misuse of Geocaching and email

[+Jayeffel]

I am not sure where to place this but I just got a  much unwanted and totally shameful  email via the geocaching.com message board. Someone is misusing the board, doubtfully a legitimate cacher.

 

Be careful coachers, watch email. There is at least one person or group sending messages using Geocaching.com that refer to explicit sex websites. Apparently the one I just got is known to Geocaching.com and has be dealt with. 

 

I had entered info about the site and message to let those in charge know, not to refer it to others. These has been deleted.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Jayeffel

[+GerandKat]

@Jayeffel you're spamming it right now into the forums.

 

Please edit you post.

 

The Geocaching HQ banned the user already...

[+Jayeffel]

What would you suggest as edit, just showing misuse of the site.

 

Are you saying that user who sent me the message is already known and banned?

Edited November 7, 2019 by Jayeffel

[+on4bam]

3 minutes ago, Jayeffel said:

What would you suggest as edit, just showing misuse of the site.

 

Are you saying that user who sent me the message is already known and banned?

 

Remove the links!!!!!!! You're now spamming the same message.

 

NEVER spread spammessages without removing links and the spaminfo. Better still don't post the message at all. Just mentioning the offending user should have been enough.

 

Edited November 7, 2019 by on4bam

[+DerDiedler]

4 minutes ago, Jayeffel said:

What would you suggest as edit, just showing misuse of the site.

 

Are you saying that user who sent me the message is already known and banned?

Dude, don´t be so ignorant. You are helping this guys to spread theyre message into this forum including links to the promoted web pages and all the not so suitable for kids language. Just delete the copy of the Message you got or edit it massively. Right now you´re kind of a stooge to them.

Edited November 7, 2019 by DerDiedler

[+on4bam]

42 minutes ago, Jayeffel said:

"Hey! =) What are you waiting for? ...

 

Edit" The header on the email: [GEO] Nelly505 contacting Jayeffel from Geocaching.com

 

That should have been more than enough info if you really wanted to post on this. Better is to just report and don't give them extra publicity.

 

[+Jayeffel]

38 minutes ago, on4bam said:

 

That should have been more than enough info if you really wanted to post on this. Better is to just report and don't give them extra publicity.

 

That's what I wanted, how else would I have reported it?  Would have gone that route if I knew how.

[+on4bam]

4 minutes ago, Jayeffel said:

That's what I wanted, how else would I have reported it?  Would have gone that route if I knew how.

 

Have you tried the "contact us" link? That's what it's for.

Reporting someone is NOT done via the (public) forums.

 

[+DerDiedler]

I kind of feel the inconviniance to report things like that. A "report this Email" link in case of an email you recive via geocaching or a "report this message" button in the message center would be a contemporary feature.

[+on4bam]

That's how it done everywhere else but you know how GC handles feature requests

 

[+DerDiedler]

2 minutes ago, on4bam said:

That's how it done everywhere else but you know how GC handles feature requests

 

Yea, in Germany we say "Ablage rund" wich translates to "filing round" or so. Round referes to the general shape of a wastepaper basket

[+on4bam]

11 minutes ago, DerDiedler said:

Yea, in Germany we say "Ablage rund" wich translates to "filing round" or so. Round referes to the general shape of a wastepaper basket

We call it "filing vertically " which is basically the same.

 

 

[+thebruce0]

BTW, it's also quite possible the spam wasn't manually created by a live human individual trying to "spread the message". It's most likely the result of a script kiddy coming to knowledge of the gc.com messaging system and potential reach for the money-making spam, and creating a script to automate the spread of spam messages sent to a list of usernames collected from scraping the website or various other sources of data.  Most likely, if one person got what looks to be spam, at least hundreds of others have got the same message.

 

Features to fight spam :
1. Anti-spam measures in the website (geocaching.com messaging has been surprisingly clear of that for some time, to my knowledge; but ultimately it's inevitable someone will script a way past any spam blocking safeguards)

2. Personal message management - ability to delete and/or hide individual unwanted messages, or users directly

3. Reporting message content - as requested above, reporting a message as spam should hide/remove the message but bump it in priority to the website administration for review.

 

A new spambot would typically end up after #3 sending a very high bulk of reported messages which admin can see coming a common user, and if it's judged to be entirely breaking the website TOU, they'd fry that user accordingly as spam, killing off any and all of its private messages across the board. Potentially installing a ban parameter on the traffic source so repeated attempts can't be made with new users.

 

 

But really, the first and easiest function to add would at the very least be a "Hide/remove this message" function, or better if it's "Report as spam" which also drops it in an administrative bucket for review and assessment by TPTB. (and this is a fairly common function on websites with messaging features, useful against more than just spam; surprised it's not yet here)

Edited November 7, 2019 by thebruce0

[+Overwelms]

I got the exact same spam message this morning from Nelly505. I went on geocaching.com website searching for a place to report spam. I couldn't find one. So I did a screenshot and sent it via Contact us. However, the spam message I got, although appearing to be a private message, is not in my messages folder. It concerns me because it knew my user name. Please, let's get a place to forward spam messages to.

[+thebruce0]

An email notification may have been sent out to you about receiving the message, but if HQ has already zapped the user, then you won't find the message in your inbox any more. That's likely what happened.

 

Also, your username is public knowledge. You can't keep that private, so don't be too concerned about someone merely knowing your username.

Edited November 7, 2019 by thebruce0

[+CAVinoGal]

I, too, got the same message from the same user.  It arrived aboutThe email timestamp is 01:17, and I saw it when I checked my email this morning.  The first thing I did was check the user profile, saw that it was already locked, and then let it gothese type messages,  - user has been banned.  This is the first time I've gotten a spammy message via the geocaching message system, so GS has done an excellent job of filtering out the spammers so far.  And this was acted on amazingly fast (acct created, spam sent out, acct locked all within 24 hours) compared to my experiences on other forums as a participant and/or moderator.

 

Unless my inbox starts getting inundated with this type of message, this seems to be a one off where someone/some bot got through.  GS acted quickly, and this will remain one of the forums/websites that remains spam free.

 

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

Features to fight spam :
1. Anti-spam measures in the website (geocaching.com messaging has been surprisingly clear of that for some time, to my knowledge; but ultimately it's inevitable someone will script a way past any spam blocking safeguards) - Yes, whatever TPTB are doing has been working!

 

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

the first and easiest function to add would at the very least be a "Hide/remove this message" function, or better if it's "Report as spam" which also drops it in an administrative bucket for review and assessment by TPTB. (and this is a fairly common function on websites with messaging features, useful against more than just spam; surprised it's not yet here)  Up till now, I haven't really needed this function - except for being able to delete messages in the message center.  That would be nice.  But that's another discussion for another thread!

 

I'm pleasantly surprised at how quickly this was dealt with - and we'll see if the hole that allowed it to happen is "fixed" or if it starts becoming more frequent.  GS has had an awesome offense so far in the battle against spambots; and the defense is holding it's own.

[+CAVinoGal]

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

An email notification may have been sent out to you about receiving the message, but if HQ has already zapped the user, then you won't find the message in your inbox any more. That's likely what happened.

The email I received (the same as the one quoted above) says [Contacting] - it wasn't actually a message center message, it was a simple email contact.  SO there was nothing to delete in the message center - the bot/spammer used the email link to send an email, not send a message....confusing, a little.

[+thebruce0]

Ah, that would do it then. Thought these were message center messages. I would think using the email contact link in the profile would be technically easier to 'hack' for spamming than getting a message into the MC. So that makes sense...

[SEWdaugh]

I got the same email this morning. No easy way to report this to Groundspeak at all. If I mark this as spam I won't receive other emails from geocaching, so that's no good. What would be nice would be if Groundspeak blocked  message to users containing links.

[+thebruce0]

3 minutes ago, SEWdaugh said:

What would be nice would be if Groundspeak blocked  message to users containing links.

Can't block them all. Too many instances of legitimate email contacts with links. You'll never have a 100% spam-blocked communication system. HQ responded sufficiently almost immediately. That's the best we can ask for.

 

Another option would be to enable some form of spam-rating on your email program/service, which alerts you to potential spam.

 

Personally I treat email like a whitelist these days. Instead of attempting to block every bit of spam, I just let it all through but filter trusted emails to their own folder. Then skim over the rest and try to pick out other legitimate emails I haven't filtered for yet.

 

Spam is everywhere. It's a futile fight to attempt to block Every Single Spam communique. Let alone reliably.

Edited November 7, 2019 by thebruce0

[SEWdaugh]

I use other sites where message that are sent through the site are blocked from containing links. There is no reason anyone contacting me needs to send me a link.

[+thebruce0]

Okay.

That's not true for everyone.

Do not block all messages in the system merely because they contain a link.

[+Crazedllama]

I didn't get this message but a few years ago I saw something not so family friendly in a profile photo and username. HQ locked the account deleted the photo and renamed the account within minutes of my email. 

The people at HQ work really hard to make sure everything is family friendly and fantastic. Ill always remember that prompt response. 

[+cerberus1]

32 minutes ago, Crazedllama said:

I didn't get this message but a few years ago I saw something not so family friendly in a profile photo and username. HQ locked the account deleted the photo and renamed the account within minutes of my email. 

The people at HQ work really hard to make sure everything is family friendly and fantastic. Ill always remember that prompt response. 

 

Same here.  I got a few "racy" mails with this site's address a while ago. 

 - The next line that they saw me on faceboook showed I wasn't really in for that outdoor experience.   

I emailed the site and apparently they were already on it.