Spam, Spam, Spam...
user76423
June 02, 2009 at 05:29 PM posted in General DiscussionToday I received this message in my CPod Inbox:
Hello My Dear. My name is Miss Vicky Mohamed, from Liberia I am 24 years,I know this mail will come as a surprise to you. i saw your profile today at () when i was looking for someone that can be a good and trusted friend, so i decided to contact you, and i hope you will be able to assist me in this.Please after reading this mail have pity on me. It is my pleasure communicating with you for the first time and believing that it will lead to a better relationship between us. I have an inheritance that my late father left for me in an international bank out side my country, before the death of my father on march 2006 in a hospital in Monrovia during the last crisis in my country Liberia, when the rebels came to my father and mother in our house and killed both of them, because my father was a politician, but before his death after two days of that attack, He secretly called me on his sick bed side and told me that he has a fund deposited in the bank that is containing (4.8 million dollars) which i am the next of kin as the only child of my parents. I would want to invest it in your country and also to complete my education under your care which i stopped because of the crisis. I want you to stand as my father's business partner in claiming the fund from the bank as i am still under age to claim the money from the bank before it is too late. I am ready to compasate you with 10% of the total sum if only you will assist me to transfer the fund from the bank to your account and assist me also in investing the money in any lucrative business and 5% is set aside for any expences that will arise during the transaction. I will give you more details and forward all vital information as soon as I hear your positive respond,this is my private e-mail address (vicky_mo1@yahoo.com) Best Regards. Vicky
ChinesePod seems to be a nice place to spam around, and CPod seems to do nothing against it, or?
What do you think - should CPod fight back and automatically purge such stuff?
henning
March 28, 2010 at 05:19 PM
This could be easily dealt with - with a simple routine that checks if the same content is posted twice.
RJ
March 28, 2010 at 03:23 PM
1. why do trial users need posting privileges?
2. why are these posts (especially the multiple ones) not deleted immediately by staff site monitors? Is anybody home?
ousijia
March 01, 2010 at 06:22 AM
Just to let everyone know, the tech team have now changed the system! Trial users are no longer able to send PMs to other users. No more "Miss Aishas..."!
ousijia
March 02, 2010 at 02:07 AM
Just tested, yes users with memberships that have lapsed can send and receive PMs.
ousijia
March 02, 2010 at 01:57 AM
Hi go_manly,
Trial users are still able to receive PMs just not send them. Tech team have been made aware of the issue with carriage returns and will be looking into this. I think users whose memberships have lapsed are still able to send PMs, but just going to check this, and will get back to you asap to confirm.
go_manly
March 01, 2010 at 09:03 AM
Thanks Scarlett. It's nice to know we're being listened to.
My only concern is about members whose membership has lapsed. I'm thinking in particular about mikeinewshot here. Are they able to PM.
Also, are trial users able to receive PMs?
(As an aside, I've noticed that when I reply to messages, as I have here, I am no longer able to start a new line - carriage returns are simply ignored. Baba seems to have managed it above, but it won't work for me.)
bababardwan
March 01, 2010 at 06:30 AM
Ousijia,
That's great news.So what you are saying is that in future any messages containing promises of pictures ,and barrierless true love will be meant for me only and can be henceforth be regarded as entirely genuine.Thanks for protecting our delicate hearts.Now I'll just have to go and spruce up this ol' avatar of mine...
ps What's the deal with native speakers? Are they all on trial accounts?
ousijia
February 10, 2010 at 03:06 AM
I'm afraid there is not much we can do regarding spam mail - users sign up for free trials and then are able to PM other uers :(
If you do receive spam, please email me the usernames and I will block their accounts. Thanks!
BEBC
February 07, 2010 at 09:02 PM
"there is no age,race,colour n religion bar when it comes to true love"
Is there a species bar ?
BEBC
February 24, 2010 at 02:06 PM
Babar, if you're looking for She Who Must be Obeyed you might like to try Miss Aisha. If she turns out to be Bogdan from Belarus, don't blame me.
Hi My Dear. Happy New day...How are you doing in life today ??I am very happy to meet your wonderful profile on this site and after going through your profile i wish to become your friend .pls if my friendship request is granted then kindly reach me on my email(aisha.arop@yahoo.com) ... ... love.reach me on Thanks. Miss Aisha
bababardwan
February 10, 2010 at 09:13 PM
hehe,sorry mate,as I said I really don't know.I was just pointing out a couple of things that I thought may be worth checking or thinking about.Hopefully someone of a higher level will bail us out.wan an...and if this has made it hard for you to get to sleep you can always count sheep ;)
BEBC
February 10, 2010 at 09:08 PM
Haha ! I just edited my previous comment. It seems we are thinking along the same lines. Great minds..... eh ?
No ! you were wondering about the positioning of 我。This is another edit. I'm gonna have to stop or I'll be up all night trying to figure things out !
bababardwan
February 10, 2010 at 09:05 PM
Actually looking at it again,I'm also wondering whether it should have been:
我今天很忙了
..but once again not too sure and either might be fine.
晚安
BEBC
February 10, 2010 at 09:01 PM
Yeah, 了 at the end seems good. On the other hand, 今天我很忙 sort of sounds okay...if we are talking in the evening then I think 今天 sets the tense in the past by itself. But I'm not sure. See ya.
bababardwan
February 10, 2010 at 08:55 PM
I can't correct anything mate,but your meaning seems pretty clear to me.I think you're saying:
"Anyway,today I was very busy [do you need a 了 at the end there?..dunno].I must go to sleep pretty soon.See you next time!"
..晚安
BEBC
February 10, 2010 at 08:50 PM
I haven't really tried a lot of writing and speaking, babar. It's some bloody effort trying to conjure up what I want to say. Maybe some kind soul will correct what I wrote.
反正，今天我很忙。我不久一定要去睡觉。下次见！
bababardwan
February 10, 2010 at 08:44 PM
ok,well I just checked google which has 473,000 results for "不用不好意思“ however the first few results I looked at seem to have it more in the sense of "need not feel embarrassed" rather than more specifically "no need to be sorry",though maybe just like in "不好意思“ itself ,it is not necessary to draw such a distinction as we would in English...dunno mate.
“不用对不起“。。has 75,800
"不用抱歉"...has 23,600 ...yet I feel this one would at least be clearest in meaning,even though 抱歉 is much more formal I think and would take it away from the more casual [and jesting around] original meaning.
bababardwan
February 10, 2010 at 08:10 PM
我可以。。在中文
。。我知道在中文我可以说”不用谢“，不过我不知道如果在中文我可以说”不用不好意思“或者”不用对不起“或者”不用抱歉“。。也许”不用抱歉“更好？
BEBC
February 10, 2010 at 07:48 PM
Sorry babar. The temptation was too great to resist.
Pass on my apologies to the sheep, too, will ya.
:-)
BEBC
February 09, 2010 at 07:11 PM
Stick to the sheep, baba. A four-legged friend will never let you down :)
Nice avatar, by the way.
bababardwan
February 08, 2010 at 10:38 PM
"keeping schtum"
....hehe,anything to oblige you my dear friend brickie :)
Actually I'm heartbroken and speechless because despite living in the land of opportunity you refer to I was willing to give it all away for this oumaesofia@yahoo.com ...I thought now finally,finally someone will understand me...only to faxian that she's playing a numbers game,bushi zhende...my dreams are shattered. :(
BEBC
February 08, 2010 at 09:31 PM
Not much, but most people know schtum, kosher and a few other such words. Most big cities in the UK have jewish communities. You probably don't have as many in Oz - jewish people tend to be pretty law-abiding, so not many would have been sent on a permanent vacation at her majesty's expense to the Land Down Under 150/200 years ago. No insult intended !!
'scht-' probably reflects jewish pronunciation of german.
Just thought - stumm is probably pronounced 'schtum' in german by germans. Oh - something else...."keeping schtum' has the nuance of keeping silent because you are guilty of something or you are hiding a secret. Not just saying nothing.
go_manly
February 08, 2010 at 08:43 PM
I had to look it up - yes Stumm is silent. Due to the strange spelling (German words generally don't start with scht), you are probably right about it being Yiddish. Unlike in the US, we don't seem to have inherited a large Yiddish vocabulary in Australia - I wasn't even aware of how much there was until I watched The Nanny. I seem to recall something like 'schlepp', but I have no idea what it means. Has Britain picked up much Jewish vocabulary?
BEBC
February 08, 2010 at 08:11 PM
It means being silent- not saying anything. It's also spelt schtumm. It sounds a bit german to me. Do you know of any german derivation ? Maybe Yiddish ?
BEBC
February 08, 2010 at 07:22 PM
Have you noticed how bababardwan is keeping schtum ? He lives in the land of opportunity, you know. So many sheep and so little time :)
mickeytoon
February 07, 2010 at 10:03 PM
Apparently not........
I fell in love with an alien being
whose skin was jelly, whose teeth were green.
She had the big bug eyes and the death-ray glare,
feet like water wings, purple hair.
I was over the moon, I asked her back to my place,
then I married the monster from outer space
The days were numbered, the nights were spent
in a rent-free, furnished oxygen tent,
when a cyborg chef served up moon beams,
done super rapid on a laser beam.
I needed nutrition to keep up the pace
when I married the monster from outer space
(John Cooper Clarke - (I married a) Monster from Outer Space)
go_manly
February 07, 2010 at 08:23 PM
"there is no age,race,colour n religion bar when it comes to true love"
That (or variations on it) seems to be a common theme - I have received a lot of spam emails from sources other than CPOD ending with that sentence.
Surely the solution is simple - CPOD should block the private messaging ability for non-paying members. Why would a non-spammer, trying out the site for the first time, even think of sending a private message in his first 7 days.
Perhaps allow them to PM members of the CPod team only.
EmmaLouise1
February 07, 2010 at 07:41 PM
Haha, bad luck thinkbudda! It's even worse for me since Sofia's gone for me but I'm a girl! :/ Seems she's not fussy either way... haha
That's a good idea about sending an email to CPod. I'll bare that in mind next time someone else proclaims their love to me via PM :P haha
WillBuckingham
February 07, 2010 at 05:34 PM
Now I'm jealous. Until reading this, I assumed that I was the very love lacking in Sofia's entire life. Now I find that several other folks are as well. That's what I call fickle.
It's probably worth letting CPod know about spam by email (rather than just blocking), so that users who abuse the system can be removed. I sent an email this morning.
EmmaLouise1
February 07, 2010 at 04:18 PM
Ah, okay, thanks hape! ^^ I'll have a look. It's worth a go even if it doesn't work.
user76423
February 07, 2010 at 02:00 PM
You can block users within the email, there is a link!
But nobody knows whether blocking really works or not.
EmmaLouise1
February 07, 2010 at 01:02 PM
Yes, Hape, I got that same email!
oumaesofia@yahoo.com
Hello
I saw your profile today and it was so good to me.u know that i am interested to be a friend first.i also believe that coming to you will be a probability of meeting that very love that has been lacking in my entire life. please i will like you to contact me direct to my e-mail address,
oumaesofia@yahoo.com i dont know the posebility of remaing in forum for long time,i will give you a full introduction of my self with my pictures ok. i will be waiting for your mail to my e-mail adsdress
oumaesofia@yahoo.com as you know
there is no age,race,colour n religion bar when it comes to true love,
cares Sofia.
Is there a button we can press to block users/spam? I heard from someone that there was but I searched for one on the users profile but couldn't find one.
user76423
February 07, 2010 at 12:44 PM
Today I received again 2 spam mails from ChinesePod in my email inbox, although I set "Forward Incoming Messages to Email?" to NO.
Hello
I saw your profile today and it was so good to me.u know that i am interested to be a friend first.i also believe that coming to you will be a probability of meeting that very love that has been lacking in my entire life. please i will like you to contact me direct to my e-mail address,
oumaesofia@yahoo.com i dont know the posebility of remaing in forum for long time,i will give you a full introduction of my self with my pictures ok. i will be waiting for your mail to my e-mail adsdress
oumaesofia@yahoo.com as you know
there is no age,race,colour n religion bar when it comes to true love,
cares Sofia. (User "sofiauu")
There must be something wrong with the system because this setting is not obeyed!
Tal
June 03, 2009 at 01:43 PM
Those who fall for it would never up own up I guess. And there's always someone, otherwise how could these things just run and run the way they do?
mickeytoon
June 03, 2009 at 01:26 PM
So to be absolutely clear here (as I have my finger hovering over the button ready to send Miss Vicky an e-mail with my credit card details), the CPod community think this is a scam? Such a shame. I thought it was an fantastic money making opportunity!
Seriously though, does anyone ever fall for these cons? I can't believe anyone would not see through this one - it's about as believable as a politician's expenses claim!
miantiao
June 03, 2009 at 09:25 AM
哈哈哈， i pmed her and asked for her vital statistics and about other er, mmm, requirements that i have. said i wasn't interested in her money, just wanted her body. haven't had a reply yet. but i'm sure she has booty!
sydcarten
June 03, 2009 at 06:53 AM
One variation of the Nigerian scam I once received claimed to be authored by a 19 year old Saudi Arabian princess who was going to need a big strong man to 'protect' her once she deserted her family and fled to the West.
Had to laugh at that, the implication was that there was more on offer than just the $20mil !
matt_c
June 03, 2009 at 05:44 AM
This message went out to quite a few of you. We have deleted the user form the system and are looking into ways to better protect the system, and you, from further attacks.
with_stupid
June 03, 2009 at 05:31 AM
Hey, check this out! It's a website to tease fraudters like these for fun and revenge!
sydcarten
June 03, 2009 at 12:45 AM
I got something very similar myself. The names and minor details change over time, but the tired old story remains the same
bababardwan
June 03, 2009 at 12:38 AM
Hey,I thought I was the only one specially selected.So what I now wanna know is do I still get my 10% plus expenses or do I have to split it with the rest of you guys?
mickeytoon
June 02, 2009 at 08:16 PM
I'm sure a lot of the CPod community got this too (I did). I'm also sure CPod will do the right thing with the culprit. In the meantime, best just to delete, block the user and forget.
user76423
March 28, 2010 at 10:52 AMThe massive posting of identical posts to different threads is still not solved. Maybe there should be a maximum limit of posts per day for non-paying guests.