Privacy & Security: For Sale/Wanted Warning

Post by **ericalm** » Fri May 25, 2012 12:35 am

Hey, folks,

We do our best top keep spammers and nefarious types out of MB but some slip through on occasion. We recently had some suspicious posts in the For Sale section and while the users' info didn't correspond with anything in the spammer databases, they seemed fishy and I banned them.

More than spamming, these looked like people might be posting in hopes of "phishing" for member email addresses or phone numbers.

We have a PM (private message) system on MB. I suggest you use it. NEVER contact someone who's posted a FS or WTB post via email or phone unless you've already had communications with them and are confident they're not simply collecting your personal info.

None of your PM or MB info connects to your personal info unless you've included links to your email, web site, Facebook, etc. in your profile. (Probably don't want to do that.) If someone is abusing the PM system, or trying to collect info, awe can ban them and that's it, they're gone. They can't get your information via MB unless you offer it.

hackett · Post by **hackett** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:03 am

Seems like a rather inefficient way to collect email addresses, but the posts do seem fishy (phishy?) nonetheless. Perplexing, to say the least.

Thanks, Eric. Ever vigilant!

Post by **ericalm** » Fri May 25, 2012 7:05 am

These are people who register for scooter forums, post a couple innocent things, then either change their sig to contain bad links or just spam the hell out of them with links to fake designer handbags. No efficiency to it!