Come on Moderators!! These guys have been spamming for days!

[Chelsea Malibu]

Do you not have the technology in place to shut off these accounts?  They are gold farmers who are scanning keystrokes for passwords to hack accounts and yet you can do nothing to prevent this? It's even the same user name.  I know they will be using Proxy's but for crying out loud, this has been the same user.

[Deej Kasshiki]

A couple of hours ago I RICed one of the accounts that was spamming the sports links the other day. I'd think these accounts would be summarily banned but, appears not.

[Chelsea Malibu]

The problem is that they use very sophisticated proxy systems and they can't see their IP's.  If you look into the world of Gold Farming, they have been doing this for years in other games where you have to earn your currency and cannot buy it.  It started in Ultimate Online, moved to Everquest and has been a huge problem in WoW. 

As in the case of WoW, the new Cataclysm release brought the level cap up to 85 as well as what you can earn from quests, etc. Bringing down the value of gold significantly.  It would take about a week or more to come up with 10k gold which sells for $15-20 US.  As such, they have moved to Second Life as their currency has higher value and the method lately has been to hack accounts and steal. 

In WoW they used the same method and Blizzard came up with their Authenticator which rotates a random password key ever 10 seconds or so.  The problem got that bad and I was among the many who had their accounts hacked where they stripped me of everything I had acquired over 4 years.  I got my account back and everything was restored and I have been very careful of the websites I go to now.  When I need tips or information, I have the 5 or so authorized sites I use and none else.

The same problem is happening now in SL but as is usually the case with the Labs, it's always the best policy to not talk about problems or warn users.

If you where to track those links, they will take you to a blog where you will then think you are getting a movie.  You will be asked to click a button to view and bam! You now have a keystroke reader in your PC that will detect your username and password when you open an SL application to log in.

In the end, this is only an annoyance on the boards though it renders them nearly useless. The real problem is what this spam is for. 

 

[wiked Anton]

i NEVER go to a website via a link sent to me not her, not even by personal email. i wont even use a link that my own bank sends me ( which they just dont so that anymore here) if i am asked to log in to an existing account i have, then i use my own bookmark. anyone doing anything else is really asking for trouble. Having said this, those spammers are very annoying, and i am sure LL could delete their accouts if they wished, and continue deleting them until they get fed up and go away. the constant spamming is bothersoms, i get several per day, and sometime 3 from the same forum post....

[Berlin Mesmeriser]

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wiked Anton wrote:

i NEVER go to a website via a link sent to me not her, not even by personal email. i wont even use a link that my own bank sends me ( which they just dont so that anymore here) if i am asked to log in to an existing account i have, then i use my own bookmark. anyone doing anything else is really asking for trouble. Having said this, those spammers are very annoying, and i am sure LL could delete their accouts if they wished, and continue deleting them until they get fed up and go away. the constant spamming is bothersoms, i get several per day, and sometime 3 from the same forum post....

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wow you sure are missing out if your friends can't send you links.  That's part of the fun of the internet.