Hello,

I recieved an email from another site administrator warning me of a group of spammers trying to self promote a new site they launched.

They are joining other reptile sites, and then using that sites PM system to contact users inviting them to come visit the new site.

If anyone on this site recieves an email or a PM regarding a third party site invitation, please forward it to me.

I have already taken a few precautions and have added this new sites URL to our disallowed list on HC, HH, and the new site we are creating.

Thanks everyone!

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Rich, that new site had been taken down already by the owner. It appears that he did not know that another of the admin/moderators (Robbie aka WetWired) was spamming. I emailed him driectly and also posted on the site about how upset many people were on our site as one of their moderators (I think they called all of them admins) had been using the private PM system to not only spam members to get them to their site, but also doing some really trashy porn things in PM's and comments when they complained about it. Justin responded that he was putting a stop to it and removed the website.

The person doing the spamming was Robbie Cannon of Texas and since the site was removed Thursday night he has been posting some nasty porn all over our site on forums and harassing females in PM (really nasty stuff) and on the herp chat channels. Even the IRCop have filed reports on him for his action on there.

This is the same person that was tied in with the spams, copyright violations and claiming stolen articles as his on the site called *************e from almost 2 years ago that you all should recognize. In fact the reptilefugee site forwarded to this new one (same owner), that he was spamming for and has since been removed.

Just a head up so you all know who it is and what the history is. I suggest if he bothers anyone on this site, they let you know and not try to answer him back, it just makes it worse and you would not beleive some of the stuff he sends and posts, even to children!!

Thanks for the heads up Cheri. I remember them all to well with the caresheet thing way back. I didnt think that site would last long. We will keep our eyes open here for him.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Hello,

Thanks for the post Cheri. I was actually one of the ones they tried to run a Copyright Violation on. Material from the R.I.D was being used on that site without my permission. (Lawsuit WOULD have followed after I got the page saved by their host.)

I have spoken with Chris, who was also involved to a degree with what was going on and he appologized sincerely for what has transpired. He has also walked away from the others in an effort to help redeem his name.

You should try to have the people that are getting the PM's to save and forward them. You should be able to access his IP Number and then run it through ARIN and find out who his ISP provider is. That will also list the ISP's contact email and phone number. Speak with his ISP about the harrassment and the pornographic material to the underage members. You should document the time and date of the PM's so they can reference them against who was assigned that IP at that time.

Hopefully his ISP will help terminate the issue for your site and the others involved.

Just a heads up:

When he joined this site, each time, his service provider was Cox Communications based in Amarillo, Texas. That should get ya started.

A good IP lookup site can be found here: http://www.ip2location.com/

Run each of his IP addies you have in there (up to 20 a day) and see what comes up.

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Thanks Rich

His ISP is still Cox, they were already contacted by other authorities, we already talked to them and gave them some things, which they replied to and asked for some more that I am putting together. It was not just the website, members and our PM system, but the chat channel too and users on there and the owners of that service also are following up as they k-lined him several times trying to stop his harassment. Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI are already involved too. What makes it nice is our server, him and his ISP are in the same state and very close to each other, they say that makes it easier to deal with him legally.

All this over people objecting to him using others and their work and only agenda is his self promotion in the mask of wanting to "help others". He actually wrote on his site that spamming other sites was the only way to get a site started and get members!!

I also have heard from Justin, owner of that site he was moderator on and Chris too, at this point we are not blaming them; I do not think they had anything to do with any of this or knew about it until after the fact, but they do live together in the same area, are friends and in trying to block him, they have also lost access to the servers he violated and at least the owner will be brought into it through the authorities handling the complaints. Makes us all realize how careful we need to be in our moderators and certainly appreciate them!

Hello,

Looks like he bit off more than he could chew this time around. Hopefully he is at least fined, and if brought up on legal charges, loses access to the internet during his probationary period. (Which is likely if he is found guilty.)

I had the opportunity to read the thread over there before the site was taken offline. I didn't bother to look to around, so I missed the fact that he had been using information from our sites until I was later informed by one of my staff members as well as Chris during our emails.

I couldn't extend enough gratitude to the staff that maintains the HC Network. (I am sure you could say the same thing about the staff that works on RR.)

Thanks for the update! Keep us posted on what transpires.

(This reminds me a lot of the whole "Andrew Tower" incident. lol)

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Rich
::::groan::: promise me I can go though 2007 without hearing of Andrew Tower again!!!!!

Beside all the internet stuff that went down about him and that strange personal ... whatever you call it, you know for all his yakking, he ended up surrendering the igs he had?

pot calling the kettle Black!

oooh I want to know more about this lol.

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The long and short of it Nate was that a new site was launched. To gain publicity, those moderating the site joined other sites and started using their pm and email systems to try and invite users to the new site. (Which is called spam.)

In addition, they were also violating several sites copyright policies, including Herp centers. Once the owner of the site was made aware of what was transpiring, he took his site offline and decided it was easier to just drop the site than deal with the legal issues he was going to face.

The parties that were inviolved are now looking at some legal trouble, and when more information is made available regarding how that turns out, it will be passed along.

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hahah sucks for them. stupid spamers

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