is this place selling its member list?

[ashepler]

I've only been a member for a week or so and have already been spammed by someone wanting me to join and mod their new forum, what gives? There was no PM here, sort of disappointing to see this happening...

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium & Reef Forum

from

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium & Reef Forum <support@aquariumadvice.com>to

date

Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 4:26 PMsubject

New Private Message at Aquarium Advice - Aquarium & Reef Forummailed-by

aquariumadvice.com

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL!
***************************

Dear ashepler,

You have received a new private message at Aquarium Advice - Aquarium & Reef Forum from abcsoeasy, entitled "hi there".

To read the original version, respond to, or delete this message, you must log in here:
[URL]http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/private.php[/URL]

This is the message that was sent:
***************
Hi there. How are you?

I know that you like aquarium fish keeping and I would like to invite you to our forum in order to become a moderator.

If you're interested, please let me know.

Sincerely
John
[url=http://aquatropicalfish.com/forum/index.php]Aqua Tropical Fish.com Forum - Index[/url]
***************

Again, please do not reply to this email. You must go to the following page to reply to this private message:
[URL]http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/private.php[/URL]

All the best,
[COLOR=#888888]Aquarium Advice - Aquarium & Reef Forum[/COLOR]

 

[Alaris]

You received this as a private message or pm from a member whose name is "abcsoeasy." It's not spam from AA. All pm notifications are sent to your email unless you change the option. And any member is allowed to pm another member unless you block them.

Nobody knows your email address unless you post it.

 

[Ziggy953]

That is correct you received it as a private message via this site. You may have received an email letting you know you had a private message on Aquarium Advice but the person that sent this to you does not have your email address.

You can edit your options in your user control panel and elect not to have email notifications sent to you.

 

[ashepler]

But I received no private message on this site, or are you saying it will show in my email instead of my usercp?

 

[roka64]

This user has been banned. Let us know of anything like this so we can take the appropriate action. Another member reported and all PMs found were removed and the user banned.
We don't monitor PMs and do not know about these PMs until it is brought to our attention. I, as a mod, did not get this spam PM, and I am pretty sure none of the mentors or mods got them either, otherwise we could have stopped it sooner.
Sorry for the concern.
Thanks for bringing this up and feel free to report any future emails like this.

 

[ccCapt]

Never mind...Scott got it covered.

 

[Ziggy953]

On the top of this page you will see Welcome ashepler and below your name you should see the words Private Messges as a link. Click on that and see if your inbox is empty. I have sent this information on to an admin to research as well.

 

[Zagz]

I am looking into what has happened here and will have myself or another admin report back to you. If you are saying it was an email and not a pm, as mentioned the headers would be helpful.

 

[ashepler]

It was in my gmail so I'm not sure how to get more from the headers than what I posted above. I can forward the actual email if you want to look at it.

You guys are welcome to look in my PMs, you'll see there are none.

Thanks all for the quick action

 

[Ziggy953]

The only thing I can think is maybe this person is taking the user id from here and pairing it up with the most common email services. A lot of people use part of their email address as their id or the other way around.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Roka is right... once a member is banned the PM's went with it. I assume you got the email and then before you opened the PM here he was gone.

We like to be quick with the ban boot

Sorry to you (and any other members) that got this message.

 

[Zagz]

This site does not advocate spamming of it's members via email or pm. I believe it was a pm and like Devilshturtles said the pm was gone as a result of the spammer being banned. There was more than one member that received this spam. Thank you for reporting it to us. It takes all the actions of all the members to keep these kinds of spammers at bay.

 

[Janet H]

And just a quick note about spam in general...

If you receive unwanted mail or pms please let us know - we do not sell or share our membership lists and take harassment, spam and other unwanted advances seriously. Contact any moderator to get help if you have a problem with your account and we will do our best to find a solution.

 

[An t-iasg]

ashepler,
I see the time of your post is 9:26 pm. I banned this user and deleted their PMs sent to other members at around 9 pm. That could be why you didn't see it in your PM inbox when you logged on, but did see it in your email (most members do elect to send their incoming PMs to their email address; however, the person sending you the PM does not see or know your email address).

Another member reported that he had received a spam email from this user. I banned the user immediately upon reading the report- it was about an hour after the member submitted the report. Like Janet says, let us know if you receive spam in a PM, and no, we absolutely do not share or sell email addresses.

 

[ashepler]

ok, thank you all!!

 

[FishEggs]

i just gotta say i love the no nonsense of this site against spammers and other troublemakers but it's still such a friendly place to be and i enjoy every minute here.