Yahoo Group Spammer...

[jbaakko]

I'm posting this message to discuss a recently formed yahoo group, "World of 1/87th scale". I'd like to shed some light on the people running that group (not sure who it was specifically).

I recently was spammed through eBay to join the group. I contacted eBay, because its against their policy, and frankly I do not like to be spammed (at least not in that way).

I got a response from eBay today, and the owner of the account claims someone hacked their account to spam people.

I've concluded that one of the following applies:
*The owner/promoter of the group in question is dishonest enough to hack someone's eBay account to do so.
*The owner/promoter of the group in question is dishonest enough to lie to eBay about the spam incident and claim they were hacked, as to avoid any penalties by eBay.

In the end, I'm just warning you about whom ever is behind that group, and the possibly of something shady going on.
Josh

[CBCNSfan]

Thank's Josh we'll keep an eye open.

[UP2CSX]

Nah, nobody hacked their account on Yahoo. They started it to draw people away from e-bay to sell things o the Yahoo group. I've gotten several of these and it's always guys trying to sell things without paying fees to e-bay. I suspect that Yahoo group is already gone.

[JeffShultz]

If anyone is really interested in such stuff, there are Yahoo Groups for (at least) both HO and N Scale that are identified as "Yard Sales" - I'm on HO Yard Sales (with at last count 999 other people) and it's pretty amazing the volume of stuff that goes through there.

I've bought and sold through it as well. No guarantees, just a good, old-fashioned (online) swap meet.

[martin_lumber]

HOYARDSALE is a good group...about 1000 people now, and there are posts every day.

There was a good group called hoswap, but that account went to be a spam list. There is a companion group, called hoswap2, that has started up to replace it.

Phil

[jbaakko]

Nah, this group is still around. I've had a few people email me since I posted this in a few places, all saying the owner of the group is an honest man. It might not be the owner, but still someone's spamming the group...

[martin_lumber]

The owner is dead, actually. I know a person who was a friend of his, and he said that a few months after he created it, he died from a stroke...that was a few years ago.

Yes, it's around, but not worth the trouble with spam.

Phil

[jbaakko]

Phil, are you sure? On another group, the owner (his name is Kevin) publicly apologized for the spam.

Guess it solves it all, apparently he had bought from, or sold to me previously, too...

[Railphotog]

I'm amazed that Yahoo Groups do get spam. All the owner has to do is have all new members on moderated status. Post a spam message that has to be approved first and you're off the group. I get the occasional spammers joining some of the groups I own/moderate, and they don't get their messages posted. Takes a little bit of work, so I assume this is why they do get on the lists.

[martin_lumber]

Strange...wonder why he doesn't take care of the group.....

Phil

[RCH]

This group was started maybe a week ago. In an attempt to get some membership in the group quickly, the list owner contacted people who had a clear interest in HO vehicle modeling, as demonstrated by their membership and involvement in other HO vehicle groups or by their purchasing history on ebay. The group owner posted the following to the "hovehicles" Yahoo group yesterday:

Josh,
I am the creator of the group. Yes, I did use both e-bay and yahoo to
promote the group. And yes, my information was stolen via e-bay which
i'm trying to correct now. Here's what happened....

I e-mailed about 20 people with different interest in 1/87 vehicles
via e-bay. This went out to people who have scratchbilt or cutomized
their own vehicles. Apparently, there is a limit to the amount of
people you can e-mail in a day before it turns into spam. This is
done to protect your identity. Well, when i went over the limit,
someone stole my information. I don't what happened at that point,
but e-bay e-mailed me and asked were i aware of some activity on my
account. The only activity i told them about was, that i e-mailed a
few people i've done transactions with in the past to promote a
group. They said that was O.K as long as i have done recent
transactions with them. Now, i'm trying to clean up the mess it left
behind.

As far as yahoo? I did e-mail people that i thought were interested
in the group as well. Some responded and joined and some didn't.
Going both routes seemed to best the best avenue to target
experienced modelers.

I apologize to you have you have receieved any spam. I'm working to
correct the problem, and hopefully it never happens again.
KP...
"World of 1/87 scale"

As far as "tak[ing] care of the group" is concerned, new list owners are often unaware of the controls Yahoo has in place on their groups until there's a problem. I'm guessing this is the case, though there doesn't appear to be a problem with Yahoo in this case, according to the list owner, who is an active HO scale vehicle modeler.

[UP2CSX]

Once again, it was not a hacking or spamming from his e-bay or Yahoo account. There's no way that sending 20 e-mails to former customers on e-bay would have either been against the rules or would have given anyone information to steal his identidy. I have one vendor that regularly sends out 5% off coupons and I seriously doubt he only sends 20 at a time since he has about 5,000 sales on e-bay. This guy started the Yahoo list and then used both Yahoo and e-bay to spam potential customers. Sorry, but that's the way it looks to me.

[jbaakko]

Jim, the thing is, I never dealt with this guy before, so when he says "Emailed former customers" he's lied right there, 2, he was not sending a coupon, but rather spamming the yahoo group, through eBay's communications system.

I still don't see how his account was hacked, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt there, because he was honest enough to apologize to me, publicly.

I'm still not going to join his group though.

[jbaakko]

I'd like this topic closed too, there's no need to further discuss it now.

Facts are:
1. I was spammed through eBay's communications systems, to join a group.
2. Owner of the account claimed his account was hacked
3. eBay took no action against spammer
4. Kevin, owner of the group that was spammed, publicly apologized. Stated he sent emails to former customers through eBay (I was not one), and after 20 emails, he was hacked.