a question for the mods.

4 Nov 2005

Clearly some of the photo ads are scams and they are obvious, but others initially appearinggenuine still disappear v quickly and I assume they have been found out by you guys as bogus and removed. Do you keep a list or post warnings on these? as it is a pain to send out phots and descriptions in good faith only for them to disappear into the ether

4 Nov 2005

Quote by lucyfingers
Clearly some of the photo ads are scams and they are obvious, but others initially appearinggenuine still disappear v quickly and I assume they have been found out by you guys as bogus and removed. Do you keep a list or post warnings on these? as it is a pain to send out phots and descriptions in good faith only for them to disappear into the ether

We ban shitloads of ads every day. Some are one-offs, some are organised spams of multiple email addresses (I'm not talking about ads in the wrong sections here, just the spam/fakes). Whenever we ban and delete any ad, we note against it why we did it, so if someone complains (the spammers don't!!) we can explain why they were banned. Once the ad has been banned, we don't have a record of what it said or its add number, but we always need an email address at the very least, to trace the person who posted it to take action.
As you said, some appear genuine and its only after you have replied to them do you find out it was a con, but by now the ad has disappeared. THat is why it is so important for us to have the email address (to see if they are still active) and a copy of the email too, to support any ban.
We don't keep a list for you to check against, but now and again we tell peope to be aware of these scams. However, out of all the ads, very few of those posting them are actually members of the Forums and would never see the warnings anyway.
I hope that helps.
Mal
wink

(nackered after writing all that! redface

)

4 Nov 2005

Many thanks for that, I wont mention names but the one I was referring to was yesterday, in women seeking men appeared v genuine, needed to be logged in to reply to email and invoved a travelling representative from a certain industry. Still dont break bones trying to discover, I will put it down to experience and be more cautious

4 Nov 2005

Quote by lucyfingers
Many thanks for that, I wont mention names but the one I was referring to was yesterday, in women seeking men appeared v genuine, needed to be logged in to reply to email and invoved a travelling representative from a certain industry. Still dont break bones trying to discover, I will put it down to experience and be more cautious

Yep, know which one you're talking about cool

- I've banned that ad dozens of times, now multiply that ban by 9 other mods and you can see roughly what we're up against. That's just one spammer, with over 200000 live accounts in the photo ads it's a constant thing confused

That's why we really do appreciate it when people report ads, forward relevant emails etc, saves us so much time biggrin

4 Nov 2005

Also, people that respond to these spammers, join their sites etc - well it makes it all worth it to them. confused

Personally I can't see why people do respond - my thinking is that these sites have gotta be either shite or expensive for them to need to spam and try to gather people dunno

4 Nov 2005

Well, once or twice I catch them 'in the act' as it were and get to zap them the instantly. However, nowadays they tend to be less obvious and less upfront about what they are doing cos we do get them so quickly (sometimes we got 30 'report this ad' reports about each ad lol

) and now just send the spam/scam stuff out as if replying to ads or send it out if someone falls for their 'too good to be true' ads!
So.. bottom line is:
1) Make your email address anonymous (anonymous on) - that way you can only get email from a registered and logged on person so we can track them down!
2) When responding to ads keep a record of which ads you reply to so that you can send us the ad number and zap the tossers!
3) Report any ads which arouse your suspicions
4) Keep on reporting any ads which arouse your suspicions
5) Don't blame the TTTTs (TMJags2004) on the site. 10 Moderators work (for free) to keep this site responsible and legal - there are hundreds of people out to exploit, manipulate and make a fortune out of you sex-driven folks!
:P :P

4 Nov 2005

Quote by Jags
5) Don't blame the TTTTs (TMJags2004) on the site. 10 Moderators work (for free) to keep this site responsible and legal - there are hundreds of people out to exploit, manipulate and make a fortune out of you sex-driven folks!
:P :P

And I thought the 10 mods were the most sex driven of all confused