posted
A recent E-mail asked what we are doing about eliminating spammers and trolls from registering with LymeNet and posting inappropritate messages.
We can trace the IP address of all members who sign up. However enforcement on the Internet is usually not possible unless it can be proven that a felony-class crime has been committed, and even then the global nature of the Internet often makes this impossible.
Often times registrations like the one you point out below come from automated scripts who are trying to send massive amounts of spam to any and all forums around the world and are not necessarily targeted specifically towards LymeNet. We do employ a two-factor system for registration which requires that you respond using a valid E-mail address but on occasion clever spammers like the one below can still make it through because they use one-time-use E-mail addresses to get around such mechanisms.
The best thing we can do is to find better ways to gather data on where spam like this originates so that we can develop better filters to prevent future registration without limiting access to legitimate users. It might interest you to know that while we do have the occasional problem, we do successfully block a large number of "fake" registrations every day. Spam filtering is an inexact and ever-changing science...as we get better at filtering, the spammers get better at spamming.
We appreciate your loyalty to the site and please be assured we're always working to improve the quality of your experience at the site.
Regards, -Tom
-------------------- Thomas Brown LymeNet System Administrator and Founding Member Posts: 82 | From Raleigh, NC | Registered: Oct 1993
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
tom, thanks for the info above! i know daily when i would come on using the directory to send me newbie links/advise to; there would be from 1-4 or 5 trolls signed up as newbies.
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