Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : WHT Announcements, Feedback and Questions : Scammers and Spammers Sub-Forum? Anyone Else Want One?

[PWRBryce]

How many people would like to see a sub-forum created to warn web hosts about potential scammers, talk about how to defend/stop spam, and discuss subjects surrounding the increase of these sorts of annoyances? I know I would, and I have noticed a couple of others would too. (Maybe under the Running a Web Hosting Business Forum?)

[ub3r]

i would but the liability is too high for inet to consider it.

[PWRBryce]

There is one, under premium members section.

[Tina J]

If its to talk about generalities, without giving specific information (like scammer client's name, domain, info) - it could really be covered in one thread. There's only so many times you can list the ways to stop fraudsters. I don't think a separate forum would have ongoing appeal.

If you're talking about posting client information, that's a huge 'no-no'. It would be huge liability to iNet and the person posting the information. Also, even if no one pursued it legally, there's something that just doesn't sit right with me when you talk about posting victim's information. I say victim's information because most scammers and fraudsters use stolen credit card, name, domains, etc. to do their dirty work. By posting the victim's information, you're only adding insult to injury.

--Tina

[Alex]

Originally Posted by PWRBryce

There is one, under premium members section.

The section under the Premium Members forum is for discussion on spam and preventing spam and scams, not on which hosts are scammers / abusers.

This has been discussed many time before, and WHT and iNet will probably not do it. While it might be helpful, there are plenty of bads that outweigh the good. Search around for the older threads on this.


Alex

[Corey Bryant]

Who would police it? Unfortunately there are a lot of people who do not read a contract when they agree to it. And then when something happens, they think at that point they are scammed.

Just do a search on here and you will find thousands of posts. Getting down to the truth at times, take a lot of hard effort. I doubt anyone would be able to afford that time.

[IH-Rameen]

Originally Posted by Corey Bryant

Who would police it? Unfortunately there are a lot of people who do not read a contract when they agree to it. And then when something happens, they think at that point they are scammed.

Just do a search on here and you will find thousands of posts. Getting down to the truth at times, take a lot of hard effort. I doubt anyone would be able to afford that time.

So true...

Plus, with so many young hosters around, they won't be aware of all the laws (some of them)... it is likely they will say something which they will regret later on..

Best to keep the vibe of this community positive rather than having sections that would only encourage negativity...

[Biju]

Originally Posted by PWRBryce

There is one, under premium members section.

Hmm for only premium users,

[SoftWareRevue]

Originally Posted by spechackers

Hmm for only premium users,

hmmmm.....

Originally Posted by adb22791

The section under the Premium Members forum is for discussion on spam and preventing spam and scams, not on which hosts are scammers / abusers.

[ub3r]

Originally Posted by Corey Bryant

Who would police it? Unfortunately there are a lot of people who do not read a contract when they agree to it. And then when something happens, they think at that point they are scammed.

Just do a search on here and you will find thousands of posts. Getting down to the truth at times, take a lot of hard effort. I doubt anyone would be able to afford that time.

There are a lot of maniacs who run around the web hosting forum screaming about their hosts. When they post without significant evidence, they are asked to provide evidence, and when they fail to provide that evidence, the thread is usually tossed. Why not run the scam/spam forum the same way?

[valentin_nils]

hey "ub3r" that sounds actually like a step in the right direction - perhaps even a plan ? ;-)

I second "ub3r" on this !!

[anon-e-mouse]

Originally Posted by ub3r

There are a lot of maniacs who run around the web hosting forum screaming about their hosts. When they post without significant evidence, they are asked to provide evidence, and when they fail to provide that evidence, the thread is usually tossed. Why not run the scam/spam forum the same way?

Because it isn't the same thing. The daily complaints are rarely spam/scam, we have very few "known" scammers here and those are well documented both publicly and privately here and in search engines.

[Nature-Talk]

Wow, I can't believe we're having a big conundrum about discussing spammers and hackers.

Ok, I see the legal problems involved of naming individuals on the board. So let's the protect the host of this forum and rule that out. Agreed.

The notion that discussing the subject of network abuse in general is "negative" is understandable. We're a dozen years in to this new environment, and the spammers own 90% of all email traffic. So any discussion of spam and network abuse highlights our failure, and repeats a discussion of a technical defense paradigm that just isn't getting the job done.

So instead of quitting, and declaring the subject negative, let's see if we can acknowledge the failure for what it is, and try harder. Whatcha say?

Here's an angle that might spark some discussion.

You and I are never going to figure out how to stop the spammer/hackers. We're web hosts, not experts in tracking criminals across international borders.

We might reasonably conclude an endless debate that assumes we have the answers, and instead focus on hiring experts whose training and life long career is focused on fighting underworld characters.

This reduces the whole problem for us to one of raising money, and hiring the right experts.

This is the exact same procedure any of us use when we encounter a hosting problem beyond our ability. We hire someone who already knows the job that needs to be done.

[Nature-Talk]

Hmm.

Are the moderators here concerned that if WHT becomes a leader in the discussion of network abuse this forum will become a victim of network abuse?

If yes, that's a reasonable concern. If this is a real concern, let's talk about it.

[Nature-Talk]

Ok, just signed up for a premium membership as a way to cast my vote that WHT become a leadership community on the topic of network abuse.

Whatcha says guys? A WHT subscription is only 4 bucks a month. If we hope to convince anyone we're serious about network abuse, it will take more than talk.

Let's pay a little bit for all the great info we get from this board (which saves me way more than 4 bucks a month in mistakes!) and encourage the moderators of WHT to help us make WHT a place where a new consensus on network abuse might emerge.