2006-09-12: .info email addresses banned

[infoxicated]

It's become obvious over the last few months that pretty much nobody uses .info email addresses unless they are spammers.

So these are now banned and any attempt to register with one will be unsuccessful. i.e. they'll need to go set up a hotmail or yahoo address before I have to go to the trouble of deleting or banning their account!

United we can win the war on Spammers.

[Lance]

Don't forget .biz addresses. The E-K spambot used that today; I just banned it. I also post .biz, .info, and .ru on the 'watch list' of another forum where I am a moderator. There are also two spammer email domains that are automatically banned permanently on that forum. .gawab and .cashette. The E-K spambot has used .cashette a couple of times here as well.

[infoxicated]

Those are banned, if I remember correctly - I'll add .biz, though. :)

[exarkann]

.cashette? i didnt know it was a spammer site.. i have a buddy who uses them as one of his addresses... hmm.

also, correct me if i'm mistaken, but isnt .ru just the suffix for the Netherlands? one of the other boards i've been posting on for years has that..

[Lance]

.ru is russia. About 40 percent of all spammers I've seen use mail.ru.

.cashette can be used for legitimate purposes to make spammers pay for sending mail to one's own cashette address, but in fact, it is primarily used by spammers to send spam to message boards.

[Mobius]

Spammers?

I remeber there being one or two but I kidna vanished from here over the summer and now it seems like there has been a problem... :S

How bad has it actually got?

[infoxicated]

The problem hasn't vanished, we're just doing a lot of work behind the scenes to stop them from posting, or deleting their posts when they do. We get a handful registering every day, but very few make it through the activation process - I also keep a watchful eye on any accounts that look suspicious.

It's like the Men In Black - they keep the world safe without you even knowing. ;)

[JABBERJAW]

Iv'e always wanted to meet one of these guys who sends spam to my email address. It would be a pleasant conversation between his face and my fist. Then I might feel better :)

[Mad-Ice]

Aha now i see why it took so long for me to register. E-mail: suspiciousnoise@hotmail.com. And of course i am the BIG Spammer. LOL.

[infoxicated]

Heh! :D

It is difficult to decide, though - I'm glad we don't have a whole load of new registrations at the minute, because it would be a nightmare to go through them all and delete the suspicious ones. ;)