Bank Robber's PM?

it was an invitation to another messageboard. i took one look at the other people he sent it to and smashed my monitor with a sledge hammer.

I admit that I DID think about it, but I have a rule that I can't play on the forums unless I've done my 500 words a day. Adding another message board would mean another 500 words. Nope, I'll pass.

I didn't realize that a banned user name could still access the messaging system. Are they just banned from posting?

He didn't get banned until after he sent it. He had two mods in his mailing list I checked the forum, it's real, Bank Robber is user #1 and an admin there. They have 134 members, we have over 10k. I'm sure he thought this would be a happy hunting ground.

*shrugs* Just looks like a message board to me. True, I don't have time for another one, but it seems harmless enough.

I got it too, deleted it right away. He gone.

It may be harmless, but it's bad form to do that.

Plus, I think it might even be in Da Rules...

I wouldn't worry about that. I think it just relates to the Robber not having posted on the forum yet so his profile page didn't exist (or something like that)

You guys get all the fun whack jobs... I never get anything interesting like that...

I suspect it was because you hit the moment Bank Robber was being banned.

Pretty much everyone got that page when we went to gawk at the spammer

Heh. The second it popped up, I forwarded it to Mac. This must be (wait) the second time I've gotten PM spam. I love how she referred to the spammer as an "it."

I got that PM and reported it immediately. There were several dozen members targeted, just from what I could see. I would imagine there were more than that, though.

A lot more.

I wonder how it's even possible for Bank Robber to have done that, since there's a message at the top of the Private Message thingy that says you can only send a message to 5 people at a time. I wonder if the individual was some kind of hacker, and what other kinds of damage he or she could have done.

Bothersome, to be sure.

Alan Yee said:

Heh. The second it popped up, I forwarded it to Mac. This must be (wait) the second time I've gotten PM spam. I love how she referred to the spammer as an "it."

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Mac must have sent us the same PM. She referred to the spammer as 'it' in the PM I received, as well.

robeiae said:

It may be harmless, but it's bad form to do that.

Plus, I think it might even be in Da Rules...

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Here's what Da Rules have to say about it. I've added the emphasis for clarity.

From Newbie's Guide to Absolute Write, Post #1: Don't use AW to spruik for other writers' forums.

JennaGlatzer said:

Edit Signature: Your signature, if you choose to have one, appears on every post you make. Here's what it says in the instructions: "(Please note: It's perfectly fine to link to your blog, personal site, book info, etc., but we're not too fond of it when people use this forum to try to attract traffic to other writers' forums. Thanks for your consideration.)"

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Post #4: If you're going to advertise, do it in the Announcements... Forum, and nowhere else.

JennaGlatzer said:

ADVERTISING: If your post is meant to promote your site, your new book, your course, your editing service, your blog, your writing contest, etc., there is ONE PLACE you can post it-- here, on the Announcements, Events, and Self-Promotion board. Thinly-veiled advertisements count, too. The members here will see right through you, I promise.

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Bank Robber knew the promotion wasn't on the up-and-up. Otherwise, why go to the trouble of PM's, when a new thread would've done the trick?

I got his pm too and knew the moment I read his username Bank Robber, his pm wouldn't be good. I just deleted it.

Dawno said:

He didn't get banned until after he sent it. He had two mods in his mailing list I checked the forum, it's real, Bank Robber is user #1 and an admin there. They have 134 members, we have over 10k. I'm sure he thought this would be a happy hunting ground.

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I got that PM and saw that a bunch of others got it too, presumably including ubermods who ban spammers instantaneously. But I didn't see this thread until now.

Being the net.vigilante that I am, I immediately went to the site just after getting the spam (and looked at the whois for that domain, the registration is private), there's a 'guest' area where you can post without registering. I did so (with some other name and email address, though if the spammer is reading this, it now knows I was the one posting) with a topic "You are a spammer" and in less than a minute the topic line was edited to something like "THIS IS A NICE PLACE." Posting there was clearly a losing battle, so I stopped wasting my time. But I did see that my mention of Orlando Bloom in the body of the post was left there. So there.

Sounds perfectly reasonable. Make the spammers really have to work at it.

There's something to be said for having only a few members on a board, though. Spammers don't usually bother if your membership is less than fifty or so. Popular places like AW must make them salivate just thinking of all those target--uh... members they could approach.

It doesn't take long for them to find out that our mods are just as efficient as they are pleasant. (Well, unless Pete and Carrie get there first.)

Dang it. The spammers never PM me. I must not look approachable enough. Perhaps if I swapped the Yorkie out for a Poodle?

Soccer Mom said:

Dang it. The spammers never PM me. I must not look approachable enough. Perhaps if I swapped the Yorkie out for a Poodle?

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Me either. I guess I'm unapproachable, but I change my avatar often as a disguise.

William Haskins said:

it was an invitation to another messageboard. i took one look at the other people he sent it to and smashed my monitor with a sledge hammer.

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Gee thanks....and here I thought I was honored to be grouped among esteemed peers as y'all.

I think I'm gonna go cry now.



*sniff*