Receiving Porn Guest PMs

Hello

Over the past week I keep receiving the odd guest PM that have links to porn.
I have deleted and moved to spam, however I would like to know can guest PMs get blocked

Regards

Cassini

cassini wrote:Hello

Over the past week I keep receiving the odd guest PM that have links to porn.
I have deleted and moved to spam, however I would like to know can guest PMs get blocked

Regards

Cassini

Hello again @cassini to stop this you need to turn off the contact us link in your Footer.

 Admin Control Panel settings:
ACP General Tab  Messages and emails Emails and contact Contact form

Activate : NO then save.

If it is a PM from a non-member, it should have [Contact] in the PM's title.   If it does not, it must be a member on your forum sending them.

P.S.  What do you mean by moved to spam?  There is no spam box for private messages.

Hello SLGray, I receive the same PM in my actual private email account that's how I can move to spam.
The message is not from any members or former members, it is highly likely from a spammer or a spam bot.
Most times I check IPs if they have a link to spam they IP gets blocked.

Ape wrote:

cassini wrote:Hello

Over the past week I keep receiving the odd guest PM that have links to porn.
I have deleted and moved to spam, however I would like to know can guest PMs get blocked

Regards

Cassini

Hello again @cassini to stop this you need to turn off the contact us link in your Footer.

 Admin Control Panel settings:
ACP General Tab  Messages and emails Emails and contact Contact form

Activate : NO then save.

Thanks Ape, done this


Regards

Cassini

That should stop it for now.

Thanks Ape,

Here is an email I received today which naturally I blocked out my personal email address.
This was from on my site that I have taken offline, all my sites have had the Contact Us turned off.
All these that I receive in my personal email account I move to the Spam box.



Regards

Cassini

Hi Forumotion team,

Before I start reaching out for help, I need to acknowledge that user Cassini made a topic yesterday, which by the title seems to address a similar issue, but due to my local internet policies, I'm not actually able to access their topic (here) at all. If the problem is resolved, please let me know what actions I need to take!

Now, onto the issue.

Over the last few months our forum administrators (No indication from the other members as to whether this has effected them) have been receiving Private messages from guests which contain links to harmful media such as pornography and gambling. This is extremely concerning for us as we cater to a wide audience with age ranging anywhere from 13-40.

As far as our tests have gone to try and resolve this issue ourselves, Guests shouldn't be able to send Private messages at all on our forum. Is there any explanation as to how guests are able to send private messages here? We'd also like to know (as the problem is discovered and resolved) what measures the forumotion team will be taking, as well as how we can best help you in fixing the security issue and ensure our forum remains safe for our members.

I'll attach a series of screenshots with some of the private messages below:




Regards,
Wolf478 of the SRN team

Notice the PM's titles [Contact] that means they are using the contact link in the footer links.   Only administrators will see them.

Wolf478 wrote:Hi Forumotion team,

Before I start reaching out for help, I need to acknowledge that user Cassini made a topic yesterday, which by the title seems to address a similar issue, but due to my local internet policies, I'm not actually able to access their topic (here) at all. If the problem is resolved, please let me know what actions I need to take!

Now, onto the issue.

Over the last few months our forum administrators (No indication from the other members as to whether this has effected them) have been receiving Private messages from guests which contain links to harmful media such as pornography and gambling. This is extremely concerning for us as we cater to a wide audience with age ranging anywhere from 13-40.

As far as our tests have gone to try and resolve this issue ourselves, Guests shouldn't be able to send Private messages at all on our forum. Is there any explanation as to how guests are able to send private messages here? We'd also like to know (as the problem is discovered and resolved) what measures the forumotion team will be taking, as well as how we can best help you in fixing the security issue and ensure our forum remains safe for our members.

I'll attach a series of screenshots with some of the private messages below:




Regards,
Wolf478 of the SRN team

Thanks Wolf478
Similar to mine this one is still in my spam folder

I've changed the contacts to email only. It's very comforting to know that none of our members are at risk because of this strange occurrence. I'll be sure to let the other administrators of our forum know what changes are needing to be made to 'fix' this issue.

I'm not sure if it has worked thus far for you Cassini, but I'll come back with information about whether or not it has worked for us.

Thank you SLGray again for your help with our forum, and thank you Ape for your help in resolving this issue.

I would ask you to look in your footers on your site see if you have the words Contact Us in the footer If you have then this is why if you Don't then I am not sure how they are doing it.

@Wolf478
Your site has this on the footer

it needs to be removed to stop the PM's
@cassini
Please give us a the URL's of the forums so we can look at this some more as this looks to be a big problem.

Thanks Ape, SLGray and Wolf 478.

Just to be clear my three sites

1 Has no members just Test Accounts for Forumotion Admin
2 Membership Registrations Blocked (Has been since March 2020)
3 As advised by Ape all forums have now the Contact Us Disabled.
4 Numbers in brackets () Guest PMs since 23rd August 2021

Cassini Captures (1) Guest PM 23rd August 2021
https://cassinicaptures.forumotion.co.uk/

Forum Footer


Screencappingzone (1) Guest PM 26th August 2021
https://ukscreencappingzone.forumotion.com/

Forum Footer


Reporter Captures (2) Guest PMs 26th and 27th August 2021
https://uktvreportercaptures.forumotion.com/

Forum Footer


I hope that has helped
Regards
Cassini

Are all 3 sites still getting the PM's ?

Also have you got them set to Email you or to PM you?

If it's a PM then the settings i gave you should stop them. If its a Email then it could be they are using your contact Email on your profile.

My advice then would be to stop anyone seeing your Email icon in your profiles.

Please Note I will now be away on leave from today and return back on Tuesday 31st 

Hello Ape,

The answer is no all three sites have not received any new PMs since disabling the Contact Us mode.

I have set all three sites like this to e-mail only from PM.




Possibly the only solution is to completely take the forums off line In which case nobody can contact admin
I will have a look to see if I can disable the contact field on my Profile.

Regards

Cassini

Hello Cassini,

Have you checked in your profile to see if you have 'Allow members to contact me by e-mail' turned off?

You can check this by clicking 'Profile' in the Navbar, then clicking 'Preferences'. It should be the first option.



-Brandon

In Taggerz Paradise we have been getting these horrible porn and gambling private messages as well.  I have changed the contact form Anti-spam question but am still getting them.  I will watch this topic in case you all can help with this.