Lost Video Island

[Aislynn]

Just a head's up that we've had some spammers (the bad kind ) joining LVI and immediately sending links and advertisements out through private messages. Some of them include things like "Urgent message from the administrator" or some such as the subject line and the message tells you to click the link they've given you. (I actually got that one myself, lol! )

Anyway, it's highly unlikely that any of the Council would send you a PM and tell you to click a link. Always be sure to check the username of the sender before you trust anything it tells you to do, especially if it's pretending to come from a mod or admin and is telling you to click a link.

Please don't click on any of the links they send you, as that can put your computer at risk for viruses and malware. Surf the web safely, people!

If you receive one of these PMs, please let any of the Council Members know right away so we can take care of them. A copy of the PM would be great (which you can get by using the quote feature, then copy/paste that into the PM you send to us). Thanks!

[riay_night]

Ais, I just have to ask, what is going on with all these hackings??? It's happening like every other day and it makes me so sad when I come on and see it, lol. Also, I feel really bad for you or whoever has to fix it all the time! I was just wondering if there was a reason for it happening so frequently.
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<3 Jourdan





Banner and Avi by me. I take requests.

[Aislynn]

Heya Jourdan! Believe you me, we're doing everything we can to solve this hacking problem. It's incredibly frustrating that we've been so targeted by several manner of nuisances recently: hackerbots (which take the site down) and spammers (the bad kind that post links, hardcore porn pics and other advertising things or sends them by PM). They're two different sorts of problems and unfortunately there's not a lot we can do about the spammers other than squash them when we catch them. There's no way to sort out a "real" member who's trying to make legitimate posts from a spammer thing that's just out to post ads until we see what they post.

The hacking is a whole other depth of trouble. Please excuse me for being kinda vague on exactly what the problem is because we don't want to invite even more hacks by publicly revealing our vulnerability, I'm sure you understand. But I promise that we're VERY aware of the fact we keep getting knocked down ("but we get up again..." *cues "Tubthumping"* ) but there's just not an easy solution at this time. *frustrated sigh*

So in the meanwhile, we really appreciate everybody's patience and understanding with these annoying hacks. We're doing our very best to keep the site up and working correctly as much as we possibly can!

*hugs everybody (except for the hackerbots and bad!spammer things, no hugs for you )* ♥!

[riay_night]

Aw, thanks for giving me such a detailed response Ais! And I think you are amazing for dealing with this stuff everyday to keep LVI going strong!!!! *hugs and cookies*
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<3 Jourdan





Banner and Avi by me. I take requests.

[Aislynn]

You're very welcome! Yay, *hugs and cookies!* *accepts both gratefully* ♥!

[Im1oftheOceanic6]

I got 3 PM's so far from 2 different users. I only use my private message option to communicate with the LVI council when one of my videoes encounters a problem.I wasn't able to find the names these came from in the names when I looked under the Community Tab on the LVI home page.

I haven't opened the private messages because I did not recognize the names and in some cases the subject was not in english so I could not understand what it said.And because I did not recognize them I was worried they might contain a virus.

The usernames for the spam PM's I have gotten are Gensurik and Alarent.
(I appoligize if either of these are legitimate users.)


Macaila

[Aislynn]

Thanks, Macaila! No, neither of those are legitimate users, they've been spamming other people as well. *sigh* You can go ahead and delete all of their messages. The main danger would come from clicking on a link that they sent you in a PM, rather than anything being in the PM itself. But better safe than sorry is always a good motto to follow in my book!

Thanks again for letting us know! ♥!

[Wildcat]

I just got a PM with the subject forum.hackforce.ru - ôîðóì äëÿ íàñòîÿùåãî õàêåðà.Ñòàíü õàêåðîì! by webhackforse just thought I'd post about it so others will know about it.

I didn't click on it, thankfully.
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*~Summer~*

[Aislynn]

Thanks for letting us know, hon! And that's always very wise to not click on links like that.

*brings banhammer down on evil spambot troll thing*

[SuperKC]

I got the same thing.

[Sheree]

I also got the same PM
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[AlcoholicPixie]

amalgaminsha is a spammer--just got a PM from that account.

Have you ever thought of introducing a custom question into the registration form? You can set it up to ask something incredibly simple, like "complete this phrase: lost _____ island". It'll stop even the most determined of spambots, and if you start getting spammed again, you can just change the question!

Details here.
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Supernatural Video Station

[Aislynn]

KC, Sheree and Kayla, so sorry that you were all spammed like that!

Kayla, thank you so much for that info and the link, I'll definitely pass that along to Warren (he speaks webmaster so much more fluently than I do ). Thanks again! Anything to help stop these sorts of spambots is a great thing! ♥!

[mully4235]

just got a pm from webhackforse . Haven't open it, but it looks like spam. the subject is forum.hackforce.ru and a bunch of weird letters.

[Aislynn]

Thanks for reporting that, Mully! And that definitely IS spam, so feel free to delete it.