While we discuss it, let me suggest some standard practice:
When you see spam, use the Report button immediately. The word SPAM is all we need in the explanation. Do not post in the thread and there is no need to further acknowledge the existence of the spammer. NEVER click a spam link. Yes, my advice is a bit different than Ralph's recommendation of a single "spam reported" post, and it is true that a spam attack during heavy use times can generate a dozen emails in a few minutes. But I'd rather have that than providing any user name at all for a spammer to latch onto.
As soon as one of us gets that report (and it is emailed to the mods), whichever one of us gets to it first takes a look. If it is indeed spam, which it usuall is, we run "Spam-O-Matic" on it. Spam-O-Matic bans the user permanently, permanently removes from the database all the threads and posts started by the user, and reports the user's login name and IP address to StopForumSpam. Forums that participate in that service (including ours) use their database to prevent those user names and IP addresses from registering in the first place. This requires the spammer to spend an additional five seconds to change their name and spoof a different IP address, which they routinely do anyway.
Spammers do not care about schadenfreude. They only care about spam posts--that's what they are paid to place. They are long gone to the next forum by the time we zap them.
Rick "not really seeing much need to discuss spammers at all" Denney
What if a legitimate LFPF member has his credentials stolen and used to spam the forum? is there a safeguard against this?
If a long-time member posts obvious spam, we don't use Spam-O-Matic. We will delete the post, and we may suspend the membership until we find out what happened and get it sorted out.
Spam-O-Matic is reserved for those who post obvious spam as their first post on the forum, which is 99% of the spam we get.
Rick "nothing to worry about" Denney
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