Warning

[Roger Thorne]

Hi Folks,

Just a quick heads up - we are experiencing problems with an influx of spammers sending 'virus alerts' to our members via PM's. Unfortunately it reads as if it has been sent from the Administration team at tMP.

I can assure you all that this is NOT the case and we strongly suggest you DO NOT click on this link.

The PM will be similar to the one posted below.

Originally Posted by trueLadyAdmin
Dear, Username

A virus alert was noticed on your computer.
We highly recommend you to check your computer and perform online virus check at our site immediately: http: // protectcomp.effectmeds.com/fl...lvecap;tam-tam
----------------------------------------------------
Sincerely, Forum Administration www.themouthpiece.com.

If you have, or do receive a PM similar to the one above please report it to one of our Moderators/Admin so we can take immediate action.

Thanking you for your assistance in the above matter

Roger (on behalf of the tMP Team)

[brassneck]

If this is the virus which I am thinking of, it locks on to the operating system and administrator rights quickly and cannot be cleaned with the usual anti-virus software.

[brassneck]

To be more specific, you are likely to be infected with a variant of the Win32/Conficker virus. It's been doing the rounds for a few years now, but it seems to be even more sophisticated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker

[Roger Thorne]

It's just a simple scam

[brassneck]

Originally Posted by Roger Thorne

It's just a simple scam

Wise to notify tMPers about it though, as the site has been recognised to link with the virus ...

http://www.freepcsecurity.co.uk/2010...es-january-14/

[Cornet Nev.]

Sorry to have not thought about giving notification to TMP staff about this, as well as being a cornet player, I am also working on computer help forums where we have noticed the rise of this type of personal message spamming. I believe the link given in this so called anti virus alert may directly unload some form of malware, though as yet this is unconfirmed. For your safety, if you receive this spam PM, do alert the staff about it and who sent it, but then delete it, do not click on the link.

[Cornet Nev.]

A separate reply to also alert you Roger, and other administrators, to a different approach from the spammers.
They arrive as so called new members, and then post something innocent looking, such as--

"Boy am I glad to have found this site it's just what I have been looking for"

Please note the link is the apostrophe between the word it's, it usually sends you to somewhere not nice, but for demonstration purposes in my case, it sends you to TMP home page.
It may seem a very obscure means of posting spam, but it must work or they wouldn't do it.

[Roger Thorne]

Cheers Nev.

[TheMusicMan]

What I don't understand though is that we have to approve ALL new members before they are allowed access to the forums...!?

[Independent Silver Band]

Originally Posted by Cornet Nev.

A separate reply to also alert you Roger, and other administrators, to a different approach from the spammers.
They arrive as so called new members, and then post something innocent looking, such as--

"Boy am I glad to have found this site it's just what I have been looking for"

Please note the link is the apostrophe between the word it's, it usually sends you to somewhere not nice, but for demonstration purposes in my case, it sends you to TMP home page.
It may seem a very obscure means of posting spam, but it must work or they wouldn't do it.

I didn't realise what was going on, but I have three such postings on our website in the last two weeks. What is their purpose?

[Roger Thorne]

If you have, or do receive a PM similar to the one above please report it to one of our Moderators/Admin so we can take immediate action.

Thanks for all the PM's

[flugelgal]

I wish that the people who do this would just "burger off" and go find someone else to bother. I'm not going to click on their links, so they're wasting both their own and my time by sending the messages. I really detest spam. GRR.

Well done to the mods on acting quickly with reported spammers so far!

[mikelyons]

I don't understand why they do it - they get very little out of it except the possible satisfaction of spoiling it for everyone else! :

[alks]

Ive just had another pm - so this seams to be still ongoing.

alks

[Jan H]

Originally Posted by alks

Ive just had another pm - so this seams to be still ongoing.

alks

who from?
When you report these spammers, we can ban them