Most attempts are not by people, but by scripted programs, spambots.
A few days ago, my email account was zapped in the space of a couple of minutes with around 50 spam emails, three sets of clones. I was *not* amused. (All three sets were about enhancing a male body part in some way.) All my body parts are as OK as they’re going to get.
Also, while “Lyudmilla” might be nice, (1) No, I had no conversation via a social networking site of which I’m not a member; (2) If and when I date, it’s in person, not online; and (3) While ladies are very nice, I would date someone of the male persuasion. — That is yet another in a large set of such dating emails that seem to make the rounds.
If only the people who write such scripts would use their programming know-how for something actually useful, or at least fun. — Confiscate their earnings and distribute the funds to charities. Education. Homeless shelters. Something. Anything! — Maybe lock up the spammers in a room full of amorous skunks. I don’t know. Something creative with poetic justice.
I’m new to the site (‘Hello’ by the way) but I’ve been a Mod on a camera forum for a number of years. CAPTCHA helps at registration, as does asking a site relevant multiple choice question, but there are always those unfortunate souls from low wage economies who can bypass the automatic checks. While I’m sorry for them I’ve found the only way to deal with them is to take a zero tolerance policy and, in addition to deleting the account, where the originating IP is from a narrow range of addresses to do a blanket ban of those addresses. We still get a trickle of spammers but it seems to help. I’m not familiar enough with WordPress to know whether such a policy can be implemented though. 🙁
For the benefit of anybody who doesn’t know the history of how it got this way: first as the ARPA-net as a cooperative network of sites sponsored by DARPA, the need for packet tracking and auditing in the protocols was not a requirement. They were most interested in robustness in the face of network segment outages. It still wasn’t deemed necessary when it subsumed some university networks and was released from DARPA to become “The Internet”. But the fundamental structure was not designed to be the actual battlefield it has become. It needs a complete redesign from bottom to top! It’s the perfect example of the failure of “quick and dirty design principles”.
I was recently informed by my IP that one of my emails had been “comfpromised” and that I needed to change the password. I tried to do it on line to no avail and had to call tech support and have a techistani do it for me. The compromised password would explain the sudden blop of spam. Mailwasher allows me to bounce emails (as though my email address was invalid) and that usually takes care of most stuff.
Along those lines, for any online account that identifies you across the Internet (especially Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), enable two-factor authentication if you can.
And don’t re-use passwords across sites. I use a tool that lives on my computer, which takes a password I can easily remember (but which I never use directly) and a web-site identifier, and “hashes” them together, generating the password I’ll actually use on the site. (The program exists in several compatible versions, with a published algorithm, so I’m not in much danger of losing these passwords to a computer crash.)
I have just had an inspiration, if I can get a WP plug-in that accommodates it; I’m going to consult with Lynn and Jane. Sometimes things exist: you just have to think of what they might be called.
Most attempts are not by people, but by scripted programs, spambots.
A few days ago, my email account was zapped in the space of a couple of minutes with around 50 spam emails, three sets of clones. I was *not* amused. (All three sets were about enhancing a male body part in some way.) All my body parts are as OK as they’re going to get.
Also, while “Lyudmilla” might be nice, (1) No, I had no conversation via a social networking site of which I’m not a member; (2) If and when I date, it’s in person, not online; and (3) While ladies are very nice, I would date someone of the male persuasion. — That is yet another in a large set of such dating emails that seem to make the rounds.
If only the people who write such scripts would use their programming know-how for something actually useful, or at least fun. — Confiscate their earnings and distribute the funds to charities. Education. Homeless shelters. Something. Anything! — Maybe lock up the spammers in a room full of amorous skunks. I don’t know. Something creative with poetic justice.
I like the suggestion about the amorous skunks. There are porcupines, too, who might like to have a turn.
:O Oddly enough, I originally wrote porcupines, then had a slight crisis of conscience and thought the skunks might be enough.
Heheheh, so I like it. Let the lovelorn skunks and the amorous porcupines loose in that locked room full of spammers.
You never know, it could happen! …True love will out? :angel: 😀 :devil:
(To all those poor lonely porcupines and skunks out there, my sincerest apologies for having you suffer through spammers.)
I’m new to the site (‘Hello’ by the way) but I’ve been a Mod on a camera forum for a number of years. CAPTCHA helps at registration, as does asking a site relevant multiple choice question, but there are always those unfortunate souls from low wage economies who can bypass the automatic checks. While I’m sorry for them I’ve found the only way to deal with them is to take a zero tolerance policy and, in addition to deleting the account, where the originating IP is from a narrow range of addresses to do a blanket ban of those addresses. We still get a trickle of spammers but it seems to help. I’m not familiar enough with WordPress to know whether such a policy can be implemented though. 🙁
I could have done it on the software that was screwing everybody up, but I’ve now disabled that! 😉 It never ends!
For the benefit of anybody who doesn’t know the history of how it got this way: first as the ARPA-net as a cooperative network of sites sponsored by DARPA, the need for packet tracking and auditing in the protocols was not a requirement. They were most interested in robustness in the face of network segment outages. It still wasn’t deemed necessary when it subsumed some university networks and was released from DARPA to become “The Internet”. But the fundamental structure was not designed to be the actual battlefield it has become. It needs a complete redesign from bottom to top! It’s the perfect example of the failure of “quick and dirty design principles”.
Interesting. And I remember the library deal. Used it when info was on drip-feed.
I was recently informed by my IP that one of my emails had been “comfpromised” and that I needed to change the password. I tried to do it on line to no avail and had to call tech support and have a techistani do it for me. The compromised password would explain the sudden blop of spam. Mailwasher allows me to bounce emails (as though my email address was invalid) and that usually takes care of most stuff.
Along those lines, for any online account that identifies you across the Internet (especially Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), enable two-factor authentication if you can.
And don’t re-use passwords across sites. I use a tool that lives on my computer, which takes a password I can easily remember (but which I never use directly) and a web-site identifier, and “hashes” them together, generating the password I’ll actually use on the site. (The program exists in several compatible versions, with a published algorithm, so I’m not in much danger of losing these passwords to a computer crash.)
I have just had an inspiration, if I can get a WP plug-in that accommodates it; I’m going to consult with Lynn and Jane. Sometimes things exist: you just have to think of what they might be called.