happening is that she was responding to none of the questions I was asking, and she just went on and on about her life and her troubles. I eventually decided to test this and sent her a email full of gibberish, and she went on with her reply as though I hadn't sent gibberish. It became clear to me I was having an affair with a computer program designed to send the next letter once I sent anything. Needless to say I ended that "relationship" quickly.

And I read of a fella who went overseas to meet his "sweetheart" and he was met at the airport by 3 thugs who took him to meet his new intended, only when they got there there was no "sweetheart" there. The thugs held him captive until a ransom was paid. This fella was not wealthy so he couldn't pay what they wanted so he was instructed to email friends in the USA to ransom him. Fortunately this guy somehow tricked these thugs into letting him escape.

So it may not be the cyber equivalent of the mail order bride, but a out and out scam and deception.

It's all scam and deception.

My point was everyone who posts these messages are male, by the way, I was being facetious. I think you may be right though. Someone suggested these emails were sent out to males; but my "name" here is neither male nor female and the picture on my profile isn't even human. Maybe I just made your point, the author of these messages may not be human either.

I have to admit, I really like this site even if it has the occasional pseudo-quasi-semi-romantic unwelcomed messages.

Well amen to that, we can't let these things discourage anyone from the support thatbthis site provides. Like everything in life there will be occasional "unwelcome" posts.

They have been reported and should be gone soon. I am sorry for the trouble they have caused.

I think that sometimes people think the "connect" in our name makes us a dating site…hmmm. Maybe we should be called double dee. Dating Diabetics. LOL…seriously. NO.

This has to be some kind of computer generated program because they just managed to post over 150 of these messages in less than 15 minutes.

Wow, how did you find that out?

I was scrolling through my Everybody link and there they were. I stopped counting after 100 but there were clearly lots and lots more. Glad they were removed but unfortunately I don't think it's the last we'll see of them.

or ppl like them

Well all computers even laptops notebooks and etc have an ID of whatever they are using…The Admin can block that ID number. Just a thought

I am not privy to the way they resolve those kinds of things. I know they check into all of our concerns and act on them the best way they are able. We have a great team of people who work behind the scenes to make this site work as well as it does.

I believe Temi is referring to the isp address, this is the way your email provider sorts spam from regular mail.
Tom

Tom, that is what I was thinking, but who knows how many computers this person has or uses.

Usually a person even with several computers has only one Internet supplier due to cost, not sure how it works if you are using a Mobile device.
Tom

I was thinking work, library, friends, etc. But you do havea point. I don't know how much about mobile devices either.

maybe someone from tech support could drop in and explain some of the ways this could happen
Tom

I was thinking of asking the neighbors 7yr old, as I'm sure she has it down, probably learned it in school, haha. You know the whole child proof thing, it only works on adults.

Could be a one person or a hundred. But it isn't hard for someone with computer knowledge to change their IP address or route their computer through multiple hosts, different routers and go to different open WiFi locations. This can even be done on a phone or ipod, anything that has internet access.

I didn't get one, and that person should be very glad! I have great comebacks for crap like this, and then I report them! I once told an obscene phone caller that I only "did it" with German Shephards, and he hung up on ME!! My apologies to German Shephards everywhere :)

Awesome! Maybe someday these people will get the hint!

hilarious! I may need to borrow that one!

Pedophiles do this also just to see who will answer. Posing as a young girl might get the attention of a young girl for them to prey on. All this person will do is change their information and continue to return. This person may also have more than one computer.

Yep! That's one of the concerns I raised when I contacted the administrators.

I got a copy and reported it immediately… I think Alliance Health needs to do a blanket delete and block that spammer…

You can block any person from your profile. There is a link at the bottom left of the profile pages that allows you to block and/or report the person. Please feel free to take advantage of that feature. It helps us find things like this much faster than going through a discussion.

Gabby, I did block them and used the "Report" button also… I understand how these things work.

Gabby can you just Block someone without having to fill out the Report box?

i got the same email..and i looked at her profile or what ever.seems lie she sent one to everyone..

Yes, I got it too.

The problem with blocking someone is they can create a new email address and another account ID. Blocking their ISP does not work either especially if they go online in a public place such as a library or coffee shop etc.

Digital I have received these spams on other forums. It sounds like it is written by a Nigerian wanting to come to the US. They find people on all sites. While this type of thing is very disturbing remember this type of people forage all forum sites looking for easy prey. Sites like this make it easy to join which is great and they really cannot do background checks on all site applicants.
God bless,
Mary

I have also received the posting to my "wall" from this person. I went to this person's profile and noted on her activities tab that "she" had posted the same thing on many other peoples' walls. (gee I am heart-broken, I thought it was true love — LoL!)

I also have emailed Jralphs, John Crowley and Gabby and included what I received and also what I noted on "her" activities tab.

Over the years I've been here, I have found that if there's not a red flag available I get good results with copying and pasting and emailing what I see to administrators. They are usually quick to jump on the problem, and there have been many over the years.

James, I am an overweight, partially disabled, unatractive diabetic woman and would sincerely love to meet you :) Oops I forgot to mention old.

That would be rubenesque with charachter and experience.

ROFLMBO!!!!!!!!

Mary, you forgot the part about being a great friend. The rest is unimportant :)