Restrict NEW members from sending private messages?

[hipower]

9 hours ago, gregintenn said:

It seems to work well in other forums I frequent.

There are OTHER forums?? Wow. I never knew that. I seem to live here.

[TGO David]

I've been trying to figure out a way to have the forum software drop a disclaimer / warning at the top of messages sent by people who are using brand new accounts also.   Just as a reminder to folks to verify things before blindly trusting.

I know that TGO is well-stocked with smart folks who have a lot of common sense, but I keep reminding myself that there are still people in this world who fall for telemarketing scams too.  Not because they are dumb, but rather just because of genuine trust for people or innocent naivety.  I'd like to protect those folks if they happen to join, especially if they join in the current climate just to find ammo or a firearm.

Sadly, so far I've had no luck pulling-off this particular hack of our software.  I may have to farm it out to someone who develops add-ons to the forum software we use.

 

 

[monkeylizard]

In the cases I've seen shared publiclly here so far, the scams seem kind of obvious, but it's not always that way. We all think "how can a person be stupid enough to fall for a scam" but when you see how sophisticated some of these scams are, you start to see how it works.

[E4 No More]

Individuals don't tend to think things through when they are busy or emotionally invested. Security experts continually drive home the message that you should never click on a link or open a file that is either in an unexpected email or text, yet time and time again people do it and subject either their selves or their company to ransomware. 

[ac3boyz]

I wouldn't be opposed to any of those terms.  At the same time I feel we are all grown ass adults and I would expect that other members are proactive and check out when an individual joined TGO, their activity on the board, and where they are located and then use common sense before following through with any type of transaction.

All of us started with our first interaction buying or selling with no feedback from previous dealings.  And not all of us would be considered "active" contributors to the forum.  I would hate to see a legitimate new member discouraged from joining this awesome forum.  JMHO

[Grunt67]

I can't see how this would discourage a legit newcomer from "joining" the forum, rather a reminder as to the reason they joined.

I know many forums require a minimum # of posts before accessing other features. I've joined other forums that required something of that nature, and I had no issue with it.

My vote is go with it. We live in a different world these days. Adjust & survive.

[Nikiski Dave]

I vote for the majority rules. If I get bumped back so be it. I can usually spot a scam. Still waiting to hear back from that rich  widow woman though

[Grand Torino]

[robin48]

I'm all for it

[DennisG]

This is a tough issue. I deal with spammers, bots, scammers, and more in my day job and there's no perfect solution. You put countermeasures in place and they find ways around them, so you find more/better/different ways to impede them while trying not to impact the legitimate users. Benefactor status is probably a good indicator - will a scammer be willing to fork out money in hopes of scamming enough before being reported and blocked?Hopefully that status factors into things as this post will increase my count by 10% - some of us just don't talk much!

[hipower]

21 hours ago, DennisG said:

"...some of us just don't talk much!"

And since there are some of us who talk too much...that's not a bad thing for you to be. 

[nightrunner]

I support this. I believe the post count restriction would work best. Then you can search a members posts and see if they were genuine or just getting their post count up enough so they can PM and scam other members.

[Alleycat72]

7 hours ago, nightrunner said:

I support this. I believe the post count restriction would work best. Then you can search a members posts and see if they were genuine or just getting their post count up enough so they can PM and scam other members.

I don't know. 

[Alleycat72]

7 hours ago, nightrunner said:

I support this. I believe the post count restriction would work best. Then you can search a members posts and see if they were genuine or just getting their post count up enough so they can PM and scam other members.

Maybe.

Edited May 21, 2021 by alleycat72

[Alleycat72]

7 hours ago, nightrunner said:

I support this. I believe the post count restriction would work best. Then you can search a members posts and see if they were genuine or just getting their post count up enough so they can PM and scam other members.

People could do that. 

[Snaveba]

What ever happend with this idea?  I was PMed last night by a new member who was a scammer (Danial12). I was not the only one contacted to let us know that “Alex in Washington” had what we needed. 

[TGO David]

23 hours ago, Snaveba said:

What ever happend with this idea?  I was PMed last night by a new member who was a scammer (Danial12). I was not the only one contacted to let us know that “Alex in Washington” had what we needed. 

I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this without ruining the overall experience for new users and non-Benefactors.

[ygbsm]

How do we report these new member scammers?  I've gotten 2 PMs from these jerks

[KahrMan]

1 hour ago, ygbsm said:

How do we report these new member scammers?  I've gotten 2 PMs from these jerks

Send a pm to any admin with the info and they will take care of it.

[Chucktshoes]

Best and fastest way to let the entire mod team is to report it. 

 

These are screen caps of that asshole trying to fish me in. Click the three dots and select report. 
 

Then choose spam and the first mod to see it can zap the SOB instead of having to wait for a particular mod that you PMed to get online. 

 

We really appreciate the help y’all give us in ferreting out these bastards. 

[19_A_CPT]

Proceed Suh! Proceed!

[ygbsm]

Reported.  

Thanks.

[TGO David]

Update for February 7, 2022...

I am making some headway on this.  There are several features within our forum software that can be combined in just the right way to make it so that new members can receive and respond to private messages, but not start new private messages of their own.  This would cut down on the number of scammers who sign up and then try to message people who've posted "Wanted To Buy" type advertisements, seeking to scam with them with the usual sales pitches.

Stay tuned. 

 

[Snaveba]

Constant vigilance 

[phiferran]

Solid plan. I’m on board.