Parnoia or Not

[Sleepless on LI]

Call me paranoid, but I noticed that 99% of the old posts being pulled up for spam contain ME! I know I have over 3k posts, but most of these seem to be mine or have a LOT of my posts in them.

If that is the case, I believe I know who the person responsible for doing this is. Not that there is a thing anyone will do about it, but it's someone I had a problem with last year and who has a real other reason to sabotage this site. I am going to write to the powers that be if this continues with a very detailed letter and see if they will finally take action. Maybe now that it means people are being turned off and away from the site due to this, they will finally do something about it. Shoudln't be too hard to finally check the IP address. Since they wouldn't do it last year over me alone being harrassed, maybe if the site is at risk, now they will.

I will be continuing to watch this now more than ever. Someone told me that I was a target in this sabotage and now I'm beginning to see what they're talking about. I denied it at first. Now let's see if it changes now that I've aired it publicly. If it continues, I will contact the admin. of this site and let them know what I think I know.

[Guest]

Funny how people will do on-line what they probably would not do in "real life". Same goes for when they get behind the wheel of a car. Always a few crazies out there to make life interesting for the rest of us.

[bigpaulo]

I just joined the forum a few days ago, and resurrected a "leaking out my eyes" post... had my submission deleted unceremoniously, thanks admins!

That said, Sleepless on LI, you were *not* in that thread, so rest assured, I'm not the droid you're looking for

Good luck, it should be fairly straightforward to track down whoever is doing this once you get the right resources lined up.

bigpaulo

[Offerocker]

Good research, Lori! Good for you. Now you can 'return the stalking'.
Hope you're successful. Kathleen

[Sleepless on LI]

Good research, Lori! Good for you. Now you can 'return the stalking'.
Hope you're successful. Kathleen

LOL-Kathleen, not my style! I don't know if I'm being paranoid, but when my friend emailed me and told me what she thought, I denied it. But more and more resurrected threads are MINE, it started to make me see what she saw. And knowing what I do from last year and the reason for the person to do this besides harrassing me, it only became more possible in my eyes. Hey, how nice to kill two birds with one stone.

If it continues, though, I will definitely have to take some action to try to help here. But now that I aired my thoughts, it will probably change from topics I either started or was a main poster in to ones that don't include me at all.

No, I don't have an over-inflated self-importance factor going on here. Just something I could no longer ignore.

[Offerocker]

No, I don't have an over-inflated self-importance factor going on here. Just something I could no longer ignore.

Lori - where did that come from? Of course you're important, and it doesn't come from you, but everyone here. By my saying 'you can "return the stalking", I meant that the "stalker is now on the receiving end".
I am glad that this person has been exposed to you.

[mousetater]

Lori,

Much as I would like to see the end of the massive amount of spam on this board, I sure hope you are not the individual target of this campaign. Stalking, in person or in cyberspace, is scary.

I don't feel you are being paranoid. In case you are, I will quote one of my favorite sayings. "Just 'cause you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you." <grin>

[Snoredog]

don't let it get to ya Lori, your only averaging like 9 posts a day

if you look at the content of the SPAM posts, they are trying to embed key words within the message as they know the BBS Search engine here will pick them up and store them in the Search engine database.

When you post a new message you see it pick up and highlight key words such as cpap, xpap, autopap, masks etc. which you see when posting a new message as part of the tag line. This becomes Search criteria stored in the Search engine database.

The logs on this bbs can not only display the IP address but the actual MAC address of the computer sending it. While both can be spoofed, it can usually still be traced out by the header.

Once company I worked at, we had one of those SPAM killer boxes (actually several of them) sitting on our corporate network called a Barracuda, it sat between the LAN and the WAN, supposed to filter out SPAM and delete it before it ever hit the servers. We kept getting SPAM after they were installed, in fact we were getting more, did some investigative sniffing found most of our SPAM stream was coming from that box so we ended up yanking it out.

[Guest]

Parnoia or Not

Since you asked---the answer is paranoia.

A lesson in SPAM is in order, and Snoredog has explained it well.

You may see your name in thousands of the spammed threads. You also have thousands of posts. It stands to reason.

You are mistaking computer-generated SPAM for a single person trying to sabotage you and this site? Yup, that's paranoid.

[Wulfman]

Yup....I'm gonna have to vote for paranoia, too....

All of the SPAM posts I've been whacking have NOT been initiated by some mean old guest.......they were advertising gambling, porn, viagra, you name it with imbedded sites in the text.

I'm getting some of those notifications in my e-mail, too. Then when I go to the link, it's not there.

Calm down.....

Take care,

Den

[-SWS]

Paranoid??????? I dunno... Let me go in my underground survival sarcophagus for a few days and think this through on your behalf, Lori. Better pack a few extra sandwiches and canisters of O2 just to be on the safe side...

My initial inclination is that you can never be too paranoid. I'll give you my final edict when I resurface in a few days, Lori. .

[OwlCreekObserver]

All of the SPAM posts I've been whacking have NOT been initiated by some mean old guest.......they were advertising gambling, porn, viagra, you name it with imbedded sites in the text.
Den

Yeah, I think that you're probably right. One of my email accounts -- not the one I use here -- has been really getting hammered with spam in recent weeks. I only use that account for a couple of things and it isn't widely distributed. I suspect that spammers are just stepping up their obnoxious efforts recently because I've never had spam issues with that account in the five or six years that I've had it.

OCO

[Sleepless on LI]

Kathleen,

I didn't mean that because of your post. I'm so sorry if you took it to be that way.

I have to say, it wasn't me originally who thought this idea up, but someone (who shall remain nameless) who brought it to my attention. I first ignored it and then after awhile started to see a connection.

Okay. I hear you loud and clear. Thanks Snoredog for the explanation. If my buddy Den is telling me paranoia, I'll have to figure it probably is. He's always shot straight from the hip with me so we can just rename me "Patty Panarnoia..."

[Wulfman]

....but someone (who shall remain nameless) who brought it to my attention.

Hey, Patty.....

Just for the record (and obviously) it WASN'T ME!

Have a good day

Den

[tlc95066]

Hi Lori

So just remember.... "Just because your paranoid doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to get you!"

Have a good day!
Teri