Hi there,

If you are a young person interested in computer programming, why not check out:

<Removed>

A forum aimed at helping younger people that are interested in computer programming!
If you are allready a member then i apologise for this email, however if you are not, then i recommend that you sign up immediately!

Thankyou,

<Removed>


User : RoundHost
Also see : http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=360277&highlight=young+coders

I AM SICKENED!

Why would someone want to spam? It can only lead to trouble, bad reputation, company image. etc...

Was this something your recieved through system mail?

I got this to my email, (opens up cc)

Well, there seems to be more then that's countable, I have included a screenshot with a blur that will make it hard for spambots to "figure out."

http://fragfiles.org/images/wht_spam.jpg

Originally posted by Aea
I got this to my email, (opens up cc)

Well, there seems to be more then that's countable, I have included a screenshot with a blur that will make it hard for spambots to "figure out."

http://fragfiles.org/images/wht_spam.jpg
Wow, look at that CC list. I see quite a few friends and fellow WHT member addresses on there. As SWR asked, they didn't use the WHT system to send the mail though, correct?

I'm guessing WHT for harvesting only :/

I hope all 280ish of you put in a spam report!

Geez. At least his name is in his 'press release' post, here.
We know who to be cross with :dgrin:

Yeah I got it too

And theres me forth row down at the very end...I also got this the other day.

Hi there, i would firstly like to apoogise for this situation, and i would also like to explain myself.

First off, i did not grab the emails from WHT, i received them in an email that was sent to me, that had all of the emails in the cc: header, the cc header was so long that i was attracted to it, and then i realised the potential to send an email to them myself.

I admit to having sent the email. You may patronise me, and give me a sturn telling off.

I have learnt a valuable lesson from this experience, which is not to spam, if you ever receive spam from me again i invite you to take action aginst me.

Proper grammer may be helpful next time you apologize to about 280 people.

I is spelled with a capital. It is not i

apoogise = apologize
realised = realized
patronise = patronize
learnt = learned

... and sturn is not a word, it's stern

thats really interesting RoundHost considering you told me that someone gathered the emails up off WHT because a friend owed you a favor.

Originally posted by AreYouKiddin
Proper grammer may be helpful next time you apologize to about 280 people.

I is spelled with a capital. It is not i

apoogise = apologize
realised = realized
patronise = patronize
learnt = learned

... and sturn is not a word, it's stern

Actually, If he's English, then patronise, realised and learnt are all correct.

Originally posted by Philipf
Actually, If he's English, then patronise, realised and learnt are all correct.

Yes i am from England.

Originally posted by Kerry Jones
thats really interesting RoundHost considering you told me that someone gathered the emails up off WHT because a friend owed you a favor.

Hmmmm... interesting.

Care to respond RoundHost?

:angry: :angry: :angry:

Sirius

I am happy for a webhostingtalk administrator to check through the email list as i am sure you will see that the list is not generated from this site.

Also if i am correct, you canot acctually get the email of a user from vbulletin anyway, you are presented with a form to send emails to other users?

Also if i am correct, you canot acctually get the email of a user from vbulletin anyway, you are presented with a form to send emails to other users?
in often times, users enter their email addresses in their posts as a way for users to contact them outside of wht. a person could run an email scanner against wht in order to gather all emails for spamming purposes.

You only need to browse the offers forums to find a heap on that list. I haven't time to spend on 280ish of them, but I think you'll find they have all been posted.

"Patronise" is not how I would react to being spammed ("you may do business with me..."). "Chastise" is more like it.

Anywho, why should someone wait until next time to take action? Sending a message in bulk to a list of people you were not authorized to use is pretty cut'n'dry spamming. If you truly had that big a lapse in judgment as to not see this before sending the message in question, I would think the best course of action should have been to apologize publicly and proactively the moment you figured out what you did was wrong, instead of waiting for it to become public.

I say book 'em, Danno!

roundy buddy whats your website?

Originally posted by the_pm
"Patronise" is not how I would react to being spammed ("you may do business with me..."). "Chastise" is more like it.

Anywho, why should someone wait until next time to take action? Sending a message in bulk to a list of people you were not authorized to use is pretty cut'n'dry spamming. If you truly had that big a lapse in judgment as to not see this before sending the message in question, I would think the best course of action should have been to apologize publicly and proactively the moment you figured out what you did was wrong, instead of waiting for it to become public.

I say book 'em, Danno!

I hadnt really thought about it till i found out about this thread, And to email them all apologising would be spamming.

I believe i've found out how RoundHost was able to collect the emails off WHT. While "@" is disabled on the search you can still search for specific email addresses can still be found. I would suggest banning popular email sites such as "gmail.com", "yahoo.com", and "hotmail.com" from being searched on the forums. I'll show the reason why below:

@gmail.com
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=3259991&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

@hotmail.com
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=3260001&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

@yahoo.com
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=3260009&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

I also figured he browsed through the employment offers & requests forums to gather emails through it as well like anon-e-mouse suggested. I believe these 2 methods are how he collected the emails.

Taking that a bit boarder, and making it near impossible.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwebhostingtalk.com+%40gmail.com&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwebhostingtalk.com+%40yahoo.com&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwebhostingtalk.com+%40hotmail.com&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwebhostingtalk.com+email+me+here&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwebhostingtalk.com+email+me+&btnG=Search

I'm sure there is something wht could do to disable "email me". Only time will tell when such filtering will be included.

Well, seeing as how many of those members can be easily recognized, I could assume the user (or person who did the harvesting) could easily single out active member and search through their stuff, perhaps their sites, etc :/

there is one question on my mind from all this... why isn't his account disabled if he sent this to wht members? If there is no consquences to his actions what stops other people from doing the same? Does WHT want to set a standard to where there will be no punishment for those who harvest email addresses off WHT?

I understand how you may think i harvested these emails myself, and i can see that you have put alot of effort into working out exactly how i did. However i am still going to go on my original explanation of receiving an email with the emails in the header, if you do not beleive me, i am sure that somebody that will have received my email and noticed the size on the list of emails, will have reived others and noticed the same...

heh

the owner of the server that hosts the forum has had a complaint to the datacenter for spamming.

I rang the datacenter his server is located at, and made the complaint.

Yes, i am so cool. Thank me, and give me lots of money. :D

I understand how you may think i harvested these emails myself, and i can see that you have put alot of effort into working out exactly how i did. However i am still going to go on my original explanation of receiving an email with the emails in the header, if you do not beleive me, i am sure that somebody that will have received my email and noticed the size on the list of emails, will have reived others and noticed the same...

It may not have been you personally gathering the emails, but you told me a friend did it as a favor for you. Its like if I use a compromised server to commit a crime I didn't compromise the server, but I would still be held accountable for the crime. You intentionally used the list to mass market your website. Does it still give you the right to mass market because the emails were in the header? You took a risk and now its possible some members reported it to spam filters therefore its possible your host may be blacklisted. If thats possible you may be facing fines from them for the removal from the blackholes. What is very interesting is your hosting with macrowehosting.com which I happen to be a friend of Mike and adminstrator of his website Mike Rowe Forums. Therefore i'll be contacting personally of your malicious activity.

My name is liam, im fred's (youngcoders.com) webhost.... disabling now, i have found it, and in fact, i recieved a copy...

I hope Fred has learned a valuable lesson of never sending bulk email out from going through forums and collecting email addresses. The direct result of actions have resulted in your account being suspended.

http://www.youngcoders.com [SUSPENDED]

If anybody knows of any other people who spam let me know. I would be more than happy to help get them suspended or shut down. I would also like to thank my friend MRH-Liam for taking action. I'm hoping that Fred in the future realizes spam never helps you out and that there are consquences for it. The worst is not over yet i'm afraid. I bet if MRH does recieve a call from the DC he will be charged for the spam.

ok guys, now listen, i normally dont go easy on spammers.... BUT, i have made an exception for the one reason being, this is the first time hes ever done anything wrong in the years (literally), of him being hosted with us. i have explained how spam is not accepted on any host, and if i ever find him doing anything similar, a rather large fine will be sent out, his webhost, and domain names, sites etc, will be the property of my business until such time as the debt has been payed.

People have been telling me i have been way too lenient on this matter, but i believe i have taken the necessary steps and i do not believe fred will be of any more trouble to anybody.

Fred has, out of feeling really bad, and sending me flowers etc (rofl), offered to place a notice on the main page of his website apologising for his wrongful behaviour.

His removal from wht in such a manner as above is very sad, however, i must agree it had to be done. And kerry, i wish to thankyou for bringing this to my attention so quickly.

Comments are always welcomed.

EDIT: Fred is 16 years old, in most countries this is not a legal age to be running a business, so i have contacted his parents, and they are now aware of this matter

Originally posted by MRH-Liam
Fred is 16 years old, in most countries this is not a legal age to be running a business, so i have contacted his parents, and they are now aware of this matter

True, the age of legal responsibility in the UK is 18 so his parents are responsible for his actions + could potentially pay the cost of it. Contacting his parents was a correct move to make.

Since it looks like Fred's account was suspended, I'll post this statement for him. (He summoned me to write him a Press Release this morning)


Frederick Coleman, founder and developer of YoungCoders.com, announced Sunday that on behalf of the Young Coders community, he apologizes for the inappropriate actions taken to market the site.

Recently, the site was involved in an incident which demonstrated a lapse in both judgment and good character.

On Saturday, January 15th, approximately 200 emails were sent out to a group of individuals in the webhosting community that contained a small advertisement for the coding community, Coleman said.

The email addresses were obtained from a CC list attached to an email Coleman received earlier in the day.

“What happened on Saturday does not reflect upon how we do business,” said Coleman. “I am a staunch critic of all unsolicited bulk emails. I didn’t realize the magnitude of the actions taken on Saturday until it was too late.”

A message on the site, (http://www.youngcoders.com) has been posted regarding the incident, assuring visitors this type of situation will never occur again.

“Now that the facts are out, I ask the hosting community to give us a second chance, with my assurance that never again will we attempt to use email as a means to market our site,” said Coleman.

“The hosting community has been so good to us, I feel bad to have let them down,” said Coleman. “I hope we can put this situation behind us and look toward the future.”

I am not affiliated with Fred or his site in any way, I was just hired to write the PR.

I've been following this thread from the beginning, saying to myself "yeah, hang the *^%# spammer!"

However, seeing the last few messages and checking out young Fred's site I think he has learned his lesson and has handled it better than most adults would have.

Fred, your site is very professionally done and seems to have great potential. I feel sorry for you having to learn how to do business on "Internet time", where hundreds of people can instantly hate you if you take a wrong step. You have handled this situation in an honorable manner and I think you will go far.

seems his site is back up

Yes, it was suspended for temporary, but it seems like since Liam contacted his mother they put it back up.