The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

As some of you know, there is a spammer in this group who seems to think that our reader threads are his space to use as his private advertising service. I have deleted him from the group four times as of today, but like the proverbial bad penny he continues to turn up under a different identity.

I have contacted Goodreads each time I've deleted him, with no word back as of today from the powers that be. In short I have done everything I can to keep him out of our areas but it doesn't seem to be enough. I cannot be watching these threads every minute of every day to make sure he isn't posting, so I'm going to ask your help with the following:

If you see this guy advertising his reviewing service, feel free to flag the post as spam. Then please post here or email me directly with a link to the thread. Hopefully he'll give up but in the meantime, I want to know when and where he's posting to try to stay a step ahead.

Thanks.

A great plan. Short of hiring a hit man, of course. (I kid. I kid.)

:)

Carol wrote: "A great plan. Short of hiring a hit man, of course. (I kid. I kid.)"

:)

I've also copied the links to his various profiles and sent them to the people at goodreads, but they don't seem to be doing jack about it. So we just have to keep doing what we're doing. Thanks, Denise.

Thanks Nancy. Good strategy. We shall defeat The Spammer.

Marie-Jo wrote: "Thanks Nancy. Good strategy. We shall defeat The Spammer."

Until he changes his identity again (sigh), but thanks!

fyi - According to the discussion in the mod's group if you delete the offending post, Goodreads can't do anything about it. It's no longer on the site and cannot be tracked. Annoying as it is, mods are being told to flag but not delete. One suggestion is to archive the posts so it's not part of an active discussion and does not appear at the top of your group page in the General folder. Then wait to delete the thread after GR has addressed it. That's been taking a day or less after the spam report.

Nell wrote: "fyi - According to the discussion in the mod's group if you delete the offending post, Goodreads can't do anything about it. It's no longer on the site and cannot be tracked. Annoying as it is, mod..."

I have yet to hear a thing from GR.

The posts are in GR's Moderator Support group. Someone from GR did post there. This guy has been spamming several groups. The discussion is under "Blocked Member Returns". I noticed that another suggestion is to take a screenshot before you delete and send that to GR admin.

There's another thread "Dirty Rotten Spammer" that's mostly complaints.

And he's back. Start flagging:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Nell wrote: "fyi - According to the discussion in the mod's group if you delete the offending post, Goodreads can't do anything about it. It's no longer on the site and cannot be tracked. Annoying as it is, mod..."

If what you're saying is correct, then we need to start flagging. He's back

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I've once again written support, sent a link to his profile etc etc. I am actually starting to get fed up and a wee bit miffed about getting no response.

Nancy wrote: "I've once again written support, sent a link to his profile etc etc. I am actually starting to get fed up and a wee bit miffed about getting no response."

I agree. It makes no sense for me to spend 20 minutes per day flagging individual posts of a user who isn't even using sock puppets or changing his profile birthdate. I suspect he's using a single device with a single IP address that GR' firewall lead could block. A Russian spam-bot pro this guy is not.

Carol wrote: "Nancy wrote: "I've once again written support, sent a link to his profile etc etc. I am actually starting to get fed up and a wee bit miffed about getting no response."

I agree. It makes no sense ..."

arrgghh -- where are the white hat hackers when you need them? Just like cops on the freeway.

Gad, how oblivious am I.. I never even noticed. Glad you're keeping an eye on this fellow, Nancy. I'll try to be more aware.

He also posted in the "All Things Promotional" folder.

flag away.

Clicked on your link and it said I had come to a bad page.

Thank goodness. Maybe all of our cranky messages created some urgency.

Not all of our messages apparently. They are still up on the Mysteries and Crime Thrillers group site (I flagged them across a few groups), so Nancy - you get all the credit.

Carol wrote: "Not all of our messages apparently. They are still up on the Mysteries and Crime Thrillers group site (I flagged them across a few groups), so Nancy - you get all the credit."

No, it's definitely a group effort in this case. I'm sure he'll be back though.

Just an FYI -- I finally heard from Goodreads this morning re my message of January 28th.

Nancy wrote: "Just an FYI -- I finally heard from Goodreads this morning re my message of January 28th."

Seriously? That's some crack platform support team and process they got there. Even my last company's COBRA CS team managed a four biz day response.

Wow how frustrating for you! Who does he think he is going to be win over, behaving like that. What a mad man.

A fella named James just posted twice in our Report for Duty thread asking for free reviewers.... I've flagged them both, Nancy...

Bill wrote: "A fella named James just posted twice in our Report for Duty thread asking for free reviewers.... I've flagged them both, Nancy..."

He's b -a-a-a-c-k!

I'll let support know. Everyone else flag his comments, please!!

Nancy wrote: "Bill wrote: "A fella named James just posted twice in our Report for Duty thread asking for free reviewers.... I've flagged them both, Nancy..."

He's b -a-a-a-c-k!

I'll let support now. Everyone ..."

Done.

thank you. I flagged both posts & turned it over to support along with a link to his new profile. One would think he'd give up.

Nancy wrote: "thank you. I flagged both posts & turned it over to support along with a link to his new profile. One would think he'd give up."

or change his online name :)

Carol wrote: "Nancy wrote: "thank you. I flagged both posts & turned it over to support along with a link to his new profile. One would think he'd give up."

or change his online name :)"

Yeah. I can think of a good name he could use. :)

Nancy wrote: "As some of you know, there is a spammer in this group who seems to think that our reader threads are his space to use as his private advertising service. I have deleted him from the group four time..."

Thanks for the heads up.

JMD & FAST. whoever this is they are asking for reviewers.

Ellen wrote: "JMD & FAST. whoever this is they are asking for reviewers."

It's spam. He's not asking for reviewers for a book he's written -- he has a reviewing service or else works for one.

He's a persistent bastard.

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "He's a persistent bastard."

that he is, Susanna.

So I heard back from support this morning:

"Hi Nancy,

Thanks for letting us know about this again, though we're sorry to hear about the situation. We've gone ahead and removed the account from the site. We're still in the process of investigating solutions that could stop this from happening in the future, but in the meantime you're always welcome to flag any potentially abusive content to our attention.

Thanks again, and please feel free to let us know if you have any other questions or concerns - we'd be happy to help.

Sincerely,
The Goodreads Team"

so, my friends, continue to flag away if he makes another appearance, and please report in this thread or pm directly to me or to Bill.

Great response from them. Thanks for your efforts, Nancy.

Be aware, I just spotted him in another group his user name is now
JMD&Fast. (The previous one had spaces.)

Bill wrote: "Great response from them. Thanks for your efforts, Nancy."

I think they're wise to him now. You're welcome, but as I said, it's a group effort.

Loriidae wrote: "Be aware, I just spotted him in another group his user name is now
JMD&Fast. (The previous one had spaces.)"

Thanks! If you see him in this group, post here to let everyone know to start flagging.

Nancy wrote: "So I heard back from support this morning:

"Hi Nancy,

Thanks for letting us know about this again, though we're sorry to hear about the situation. We've gone ahead and removed the account from th..."

He's back but hasn't hit this group yet. This is his new identity:


https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7...

Faith wrote: "Nancy wrote: "So I heard back from support this morning:

"Hi Nancy,

Thanks for letting us know about this again, though we're sorry to hear about the situation. We've gone ahead and removed the a..."

I love that you people are so diligent! :).

We'll keep a sharp eye out!

Yes, your diligence is much appreciated.

You know, a kind of similar thing is happening in the Meetup.com groups I'm in: All kinds of people join up a group & most never show up at meetings (most never bother to RSVP 1 way or the other either); but as you look thru the members list, you see that a lot don't even live in our town, not even the same state, & a lot appear to be pretty young gals in their 20s & have at least mildly foreign sounding names (Russian if I'm guessing correctly). Hmmm...think maybe they're scammers? (I guess if that's all you do for a living, you'd be trying all over the place to start messaging with some1 & then scam 'em.)

It's a shame, really. I don't ever reply to spam, I don't buy anything advertised on sites where I am, and I STILL get tons of spam.

gaahhh

Another frustrating thing is we're starting to get phone calls with the Caller ID showing a local ph. # & the name of a local business--so I fell for it the 1st coupla times & answered--and it was a recording 1 time wanting me to sign up for a wonderful time share "opportunity" and the other time it was trying to sell me a wonderful home security system. (I'd heard that scammers were starting to spoof local #s & business names but had forgotten.) Now I just let the machine get it; they usually don't leave a message.

Yeah, if the call ID's as the city government where I live, and then it's "Be Safe At Home!" I get very cross indeed. (This has happened more than once. We have an answering machine but I am the de facto service. If you can't tell me which "charity they support" you are, you aren't talking to either of my parents. The calls for me are always real calls; I'm not in the book.)

Every three or four weeks my Blog suddenly has lots of views from Russian addresses. I can't see that I'm all that interesting and I've wondered about it a few times...

Most of my calls are spam or politicians looking for money. I very rarely the phone and all I have is a cell phone so I am in no book and I never even changed my money after I moved several years ago. But calls are identified as possible spam or whatever because of caller ID.

This is what the chronic spammer is doing now:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...