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Dealing with spammers

(24 posts) (13 voices)

Started 9 years ago by Lance
Latest reply from solutec

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Lance
Key Master

Hi everyone,

we have had a few persistent spammers recently, I try and keep on top of them but there is a particular way to deal with them.

If you find spam in a thread, please don't post telling the spammer to go away or whatever, it's just one more post I have to delete. Please use the "report" link at the bottom of the spam post, it will send an email to me and I will remove it as soon as I see the email.

One spammer, ElectricalProducts, just keeps coming back and reinstating his profile after I delete it, so there's clearly a human behind the seemingly robotic posts. I have emailed him this morning asking him to desist, but it might be worth everyone on the forum doing the same thing and telling him that you will deliberately not buy from his company due to his tactics. His email is seo@electricalproducts.com.au but bear in mind if you use your regular email you might get added to a spam list.

Posted Monday 29 Oct 2012 @ 11:14:01 pm from IP #
Diver
Member

They are on my black list and this thread will be forwarded to others to encourage them to do the same.

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 12:09:10 am from IP #
scott drew
Member

Instead of emailing the above directly you could utilise the 'contact us' section of the website: http://www.electricalproducts.com.au/contact-us.html

That way you can put in what ever details you would like to.

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 2:01:47 am from IP #
Fab
Member

Hi Lance
I tried that report link email to contact you about the above and I was sent to a startup wizard for outlook 7 which I already have installed.

Glad to see you have deleted it seconds ago.

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 8:55:00 am from IP #
Lance
Key Master

That pr!ck is very persistent, just checked out the ACMA website and they mention nothing about forum spam, only email, SMS etc, so it may not be covered in the act. I am now blocking his IP address each time but I suspect it is a dynamic IP and I will be doing it forever more. Seems I might have to give them a phone call instead and see what their problem is...

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 8:58:53 am from IP #
Bushwalker
Member

Sounds like you need a modification to ban or automatically moderate new members with suspect email addresses like *@electricalproducts.com.au

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 9:30:12 am from IP #
wlb
Member

Lance,

Perhaps you could have a thread that remains locked and fixed at the top of the home page, entitled "Suppliers not recommended". And then list the names of any businesses that use spamming techniques, but clearly state that they aren't recommended because of persistent spamming. Repeat the list in ReNew.

We could play him at his own game and all start sending him sales enquiries of a sufficiently genuine appearance that he wastes a lot of time preparing quotes and answering. If he's never sure which is genuine and which isn't he may eventually decide it better to bugger off and use a different advertizing method.

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 10:15:18 am from IP #
Lance
Key Master

Hmmm, while I can't encourage anyone to do that, I can't say that it would overly concern me if forum members wished to waste this guy's time. He's wasted enough of mine, after all...

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 10:58:57 am from IP #
Diver
Member

A search raises a lot of questions.

According to an ASIC search, Electrical Products is not a registered company. Maybe ASIC is slack with their record keeping!!!

https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/RegistrySearch/faces/adf.task-flow?adf.tfId=panelSearch&adf.tfDoc=/taskflows/panelSearch.xml&searchText=electrical%20products&searchType=OrgAndBusNm

The website has a page titled "COMPANY" with a sub heading titled "ABOUT OUR COMPANY".

Electrical Products is listed as a S.A. business name. BN 05097472

The owner's name and address tracks to Port Pirie, S. Aust.

The owner also owns the website electricalproducts.com.au

The website IP is 202.6.129.40

The business ph. no. comes up to another person who resides at Risdon Park - Port Parie.

I have withheld their names, addresses, financial and other personal details.

For the cryptics; "BURN GERONIMO and rattle those CHAINS".

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 11:03:54 am from IP #
gazmo88
Member

" for prompt reply,
send reports to abuse@adam.com.au "

Is where I would start.

if enough people complain to Adam Internet about the spamming they will take his web server offline.

That should get his attention.

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 11:38:34 am from IP #
wlb
Member

I suppose another possibility is that a sales employee of the business thinks it's a good marketing strategy, and the boss doesn't know about it. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

Perhaps a first step could be a formal letter to the business demanding that they cease and desist, or they will be reported.

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 10:19:29 pm from IP #
Bushwalker
Member

Or you could go through your ISP, get your people to speak to their people.

Posted Tuesday 30 Oct 2012 @ 11:43:48 pm from IP #
pulpo
Member

The prick is back again.

Hmm I think its quote time request.

Posted Wednesday 31 Oct 2012 @ 11:36:40 am from IP #
Lance
Key Master

Ok, he was at it again tonight, so have contacted Adam to see what they say...

Posted Wednesday 31 Oct 2012 @ 11:43:35 am from IP #
fireflies
Member

This is how they deal with it on the woodwork forum....

Quote
"About Spam-O-Matic 2.0:
Spam-O-Matic 2.0 is a spam firewall for your vBulletin Forums version 4.x and later. It prevents known spammers from registering on your forums. If they can't register, they can't spam! This data comes from the stopforumspam.com spammer database. It also does a ton of other cool stuff like moderating posts automatically if the post is found in the Akismet database, or if it contains words on your "Bad Words" keyword list."

Posted Monday 5 Nov 2012 @ 6:12:43 am from IP #
Eugene
Member

It is my suspicion that the company would not even be aware of this. I reckon that they have hired a dodgy SEO company that uses software, and probably overseas staff. I think the best thing you can do is contact the company if it is legitimate and show that the SEO company that they are using is actually creating a bad name for their brand. If they are wise they will get rid of their services and the spamming should stop. Hopefully.

Posted Thursday 15 Nov 2012 @ 1:52:32 am from IP #
Morbo
Member

doubt it, shortly admin sent them an email they put in the same topic5 times within 1 minute. Feels more like, well, spammers. Not people that want to sell something. Or is it v1agrA ?

Posted Thursday 15 Nov 2012 @ 9:05:44 am from IP #
solutec
Member

Hello Key master
Iam the director of Electrical Products Australia i stumbled accross
your post. I have spoken to one of our seo companys in regards to this matter and was told they would resolve these issues asap. In the future can i ask if you do have a problem like this why dont you pick up the phone and call the company or email them?
its not that hard as if you brought it to my Attention earlier i would of fixed the problem
Kind Regards

Posted Monday 19 Nov 2012 @ 1:17:16 pm from IP #
Electricalproducts
Member

Hello to All,

Apologies for any inconvenience and we have noted down not to post any promotion details on your forums/site. We are not spam or doing any harm to your site by promoting any adult content. It was just done for promotion purpose.

Since you don't like to have our content on our site we assure you that in future there won't be any posts on your site regarding promotion. I hope this will resolve issue for you.

Thanks & Regards,
SEO team

Posted Tuesday 20 Nov 2012 @ 5:45:35 am from IP #
wlb
Member

If you are a legitimate business selling useful electrical products, then I am interested to know that you are there and what you have to offer.

However if you behave like a spammer, people will naturally assume that you are one. There is also a big difference between informing people on a forum of your existence and products, and using posts on that forum to increase your search engine ranking.

Posted Tuesday 20 Nov 2012 @ 6:09:47 am from IP #
Electricalproducts
Member

Hello Mr. Wlb,

Sorry for any inconvenience. The promotion was not done only for search engine rankings. We want to promote our site and for users convenience posted in some forums.

As mentioned earlier this won't be done again on the site forums who have reported as spam.

Thanks & Regards,
SEO team

Posted Tuesday 20 Nov 2012 @ 6:25:28 am from IP #
Electricalproducts
Member

Also please mail us directly at seo@electricalproducts.com.au in case any post is not allowed on your site. It will be removed asap within 24 hours of any business day. All emails at seo@electricalproducts.com.au are properly monitored by webmaster and SEO team every business day.

Thanks & Regards,
SEO team

Posted Tuesday 20 Nov 2012 @ 6:30:36 am from IP #
Lance
Key Master

Solutec, your SEO mob have been spamming us for months, sometimes with dozens to hundreds of posts at a time. I emailed seo@electricalproducts.com.au several times and got no response, just more spam.

No forum operator should have to waste their time dealing with this stuff, it's illegal to spam here in Australia, if you hire dodgy companies that spam on your behalf you are still liable should someone get tired of it and make a complaint to the ACMA.

I highly recommend you don't waste any more cash with SEO mobs, SEO is a con anyway, and it's certainly giving you a bad reputation by word of mouth...

Posted Tuesday 20 Nov 2012 @ 12:05:03 pm from IP #
solutec
Member

Hello Lance
Thanks for your prompt reply i havent got access to the seo email as the seo company uses this email.In the future if you have any futher problems please email Me @ admin@electricalproducts.com.au and attention it to me Gerry and i will get right onto it. in regards to the seo Campaign we will be ending it at the end of them month as you said it is a waste of money also i hope they have stopped spaming as i dont like spammers either
cheers Gerry

Posted Tuesday 20 Nov 2012 @ 12:18:01 pm from IP #

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