Difference between revisions of "Scammers and Spammers"

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(The procedures for reporting spam were not complete. Also simplified the page to improve readability.)
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Spammers attack Freecycle groups in the following ways:  
 
Spammers attack Freecycle groups in the following ways:  
  
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#Try to send spam to the group.  
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#Sending spam to the group, from their own account
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#Harvest member addresses and use them to send spam. <br>
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#Spoofing another member.  
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#Harvesting member addresses.
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#Posting seemingly innocuous messages that require going to a third-party website<br>
  
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For 1), there are two possible ways they do this:  
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You can combat spam in the following ways:  
  
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*1a) Join the group and send spam  
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*Moderate new members until they have posted a valid OFFER. Many spammers join a group and immediately send a message ‐ if you moderate new members then the spam will show up in your Pending queue. Don't reply to it, just delete it ‐ replying to spam just tells the spammer that they've reached a human, which is what they're trying to do.
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*1b) Impersonate ("spoof") an existing member, and send spam which appears to come from them.
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*Keep an eye on your ModSquad to be alerted to the most recent scams.
  
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There's basically nothing you can do about 1b) ‐ it's quite easy to forge email and make it appear to come from a valid user (it doesn't require their Yahoo password). So if you see an existing user send spam, don't assume that they've turned evil and overreact ‐ it may be that someone is impersonating them. Place the user on moderation for while, to allow you to catch any other such messages, and contact them gently to check.  
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If you think a member should be removed from The Freecycle Network for sending spam or for sending scam attempts, you can email (with as much detail as possible) spamcontrol@freecycle.org. The admin team will review your message and remove the user if they agree it is right to do so.
  
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You can combat 1a) in the following ways:
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When reporting a Spammer send an email to spamcontrol@freecycle.org and add these five things:
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*A. Moderate new members until they have posted a valid OFFER. Many spammers join a group and immediately send a message ‐ if you moderate new members then the spam will show up in your Pending queue. Don't reply to it, just delete it ‐ replying to spam just tells the spammer that they've reached a human, which is what they're trying to do. Most spammers aren't clued‐up enough to send a valid OFFER to get off moderation before sending their spam.
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# The spammer's MyF User Name
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*B. Approve new members. This means more work for you, but again, spammers generally aren't astute enough to provide a valid reason for joining.
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# The spammer's MyF email address
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*C. Keep an eye on your ModSquad ‐ report spammers to it, and actively remove reported spammers from your list. This is quite labour intensive, and is of limited use when spammers make up a new Yahoo name for each attack, but it can help with some persistent offenders who target multiple groups.
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# The reason (e.g. iPod scammer)
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# The post ID.
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<br> Now for 2). The way this works is that a spammer joins the group, and then extracts email addresses from the message archive, or from mails that get sent to the group. They can then send spam directly to those addresses, without passing through your group. This requires quite a persistent spammer, so it's rare, but because it doesn't go via the group there's little you can do about it. The B and C approaches above can help identify culprits who might be doing this.
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# Your group ID (name and number, please), which is found on your group's [[How_To_Use_Mod_Tools#INFO_AND_OPTIONS_PAGE|Info and Options page]].
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If you think a member should be removed from The Freecycle Network for sending spam Or for sending scam attempts, you can email (with as much detail as possible) spamcontrol@freecycle.org. The admin team will review your message and remove the user if they agree it is right to do so.
 

Revision as of 19:26, 21 February 2016

Spam is the Internet equivalent of junk mail ‐ email you didn't ask for, and probably don't want. It's sent by spammers, usually using automated tools. Freecycle members will often have their own spam filters to detect and remove ‐ that's up to them. This answer just talks about what you can do as a moderator to reduce the chance of your Freecycle group being used for spam.

Spammers attack Freecycle groups in the following ways:

  1. Sending spam to the group, from their own account
  2. Spoofing another member.
  3. Harvesting member addresses.
  4. Posting seemingly innocuous messages that require going to a third-party website

You can combat spam in the following ways:

  • Moderate new members until they have posted a valid OFFER. Many spammers join a group and immediately send a message ‐ if you moderate new members then the spam will show up in your Pending queue. Don't reply to it, just delete it ‐ replying to spam just tells the spammer that they've reached a human, which is what they're trying to do.
  • Keep an eye on your ModSquad to be alerted to the most recent scams.

If you think a member should be removed from The Freecycle Network for sending spam or for sending scam attempts, you can email (with as much detail as possible) spamcontrol@freecycle.org. The admin team will review your message and remove the user if they agree it is right to do so.

When reporting a Spammer send an email to spamcontrol@freecycle.org and add these five things:

  1. The spammer's MyF User Name
  2. The spammer's MyF email address
  3. The reason (e.g. iPod scammer)
  4. The post ID.
  5. Your group ID (name and number, please), which is found on your group's Info and Options page.
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