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Hi folks:
This past week we have had a Forum member contacted by a Forum guest in regard to a want ad the Forum member posted in search of an item. It is not clear what the guest intended to do but it appeared to be they were phishing by trying to offer a bogus antique motorcycle. They sent an image of an antique bike that apparently has been used in scams in the past. Our member checked it out with other members and they all concluded it was a scam. Unfortunately the guest contacted the member by private message and has continued to send messages. I had never dealt with this type of invasion so I needed to look through some details to figure out what could be done to prevent this from happening. When sending a PM as a guest you still need to enter a username, their's was mcppy. The good news here is that I have found that on your personal setting control panel you can set up your private message so you can limit who sends you a message. Generally I don't think any of us need to limit this unless there is a pest problem. I have mine set up so "Everyone" can send me a message. But if I did have a problem I can limit it to "Registered Members" and this should take care of the problem. Here is my best shot at directions to find this setting.
It is under My Settings > My Profile > Profile Privacy. You will get a drop down menu under the third line down “Visitor Messages” it gives you choices of who can send you a message.
The rest of the story is this. With the helpful info I got from our fellow member I was able to track down this guest by using his IP Address. The guest is located in South East United Kingdom. The guest also tried to register for the forum using a false AMCA member number and zip code and that's how I got the IP address. Obviously this pest was denied membership and banned for life. But they can just change their approach and try again with other fake stuff.
So why do we allow guests? Well for one when someone is doing a browser search on the internet and their key word search hits the jack pot and directs them to one of our posts off the Forum, as a guest they still get to see our vast wisdom. They may even figure out that they are on the AMCA Member Forum and want to join, of course to be a Forum member they must first join the AMCA, so this can be another way for people to find the club. We don't have scammers bothering members since we adopted a more manual process for member approvals (thanks to one of our Forum members who is an admin on another forum and his excellent advice).
If you have had someone unwanted contact you as a private message would you please let me know? If you do have a problem with a pest remember that you can change your privacy settings. As always don't hesitate to contact me if you need help solving a problem.
Thanks All
Mike Love
AMCA Forum
Moderator
This past week we have had a Forum member contacted by a Forum guest in regard to a want ad the Forum member posted in search of an item. It is not clear what the guest intended to do but it appeared to be they were phishing by trying to offer a bogus antique motorcycle. They sent an image of an antique bike that apparently has been used in scams in the past. Our member checked it out with other members and they all concluded it was a scam. Unfortunately the guest contacted the member by private message and has continued to send messages. I had never dealt with this type of invasion so I needed to look through some details to figure out what could be done to prevent this from happening. When sending a PM as a guest you still need to enter a username, their's was mcppy. The good news here is that I have found that on your personal setting control panel you can set up your private message so you can limit who sends you a message. Generally I don't think any of us need to limit this unless there is a pest problem. I have mine set up so "Everyone" can send me a message. But if I did have a problem I can limit it to "Registered Members" and this should take care of the problem. Here is my best shot at directions to find this setting.
It is under My Settings > My Profile > Profile Privacy. You will get a drop down menu under the third line down “Visitor Messages” it gives you choices of who can send you a message.
The rest of the story is this. With the helpful info I got from our fellow member I was able to track down this guest by using his IP Address. The guest is located in South East United Kingdom. The guest also tried to register for the forum using a false AMCA member number and zip code and that's how I got the IP address. Obviously this pest was denied membership and banned for life. But they can just change their approach and try again with other fake stuff.
So why do we allow guests? Well for one when someone is doing a browser search on the internet and their key word search hits the jack pot and directs them to one of our posts off the Forum, as a guest they still get to see our vast wisdom. They may even figure out that they are on the AMCA Member Forum and want to join, of course to be a Forum member they must first join the AMCA, so this can be another way for people to find the club. We don't have scammers bothering members since we adopted a more manual process for member approvals (thanks to one of our Forum members who is an admin on another forum and his excellent advice).
If you have had someone unwanted contact you as a private message would you please let me know? If you do have a problem with a pest remember that you can change your privacy settings. As always don't hesitate to contact me if you need help solving a problem.
Thanks All
Mike Love
AMCA Forum
Moderator
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