[TominScotland]

I see that a couple of random historic posts have appeared in the Forum – I wondered if there is a reason for this and if/ how we can respond to them?

[Tom Otley]

Hi Tom,

Unfortunately these threads are being resurrected because of spam posts. The spam post doesn’t appear, but it bring the old thread back up to the top of the Forum.

We have asked if there is a way that this can be prevented, but at the moment it appears now.

All I can do is close the old threads which stops the spammers targeting them.

Many forums automatically close threads after a period of inactivity as a default, but I’ve been reluctant to do that since certain threads remain relevant.

Thank you. Tom

13 users thanked author for this post.

mkcol74, DNAdams, Montysaurus, Jacob, cwoodward, Swissdiver, PatJordan, ASK1945, Poshgirl58, sparkyflier, DerekVH, stevescoots, TominScotland

[Poshgirl58]

Thanks Tom

Happened to me too. When I saw a certain poster, then the date, realised there was something amiss.

I’ve also had a different experience. Looking at latest posting date on a topic, have opened it, to find that the most recent doesn’t appear. This has happened when I’m logged in or not.

As the victim of a bank scam recently, the only “comment” I can make is they need to get a life…

1 user thanked author for this post.

PatJordan

[Tom Otley]

Yes, absolutely.

The phenomenon you mention is exactly that. The immediately-deleted spam post creates a sot of ‘ghost’ updating of the thread.

In the back office I can see what it was they were posting.

It was very bad before Christmas but we are also blocking the spam accounts every morning which seems to help.

The Forum gets a lot of traffic, with people reading it but not commenting, but it also then attracts spam posters – some of whom are advertising – taxi transfers, holiday tours etc… but mostly just trying to get you to click a link and then goodness knows what.
Tom

5 users thanked author for this post.

mkcol74, Montysaurus, Polly, PatJordan, ASK1945

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=1196586]

poshgirl58 I know that this wont bring back any monies that may have been scammed from you, but you should follow this guy on YouTube as he exacts revenge on all types of scammers stealing their files and re diverting monies…. there is some great content that I hope will make you feel better?

https://www.youtube.com/c/ScammerPayback

4 users thanked author for this post.

Montysaurus, Polly, PatJordan, Poshgirl58

[Poshgirl58]

K1ngston

Thanks for that, will watch.

Pleased to report that just over 12 months after the event, the bank settled in full. Nice Christmas present! My tactics were to persistently post on a well-known product/company review site, plus calling the bank weekly. They were too keen to point me in direction of Financial Ombudsman, who sided with bank. However, the caseworker let slip a few things I then used to my advantage, including disclosure of lies told in bank’s report. What finally swung it was to mention libel. Slander would have been more difficult as I understand there needs to be an independent witness. Complained to MP about Ombudsman being unfit for purpose. He contacted bank too but they just gave him a standard answer (data protection, etc).

I’m probably not allowed to name bank here but it’s one that prided itself in telephone banking when it first started. Even made some strange tv adverts. Sadly, they also need security lessons, as letter advising full and final settlement contained my sort code and account number in full!

6 users thanked author for this post.

mkcol74, Montysaurus, Polly, PatJordan, ASK1945, K1ngston

[K1ngston]

I am pleased and delighted to hear … A merry Xmas indeed 🙂

2 users thanked author for this post.

PatJordan, Poshgirl58

[Tom Otley]

Hello everyone,

Apologies once again for the Forum threads being in this strange order with old forum threads reappearing.

It is because of spammers attacking the forum. While we are stopping those spam posts appearing, we aren’t able to stop the threads being updated by the spam posts.

We have asked the IT people to see if there is a way around it.

One way would be to automatically close forum threads if they have not been contributed to after a period of time, but there are a lot of disadvantages to that, and at the moment, they are also targeting recent threads as well.

Tom

2 users thanked author for this post.

mkcol74, PatJordan

[stevescoots]

maybe a stupid question i should know the answer to but is there a “mark all read” button? for users?

[ASK1945]

Tom

I wass under the impression that you have to be registered to post on the Forum. Chloroquine et al know about our different threads, so how do they attempt to post without all the different variations of their name(s) being registered?

The number of spam posts getting through seems to be increasing.

[Tom Otley]

Hello,
It’s probably some computer programme doing it. They create new accounts with new email addresses to register – we deleted 35 spam users yesterday afternoon and since midnight there have been another 20 and counting, and they are posting multiple times.
Given what’s going on in Europe at the moment, it’s a small problem, but we’ll do what we can.

5 users thanked author for this post.

Ekond222, mkcol74, GivingupBA, PatJordan, ASK1945

[Tom Otley]

I don’t think there is an ‘Mark all read’ but I will ask

[FaroFlyer]

Is this known as throwing a spammer in the works?

6 users thanked author for this post.

mkcol74, Jacob, PatJordan, MartynSinclair, StephenLondon, Tom Otley

[SimonS1]

Maybe it will bring VintageKrug back to life?

BA need him desperately to help polish today’s little steamer.

4 users thanked author for this post.

cwoodward, stevescoots, mkcol74, PatJordan

[Swissdiver]

[postquote quote=1204721]

If we don’t see these posts, I guess it is because they are moderated. So the issue stands at the account creation’s level. Isn’t it possible to make it more challenging for robots?

[Author]

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