Why so much spam?

[Kahuna32162]

All of a sudden we are seeing a lot of new posters advertising puppies of all breeds and now drugs by mail, including medical pot. These have showed up in the classifieds as well.

Why is this happening so much and how can you improve your filtering to keep this kind of SPAM out of TOTV?

[Villager Joyce]

I sent multiple notices to admin. Notice you did as well. Guess TOTV has been hacked or invaded.

[graciegirl]

Hope this can be fixed.

[redwitch]

Sadly, they're not spam. They're ads. Someone discovered this site and figured it would be a great place to sell dogs from puppy mills and the meds. Both are from the same two individuals, so probably an all in one obscenity. You have option to opt out of seeing the classified ads but that's about the only thing you can do. The so-called people who run these ads change names and IP addresses at the drop of a hat. Next to impossible to monitor unless you have one person doing nothing but checking ads and approving them for posting. Would have to be on almost continuously.

[graciegirl]

Sadly, they're not spam. They're ads. Someone discovered this site and figured it would be a great place to sell dogs from puppy mills and the meds. Both are from the same two individuals, so probably an all in one obscenity. You have option to opt out of seeing the classified ads but that's about the only thing you can do. The so-called people who run these ads change names and IP addresses at the drop of a hat. Next to impossible to monitor unless you have one person doing nothing but checking ads and approving them for posting. Would have to be on almost continuously.


And thank heavens the forum appears to have just that, because they are now gone.

This is a very well maintained forum. Thank you administrators and moderators.

[Villager Joyce]

Is it correct that anyone can join TOTV, but you have to be a Villager to post in the classified forum. These people are smart enough to post on the Pets and Medical forums.

[TOTV Team]

Is it correct that anyone can join TOTV, but you have to be a Villager to post in the classified forum. These people are smart enough to post on the Pets and Medical forums.

Yes you are correct. These are people that are registering and we are manually banning.

[TOTV Team]

All of a sudden we are seeing a lot of new posters advertising puppies of all breeds and now drugs by mail, including medical pot. These have showed up in the classifieds as well.

Why is this happening so much and how can you improve your filtering to keep this kind of SPAM out of TOTV?

This is not happening frequently - if you are on other forums you will notice it is rare to get spam on TOTV but it happens to all sites. We follow up and ban the user and IP address.

Regards,

TOTV Team

[Ecuadog]

I have used this web site (http://www.stopforumspam.com/search) to help identify spammers.

[jnieman]

This is not happening frequently - if you are on other forums you will notice it is rare to get spam on TOTV but it happens to all sites. We follow up and ban the user and IP address.

Regards,

TOTV Team

Thanks Admin. It is alarming to see people like this invade our space. I know it is difficult to identify but you are doing a great job and we all appreciate your efforts to keep this to a Villages only classified section.

[TOTV Team]

Someone right now local is trying to force their puppy mill business on the site. We continue to ban the user accounts and ip addresses and remove the ads.

[Villager Joyce]

Someone right now local is trying to force their puppy mill business on the site. We continue to ban the user accounts and ip addresses and remove the ads.

Thanks:BigApplause:

[ziggie]

Someone right now local is trying to force their puppy mill business on the site. We continue to ban the user accounts and ip addresses and remove the ads.

:bigbow:

[redwitch]

Someone right now local is trying to force their puppy mill business on the site. We continue to ban the user accounts and ip addresses and remove the ads.

You have my sympathies. Thank you for beating them at their own game.

[Kahuna32162]

Thank you admin for being on top of this!

[TOTV Team]

It's easier to stop the automated spam than it is a human physically registering and trying to game the system. We could get more detailed information upon registration but then people would complain we are asking for too much so there is a balance.

Thanks for your support!

Best Regard,

TOTV Team

[jnieman]

Someone right now local is trying to force their puppy mill business on the site. We continue to ban the user accounts and ip addresses and remove the ads.

I checked out Craig's list to see if they were on there too and they were not. I wonder if they wore out their welcome there and came to us because they were not allowed there anymore.