Security Bulletin

[HEMI 05]

Dear Members and Guests, the administration is committed to providing a forum for you that is safe and secure. They have dedicated, time, energy, and resources, to maintain a high level of protection. However, there are unscrupulous individuals who will always try to exploit our membership and guests. They, commonly, are referred to as “spammers.” We have a “shoot on sight” policy for those people.

Spammers are a menace and attack forums the world over. They will join our forum, posing as enthusiasts, but their real objective is to abuse us. They, usually, will register under a normal sounding name. Sometimes, they will sign up with a ‘tasteless’ name. We apologize for this and request your tolerance. Unfortunately, so far, no one has designed a program that is successful at filtering these out. The spammers are constantly coming up with all kinds of variations so the name will remain visible until a new member signs up.

We do not tolerate spamming of our members or our guests. If you come across a post, usually a new member‘s first, (and their last) with an ad and external links, chances are it‘s a spammer, and their methods are sinister. A post may appear innocent, such as, ‘Great Gift Ideas’ but the links will, probably, redirect you to a site that you had no intention of ever going to. Even if you are comfortable viewing these sites, be aware that it is a common practice for those linked sites to secretly download malicious components on to your computer while their page is loading. That is how the spammers make there money.

They earn their living by providing corrupt individuals with a way to steal your personal information, surfing habits, and preferences, and then use it against you. Spyware, adware, highjacking, and tracking software, are very common. Extortion and Bot programs are quickly becoming favorites as well. We monitor the board often. If one of them is able to squeak in a post, we strongly advise our membership and our guests, not to open these links. Further, we ask that if our members find one that they PM a moderator, HEMI 05, Sandman1, xs29j8, with the location of the spam post. I would like to says thanks to our members for an awesome forum.

On behalf of your Moderation Team, Greg - HEMI 05.