Scammer alert

[Ricky Spanish]

Zero posts. Has a friend selling. Blah blah.

[Albert]

Thank you, I have banned the member.  He had sent PMs to 13 different people, and I warned those people not to send email or money to this individual.

 

 ..Al

[Ricky Spanish]

Should they have a less than "xx" amount of meaningful posts.. No single words or emojis No PM's for you. I'm thinking like 20 posts.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Ricky Spanish

[Albert]

16 minutes ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Should they have a less than "xx" amount of meaningful posts.. No single words or emojis No PM's for you. I'm thinking like 20 posts.

Yes, it is something I am considering.  However, less than "xx" meaningful posts isn't going to happen, especially as it would be an automatic process.  Nobody has time to look at all the first "xx" posts someone makes and then decide if they should have access to the PM system. 

 

Many people do legitimately sign up to the forum to send someone a PM, though, so it's not the best solution.

 

 ..Al

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Limit the number of PMs based on the number of posts?

[Albert]

3 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Limit the number of PMs based on the number of posts?

There's no mechanism to do that within a user group.  Every member belongs to one primary user group, and for that group I can specify whether someone has access to the PM system.  Based on the number of posts, I can move someone into a new group once they reach a certain threshold (for instance, 20 posts).  That new group would then allow access to the PM system.

 

What would be useful is the ability to receive an alert (as an admin) if a member is sending a large number of PMs in a short period of time, which is a hallmark of these scammers.  I can post this up as a suggestion on the Invision forum, as I know I'm not the only forum having to deal with this issue.

 

 ..Al

[+batari]

What I have seen on other forums is new users with very few posts need to have their PMs approved by a moderator. I would imagine this would stop scammers from even trying.

[Rybags]

Can you limit it according to time since registered and having a few likes?

[flashjazzcat]

Problem I see here is new users who are directed to the forum for the sole purpose of - for example - buying Sophia 2 or other hardware whose designer has no web-store and relies on PMs. I can't see an issue with someone registering an account and sending one PM five minutes later.

Edited April 20, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[SlagOMatic]

It would be an undertaking, but... Take a page from reddit. Include a "Report" button for PMs and the message forums. When a person clicks on it the systems asks why they're reporting it. Have "Scam" be one of the options. After <x> reports the user is shadowbanned until an administrator reviews the situation and un-bans them or permanently bans them, as applicable.

 

If you want to go a step further (to help against abuse), set up a point system. It costs one point to report a message/post. If you report a post/message and the person actually gets banned, you earn two points (regaining the one that you spent, and earning one more). If you report a post/message and the person doesn't get banned, you lose a point (thus losing two points overall). If your score goes below <x> you lose the ability to report a message/post.