Do spammers poz a hazzard to members computers

Could these spammers infect the membership's computers- even with stone, brick, and fire walls. Maybe we should not give instant membership but new members would have to wait for confirmation by a modulator- moderator. There are some shifty members now in our midst.
Fred

They seem to disable spell checkers...

They send you email, so all possible ways an email can infect you apply. If they add a .exe or whatever and you click on it then yes. Some sorts can infect if the preview pane in outlook is active. Business as usual I'm afraid. But not by just posting on this board.

I don't intend to open any of the spam- but some might be "Hidden".
Fred

I know it happens everywhere, but I haven't experienced this problem with other sites I visit. They also are on the T site. Hmmmmmmm
Fred

Hello Fred,

I'm not very scared as long as my personal discipline is holding up. Discipline such as not to open any attachment in e-mails without scanning it first with a current antivirus software. Fortunately my mail client don't allow for any preview of .exe, .com or similar files, and for any other file I get a message that reminds me of this discipline. But I agree that those SPAM messages are a nuisance.

The only way to get rid of those spammers are to either remove them from the memberships list, and to prevent them getting on again is to install some kind of control during the registration process. Step one would be that there is one of those graphic fields with a code that the new member has to type in while registering, and step two would be to have a moderator to approve any new member.

This means more work, but as far as I have experienced those are the only options. On all lists or boards that are open to any new member instantly sooner or later spammers will show up. Especially since I believe that now since this board is in the list of targets for the spammers there is no way to get out of the target list.

About the dangers for the other members of this board, I also believe as far as nobody uses the link that is planted in the shout box nothing will happen. Besides, if you post the mouse over the link, and wait a moment it will show the real link address in a box or in a message bar of your browser. Then you still can decide if you want to really click on the link or better not.

The other possible way would be that those spammers could try to send a mail via the message option in the profile of each member. But since this would have to be done for each member seperately I believe this feature also for relativly save. Especially as you can't see the members e-mail address before he answers to your message directly.

If anyone got Spam via this way, maybe here the graphic control could be installed.

The most important part now is to remove any of the spammers from the memberships list. But I'm sure that the board owner/s are working at that. I also see that it is sometimes hard to see if a name on the list is a spammer or not. At this moment there are a small handfull of names where I'm not sure if they are good or bad...

Determine where the message came from and ban that IP address permanently. won't solve it from happening again but will stop that IP address. If it continues, contact Internic and have the site shut down. Of course they will only start another one.

First, just taking care by not opening mails is not enough.
I was having my website infected a few times already.
In general even web-page windows can download you a trojan if you think that
you click the close button, but it was just a fake close button.

They first try to install a downloader on your PC, later he will open the backdoor
to the virus.

Best is to have a good tool installed. I tested a few, for me SpyNoMore is the best.
Worse absolutly the money, it detects the downloader already before the virus
is there.
Also important, to use a master password for browser password manager.

Update!
I have purchased "captcha" technology for the site. Beginning now, all user will be required to type a captcha code from an image like the one below.

This will be required for registration, lost password, sending messages to members, etc.. I also applies something similar to the shout box.

I hope this helps and I hope it does not inconvenience members as well.
-Brad