Hacked?

To the best of my knowledge the site is secure but spammers are lurking!

Joe or Charlie may know more.

The spammers

Rick,

Indeed, that was (I enphasize was ) a spammer.  Usually it's a few minutes until one of the regular posters with the "mark this as spam" option see's it, then it's gone.  I got one; someone else removed the other.  Good as new!

By the way, keep up the posting.  I find your work very encouraging and inspiring.  Thanks.

spammers

Yes, as Don says WAS a spammer.  I was in the process of nuking the spam and they started to disappear before I could get them, thanks Don!  There are a number of spam cops lurking at MRH besides the MRH team so spam does not survive for long.  I have sent an alert to site admins as well.

Spam

Don & Blue,

Thanks for the quick replys - if you check the first link in my email you will  see that now it's a different spam!

Don,  Thank you for your encouraging words - I'll keep posting.  I'm currently working on a video entitled "Forced Perspective - A Basic Primer" that may (or may not) end up on Movie Monday at MRH.  If it doesn't make the cut, I'll post it to my blog here on MRH.

Rick

we have another NEW SPAM MEMBER

He goes by the name Richard2402

He is selling Sports Jerseys and fills pages up with His sales sites of individual Jerseys I have reported this to Admin and I have Deleted 3 of his posts in 3 days.

If you see (Richard2402) do not comment or click on his sites as this will duplicate the post!! Contact Admin ASAP

Rio Grande Dan     (Spam Deputy)

I've deputized a few of our regulars

I've deputized a few of our regulars and given them the abilty to block user posting by user id.

Not only can you all mark a post as spam, the deputized members can block the spammer's id so they can't post to the site any longer.

Between these two abilities, we're able to jump on spam pretty quickly.

We've also put all new members on admin validate - it typically may take 24 or more hours before they can post on the site. This also slows spammers down some because the instant gratification ability is removed. They must be so motivated that they want to *come back* a few days after they requested their account in order to spam us.

This site is getting pretty good traffic - we're among the top 200,000 web sites on the internet - and there's well over 200 million web sites out there, so we're in the top 0.1% of all sites on the internet - not bad! You guys should be proud - the way you get this sort of notariety is the traffic.

It's all of you that help make this site what it is - the posts and discussions you have. Without all that, few would want to hang around here.

But this sort of notariety is a double-edged sword. It also means people wanting to get a better Google search rating for their web site will hire spammers to go spam sites in the top 1% with posts that have links to their web site. Google ranks a web site based on how many other sites link to it - under the assumption that the more links there are to a web site, the more interesting it probably is so it should show up higher in a Google search.

That's *why* spammers are spamming this site. We're a highly rated site to Google, and links from us to them improves their Google ranking when someone does a search.

Our new deputies will jump those spammers before they even knew what hit 'em!

Spammers

Joe,

Thanks for the quick reply & information!  It's great to see that you are "on the ball".

Rick

Let's get some terms defined

What happened was that someone was approved as a member and then posted unacceptable content?

That's not my understanding of "hacked," which would be the ability to -change- content or otherwise mess with parts of the site under management control.

dave 

Yes, it's "spammed", not "hacked"

Yes, the more correct description is "spammed", not "hacked". Hacked implies someone broke into our web server and trashed the pages so the site was "broken".

Spammed simply means a bunch of garbage posts by someone who has no interest in trains and the posts have no bearing on trains.

Spam

Joe,

I edited my post so that hopefully people won't be alarmed.  Feel free to remove the entire thread if best.

Thanks!

Rick

Thanks, Rick - not a problem

Not problem, Rick. On the surface, hacked and spammed may look the same, but hacked is way more than skin deep.

Rick Spamers are looking to get free add space so they

Join our forums and then wait a few days and maybe a week they watch the posts and look for key words like:

One of the regular members posts about Walters is now supplying the new HO Ford Chevy pick up trucks in "O" scale as Well as "N"

The the Spam member jumps in with a post :

Yes that's a great new truck and speaking of trucks did you check out the new 2011 Dodge and the best insurance you can buy at  http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com   check it out and give  me a buzz for the best deal at 555-I-want-money.

 That's a spam message with a re-direct usually to another site and nothing on the post is RR related. every time they add a post they try to be trickier and there are enough of us Spam Deputies that at least one of us is on line 24 hrs a day to delete their post and lock out their account.

Rick you are a trusted member and wouldn't be tagged as a spammer as your aloud to talk about things other than railroading in your blog if you really feel it necessary.

Dan

Constant Surveilance

Indeed there are!  When the spammer activity increases I also increase my time spent monitoring the site for offenders.  They don't stand a chance!

Thank you!

God bless you anti-spam guys!  I guess that's one of the advantages of the printed mags - they don't have to worry about spam.  Keeping MRH spam free is key to making the on line experience with MRH a pleasure.

Rick