Last night, the boards were spammed by a porn spammer.  Due to our high level of security here, this is the first time this has ever happened.  In the last couple of weeks, the spammers have been using a new system.  It works like this:

The usual bots are turned loose trying to register on every forum on the planet.  These cannot get through our security net because only a real person with a real email can complete the registration process.

The bots return the errors from secure forums to a real person.  These real people are hired to then go into the forums the bots failed to break into and manually register.

Once registration is successful, the bots are turned loose to spam the hell out of the board.

We do not want to totally block new members from registering and require that a new member email an administrator to register....but it may come to that eventually.

We will do all we can to avoid this.  We have modified the board now with a new level of security.  This should not affect the way the boards work in any visible way.

Please let me know if you are having any difficulties logging in or registering here and I will look into it.  You can contact me using this form:

http://www.autonerdz.com/contact.htm


I advise all members to review their profile settings.  Under 'Contact Information', you might want to check the box 'Hide Email from public?'  This is just a precaution, in case there is another security breach and an email harvesting bot is released.  Right now, only members can see other members information at all, but if a spammer succeeds in registering again, they may be able to harvest your email.  If you check the box. only administrators can see your email no matter what.  This will prevent other legitimate members from contacting you directly through email because it will be hidden, but they can still contact you through a private forums message.  While you are there, check your other profile settings.  If you hide your email from the other members, you may also want to select 'Notify by e-mail:' under 'PM Preferences'.  This makes the board email you, if you do get a personal message, and keeps your email totally secure.

Yes....we can have freedom and security