To Doni: Sure, feel free to contact me. If you go to my main site,
www.greenwebdesign.com, there are several contact methods there.
To Andy: You hit the nail right on the head! There is definitely a file line between security, and making it a big 'ol headache for the users. And similar to what you mentioned, I've also had many people register for an account just to spam members. Luckily I've got several people watching the ads all day so we're pretty quick to catch these people and kick/ban them before they bother
too many members, but it seems like a neverending battle nonetheless.
I've also tried using .htaccess files to ban various IP address ranges, but unfortunately, alot of these scammers are in countries that use Satellite to connect to the internet, and banning Sattelite IP's means you also ban a good portion of the US as well. I've tried bad word filters of course, but they tend to block legitimate items as well, which is a whole other hassle.
I have a feeling that no matter how advanced the internet gets, this will always be a problem to some degree. It really amazes me that these people will work so incredibly hard, in order to not have to work. But as long as we're all out there educating users, there will be less and less people who are susceptible to the scams in the future! Or at least that's my hope!
On the lines of other common giveaway phrases: I have noticed that many of them start out with "My dear, this may come to you as a surprise as you do not know me..." and then there's my all time personal favorite: "GOD sent your information to me so that you could help me" - the very idea that GOD would give my email address to a SPAMMER just cracks me up. LOL.
To Crys: I hear you! That's the biggest reason I stopped reporting alot of the messages to the authorities. They're already overwhelmed by the sheer number of reports they get each day as it is, and I myself have a hard enough time just deleting the SPAM, scams, and other junk! These people even SPAM my free quote request forms, contact forms, etc. too!
The other banes of my existance as a webmaster have been the Global Home Typists (and many, many variations) - it would be no big deal if it was just a few ads, but these people will post 100 identical ads in the same category, every day of the week! It's enough to make you crazy!
The Cthulu scam baiting link was hilarious! I think Lovecraft would have approved.
My personal favorite is
http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm- this is the one with the hilarious pictures - I literally laugh out loud the entire time I'm on this site!
