More reasons to fight spam (as if we needed more)
July 24, 2007 on 9:57 am | In Features |
I came across a disturbing story on Yahoo! News last week called “Confessions of a former spammer”. It detailed the practices of a former email spammer named “Ed” who earned a as much as $15,000 per week sending emails that promoted pills, porn and casinos. Like any good opportunist, Ed has written a book about his exploits.
But just a read of the news story will give you a feel for what it’s like to work in this seedy sector of the internet. Read the full story
Once my nausea subsided, reading the article got me to thinking about our own spam challenges. While we have powerful anti-spam protections in place on the Yahoo! network and in Messenger specifically, the ultimate spam protection comes from our millions of users who take the time to report unwanted messages.
It’s vital that when you encounter spam on Yahoo! Messenger, you take the time to click to report it. By doing so, you alert us to spammy Yahoo! IDs which in turn makes our anti-spam system - SpamGuard - more intelligent. The end result: less spam for you and other users. Sort of an all-for-one and one-for-all mentality.
Reporting spam in Yahoo! Messenger is easy. If you receive an unwanted IM, click the “Ignore” button near the top of the IM window (or at the bottom of the offline messages windows). This will add the sender’s ID to your Ignore list to block future messages. You will also be asked if you want to report it as spam. If you accidentally ignore a real friend from your list, you can always remove them from it by going to the Messenger menu, choosing “Preferences”, and then “Ignore List”.
Have you reported any spam today? 
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
Whats the use there is only so much one can ignore. As far as I know the ignore list of Yahoo! Messenger only allows upto 60-70 IDs to be saved. And if we use ‘Ignore Anyone Who is not in the list option’ we cannot see anyones text when we go to a chatroom. This is a critical bug which needs sorting out from Yahoo. This is one of the main reasons why people don’t want to upgrade Yahoo! Messenger after the release of version 7.0.
And besides does Yahoo! ever really ban/deactive an ID for spamming ? I don’t think so. I have seen so many Bots spam multiple spam links all the time and what do they get ? A 20 or so minutes chat ban at most and after that they’re back at it again. Thats all. So much for making Yahoo! Chat spam free.
The captcha method which is supposedly to be used by Yahoo in chatrooms in the coming days could only stop them for a small amount of time. If you are really concerned about spam simply drop the old yahoo chat protocols like YMSG12auth. All these spammers use the cracked login of YMSG12auth. YMSG15auth should be the only authentication used as no one has yet cracked it completely. And in this process Yahoo could ask the users to upgrade their messengers to atleast version 7.5 or 8.0 if they want to use chatrooms.
Comment by Rick — July 24, 2007 #
Seriously… yahoo allows what 100 ignores since the ignore list is server side when you ignore 100 people ta da no more ignores unless you use a 3rd part client etc.. reporting spam that way i do not think so. what will you do deactivate the ids??? NO lol so tell me how you will deal with them they are not people they are bots lol how can you deal with a bot deactivate the id 10 more will be made and no one likes to ignore anyone not on your list option (i HAVE to choose it since the ammount of spam is insane) damn even your friends list that is limited to how many you can add i think its 300 then you can no longer add anyone i dont mean to come across as rude im just saying what everyone thinks i have a question(s) for you..
How come Y! messenger ignore list is server side and limited severely?
i mean i can see why the friends list is for instance if anyone wanted to use yahoo messenger for the web etc but wap and http messenger does not have chat rooms so i can not see why i think a kool option would be to choose to have it server side or saved/loaded from a .txt file in the yahoo directory.. and another thing i want to know or should i say a lot would to
Why are you slowly removing all the kool features of ymsgr such as the /goto?
That function was a good one java died that was a kool web based chat chat 2.0 gone that was kool also on the new alpha servers the not long discoverd ”gawd” mode (its where it stops you reciveng all chat packets and makes you 100% unbootable) does not work you are not improving anything making it worse infact :L
Comment by Karl — July 24, 2007 #
I agree, the “report” feature is most USELESS feature in Yahoo Messenger. I have been making these reports for years, hasn’t SpamGuard or Yahoo Messenger learned what is spam and what is not.
Peter
Comment by Peter — July 24, 2007 #
Karl, if you have reached or have come close to reaching that 300 “friends” limit - you chat WAY too much and need to go out in the real world and meet some people.
Sarah, thanks for another entry. I believe these issues will be sorted out in time.
Comment by Parry Hotter — July 24, 2007 #
Parry Hotter LOL i have not reached that limit but is it really that hard to.. i mean if you have had your id a while + yahoo and msn merging so msn and yahoo buddies i don’t think its difficult. but still it should not be limited :l
Comment by Karl — July 24, 2007 #
Dear Sara,
ALL ASIDE SPAM PROTECTION IS WHAT I THINK KICKS BUTT. i REPORT ALL KINDS OF LINKS AND FAKE YAHOO LOG IN PAGES WHICH HAVE BEEN LESS AND LESS, SINCE UR PHOTO LOG IN IDEA TOOK PLACE.
I HAD ANOTHER EMAIL BUT I SERIOUSLY HAD TO MAKE THIS ONE BECAUSE THAT ONE RECEIVES AS MUCH AS 500 SPAM EMAILS A DAY.
HOPE IT ALL GETS BETTER SOON.
BTW, PLEASE MAKE THE IGNORE LIST UNLIMITED I TOO MYSELF HAVE RAN INTO THAT PROBLEM OF PEOPLE STALKING ME CUZ THEY CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED.
THANKS
PS NOT YELLING I LOVE CAPS
Comment by cc — July 24, 2007 #
Hi Sarah Bacon
You have said in your latest blog that when uses encounters spam on Yahoo! Messenger, uses can take the time to click to report it. By doing so, users alert Yahoo! to spammy Yahoo! IDs which in turn makes our anti-spam system - SpamGuard - more intelligent. But that’s not the case Sarah. I have not seen Yahoo! Messenger SpamGuard became more intelligent since the SpamGuard feature was included in Yahoo! Messenger 7.0 in 2005. Since the release of Yahoo! Messenger 7 with SpamGuard protection, there is still far too many spam pms that by pass the so-called SpamGuard protection on Yahoo! Messenger. Even Y!TunnelPro SpamGuard protection is more advanced and intelligent then Yahoo! Messenger own SpamGuard protection. Also how can we continue to report spam users to Yahoo! and those users get added to the block list, When there’s so many spam users out there and you guys still only allow the ignore list to have a specific limit of users to be blocked.
But Sarah I do believe adding SpamGuard protection to Yahoo! Messenger two years ago was a step in the right direction. I just hope in future versions of Yahoo! Messenger instead of just focusing on new features, improve SpamGuard protection please!
Take care
Sarah
Comment by Sarah — July 24, 2007 #
SpamGuard protection…… HMMMMM i didnt realise it was protection looks to me like an option to report spam nothing more nothing less lol
Comment by Tom — July 24, 2007 #
Sara,
How about some details on exactly happens when we check the “report as spam” box. As far as I can tell, not a thing. And I have checked it literally thousands and thousands of times.
Again, this just seems like another example of yahoo trying to make us believe that a problem doesn’t exist that any idiot can see certainly does.
Comment by Bill — July 24, 2007 #
I think the other oversite about this post as well is that the report spam option is only available if they PM you. like 99% of bots spam chat rooms, not PMs. Furthermore, guards are not in affect. Bots use very EASY reg expressions for name creation that can easily be mass deleted at once…Heck open member directly and you’ll see all the aa1 bots and everything else…In fact many bots target member directory too. One huge example of no effort made. It is IMPOSSIBLE to search for offline users in any city of moderate size because there will be at least 500 bots in top results starting with a b and c purposely targeting member searches. Any yahoo staff member could see this and say “oh crap, lets delete this mass of profiles right now”…Providing a useless spam report tool with limited reporting ability isn’t useful.
Comment by Adam — July 24, 2007 #
Yahoo could do a lot overnight look at when they messed up and allowed x rated words in ids OVERNIGHT they deactivated them all that was created. Why on earth do they not deactivate all ”yahoo illegal names” and instantly stop people selling ids for stupid prices etc.. that report spam is nothing i highlt doubt it even does anything at all yahoo can not even run proper support just a series of automated form mails so why on earther would they do anything about this they are just making it look like they care when in reality they clearly do not if they did even the slightest they would have done some research and found that wild card ignore(in 3rd party clients) etc… work wonderful and would have implamented this into there own messenger but no nothing all they have is a serside ignore list of 100 users that is pathetic lol you could ignore 100 bots in like 20 mins in a single room if you wanted to hell yahoos email spam protection is shall i say …. not verry good and that is being nice yet google mail has hardly ANY spam (my account at least) and i use it all over the place A LOT more than my yahoo email address but its still 10 fold the ammount of spam i get on my yahoo id spammers laugh at Y! and see it as an easy way to make money hence the story have you bene living in a cave or just never been in chat (if you can get in that is lol) makes you wonder really.
Comment by Karl — July 25, 2007 #
just a thought in my years of being on yahoo messenger i never get spam so are you all talking to people that don’t want to talk to you and send you stuff or signing up to sites that spam you just my 2 cents i never get spam from messenger please give me your thoughts or are u the spammers
LOL Marcus you do mean yahoo messenger right???? you do not get spam :O lol you are the only one out of 60 million users fair play to you lol…..
Comment by Karl — July 25, 2007 #
Dear Sarah Bacon ,
That report spam features is as dangerous as getting normal IDs deactivated. So much haters in chat rooms can reports false accusation as spammers!
What will happen if a normal ID get falsely reported as spam? That option/feature need to be more advance! I have seen so many mass report programs to get any names deactivated and some succeededly got deactivated!
How can Yahoo insure that this false reports will not happen? Again this is just another dangerous option/feature Yahoo trying to promote!
Is it wise to really have this idea back or implented in Yahoo Messenger?
Yours sincerely ,
Dave (A Yahoo Fanatic)
Comment by Dave — July 25, 2007 #
insted of fighting spam .. you should make the program more system friendly ! I consumes to much resources, it crushes … and you need rockets to run the latest versions … and in older ones you get SPAM from yahoo every time you open the messenger … that asks you to upgrade !!!! maybe I don’t want to !!!! plus i cannot ad contacts to it … ok its version& but is a nice version I don;t need all the gizmos the latest version has to offer i need something to be able to talk with people simple and efficient ! and yahoo messenger is not even close !
Comment by Alex — July 25, 2007 #
Well, I don’t think it’d be too much to ask for Yahoo to implement SPAM filter updates that people at Yahoo can create (or chat users create them and submit them).
Help > Check For SPAM Filter Updates
What do you think of that idea? The community can compile all the SPAM bot data (via SpamGuard), which in turn creates updatable SPAM filter rules.
Just a thought.
Comment by Venom — July 25, 2007 #
I don’t see what good it does to ignore someone, because the more savvy ones just make similar Y! IDs, or find a way to override the system. I had trouble with a stalker recently, whereas I ignored him every time he popped up, but he still managed to come back time after time. Finally, he went too far and I reported his messages to Yahoo, AND I called him out on my 360 blog. So far, he has stayed away under the Y! ID he used… but now there is another one who is doing the same thing. It could be the same person, I don’t know. But, what good is the ignore feature if it doesn’t truly ignore?
Comment by Stef Leppard — July 25, 2007 #
DAMN the ”bots” are now even on yahoo 360 they send add requests etc lmao your service is a joke yahoo.
Comment by Karl — July 25, 2007 #
Yahoo fighting Spams or you mean fighting us chatters?
As of now , we cant even log into our accounts , this is another case where Yahoo’s messing up!
Give us at least some notice through messenger that there is some sort issues going on , so we dont need to worry all the time that Yahoo’s doing some sort of IMPROVEMENTS!
Comment by Dave — July 26, 2007 #
@Alex, how crappy of a computer do you have? I have a second computer that my kids can mess around on and it only has 128MB ram and a 266MHz Pentium II - I tried installing the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger and it runs perfectly fine. You also have the option to turn OFF all of the extra “gizmos” if you wish - making it look near identical to an older version. As far as “spam” from Yahoo telling you to update your version, you can also prevent that with some simple firewall knowledge that a 5th grader can understand.
Comment by Parry Hotter — July 26, 2007 #
Parry Hotter a firewall to prevent the auto update LOL to stop auto update simply delete the file
so there ya go alex do that and it wont ask you again
also the buddy list advertisment is a PAIN they getting worse not better… well unless you like plugins etc good luck to you ill stick with 6.0 untill it stops working period.
C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Yupdate.exe
(It looks the same as the ypager.exe with the yahoo logo etc.)
yahoo will need to be closed of course or it will not let you delete it. then it will never ask again it has NOTHING to do with a firewall lol… and i do not think yahoo 8.0 looks anything like yahoo 6.0 and below even with all the options closed the main thing i HATE about yahoo 8.0+ is the voip in pms the quality is BAD!!!!! if i want voip i use google talk
Comment by Karl — July 26, 2007 #
In all honestly this post is not only worthless but pitiful, sarah…the limit of 99 ignores would be wasted up in a single hour in chat, then you would have no way to stop spam but to unignore all the 99 igores you just made.
Like honestly, the spamguard is useful but completely made useless in that hour of reporting/ignoring bots.
Make yahoo’s ignore list read from ini or xml locally and that would stop a lot of spam, as users could swap and update filters. Even websites could offer users updated spam ini/xml lists
people could make a plugin with the new plugin system to update ignore lists even.
Get rid of Filter1.enc as seeing spam and ***** all over my screen is not enough.
Comment by Dermot — July 26, 2007 #
Why not a separate ignore bin for SPAM?
Comment by Venom — July 26, 2007 #
As for the Spams , I have stated this through and through the best way really is to drop anything below YMSG15Auth or bring on YMSG16Auth.
So far theres been talked that YMSG15Auth’s been cracked. , hopefully which Yahoo Inc will drop soon.
Spambots uses such chat client like YahElite which still function because of the YMSG12Auth not being drop as of yet. Booters and so on uses that Authentication still!!
Comment by Dave ( A Yahoo Fanatic ) — July 26, 2007 #
YMSG15 is already figured out and is the can it and roll out 16, it will be released just as 15 was a day or so later. Yahoo will never be able to stop people from figuring out the login methods as they can only try to make it tougher but it will always be beaten.
Comment by Programmer — July 26, 2007 #
@Karl…Ummmmmmmm you can set a software firewall to deny the updater access to the internet. Have you ever thought that maybe a person would like to see if an update is available sometimes, but only when THEY want it to check? That’s where a firewall comes in - so you don’t have to delete the file. Duh!!! Of COURSE you can delete the file, you think I didn’t know that?
As far as the look of 6.0 vs 8.1 with “gizmos” shut off, are you kidding? You think they look NOTHING alike? LoL! About the only difference are the buttons on top (i.e. Chat, IM, etc).
Look at the comparisons shot.
http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b116/d3adliner/?action=view¤t=Yahoo6vs8.jpg
Comment by Parry Hotter — July 26, 2007 #
Download the latest [b]Yahoo! messenger[/b]..
anyways I report spam everyday.
to help yahoo.
Comment by Kazu M — July 26, 2007 #
Mr Programmer , wether they figured that one out YMSG15AUTHENTICATION , I havent seen any alternative chat client that uses it yet.
They say Yazak is using YMSG15AUTH but when you look at its folder you’ll find YMSG12AUTH.DLL.
Yeah Yahoo Inc roll on that YMSG16Auth!!! Less bots if they have the verification to enter the room. Drop any AUTHENTICATION lower than YMSG16 (if its out in the next update) , this should hurt most of the booters and also them who steal Yahoo Accounts .
Its not just the Spams/Booters/Hackers/Crackers you got to worry about but also your own corrupted staffs making money by selling information about certain old Yahoo Accounts known by some as ILLEGALS.
Comment by Dave ( A Yahoo Fanatic ) — July 26, 2007 #
Simply changing the packet header to show yahoo messenger version as 8.0 or above makes yahoo servers think they are using ymsg15 but in actual fact the login routine is of ymsg12 meant to be faked as ymsg15. If you look closely Yahoo! Messenger first authenticates through https server and then forward to the messenger server . While chat clients, booters and other chat tools made for spamming directly authenticate through the messenger server. Its hard to explain here but you’ll get the point if you do a simple netstat while yahoo messenger connects and when a chat client like ymlite or yahelite connects. In Yahoo! Messenger there is an extra login:https whereas in chat client its not. So unless someone is able to crack all the encryption and hashes generated while logging in the latest yahoo messenger through https it can’t be said they use the real YMSG15. Hope Yahoo is listening to this and make the https authentication necessary for all types of chat logins. This could directly result in end of spam.
Comment by Rick — July 27, 2007 #
Ja, I’ve gotten two spam from being in a Miami chat room. I should do it when they start hitting me up. Oh well, I did hit a person as spam who kept harassing me with the buzz option. But he was just a harasser and not necessarily a spammer.
Comment by Saint — July 27, 2007 #
YMSG15 Login Method….
http://www.explicitstudios.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75
Enough Said.
Comment by Programmer — July 27, 2007 #
On the new msgr, if I report unwanted im’s as spam, will it also block possible booters/im bombers? I usually set my preferences to receive IM’s only from those on my list, people I know won’t spam me (or try to boot/pm bomb/etc.).
We have been able to ignore anyone not on the preferences list or specific names for some time, but what is the difference between that and reporting it as spam? Will that mean that yahoo will investigate the pm bombers or booters now? I am hoping so.
Also yes, these other programs like yahelite ymlite and blah blah..they’re not needed! If we can have a better working messenger (with chat if they can finally fix that better and get rid of the bots and booting), that’s all we need. Yahoo messenger is still better, it’s easier and has all the links for the other yahoo features already built in. Please make it work for yahoo msgr only–that way you can knkow if someone is abusing the service or a chat room etc.. We don’t need unauthorized programs that make using y! msgr and yahoo’s features worse for everyone else.
Comment by chatter_chatter_chatter — July 28, 2007 #
It’s vital that when you encounter spam on Yahoo! Messenger, you take the time to click to report it. By doing so, you alert us to spammy Yahoo! IDs which in turn makes our anti-spam system - SpamGuard - more intelligent. The end result: less spam for you and other users. Sort of an all-for-one and one-for-all mentality.
LOL how so by creating a list of ”ids” good god lmfao.. your spam filters ( there are NONE) lol
Comment by Tom. — July 31, 2007 #
this functions a joke, because it does not reducespam in chat rooms. Spams grows and grows,,,,, I wonder why yahoo dont hear us,,,,they think this funtion will make you feel you are helping to block spammers……
Comment by den — August 2, 2007 #
I’ve found it useful reporting spam with Spamguard and the ignore feature, but ocassionally a bot will pm with a link. They seem to be less frequent new that I’ve been on yahoo for over 2 years now.
As for the chatrooms I no longer have the desire to enter them. They have become places of constant fights and EXDTREMELY childish behaviour. I used to frequent the ON Broadway chatroom and immensely enjoyed myself when I first started handing out in the room, but the last 6 months or so of my stay in the room, It became less and less enjoyable when bots started invading the rooms and constant fights were going on in the rooms, every single time. The 18 and over restrictions on the room does not help matters at all, because the system is easily defeated when minors lie about their ages and create ids so they can pretend to be older than they actually are. I’m sure that’s where a lot of these fights are stemming from
And you really need to fix the bugs on versions 7.0 and highter, becauses when we have accept pms from people on our friends lists you can only see the friends you have on your lists, if they are in the room and not other people chatting who are not on your lists.
Comment by Christine — August 3, 2007 #
LOL people are not commenting as much now they know yahoo is full of empty promises and BS
I’ve found it useful reporting spam with Spamguard and the ignore feature, but ocassionally a bot will pm with a link. They seem to be less frequent new that I’ve been on yahoo for over 2 years now.
Umm spam has increased @ least 100 fold in the last year alone… go into chat and tell me its decreased lmao
as for yahoo 7.0+ yes i agree THEY ARE SUPOSED TO IMPROVE not get worse when you make a new version geez yahoo chat is not there priority has not been for a long time even in 8.0+ the chat button is in a dumb drop down menu what is verry anoying to use common sence would say its a needed function but no they do not care there servers are screwed the new alpha ones will be active properly in like 3 years (it is yahoo remeber) so i would not hold your breathe
Comment by Karl — August 5, 2007 #
one of the reasons i stoped useing yahoo messenger is the blocking feature just doesnt work nor does reporting people as spam seem to do anything
Comment by ChiChi — August 29, 2007 #
Every time I upgrade to msgr 8.0, I get a virus with some kind of foreign language. As I remember it is Quatangtrai.us.tf or something like that. I have to go back and restore.
Comment by rick Miksell — September 2, 2007 #
Yahoo just ignores spam reports. I challemnge yahoo to show us one case where it took legal or criminal action against a spammer in 2007.
Claiming that spammers are untouchable because they are in China, Russia or Romania is BULL.
I’ve been tracking one IM spammer for the last week. The spammer might be in China, but heis clearly working with US companies such as JTENT, Amateur match, and other porno companies in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Fresno.
Its always the same porno firms.
Comment by Brad — November 19, 2007 #
I’ve noticed that yahoo has a 100 ids limit for the ignore list. That sucks because i’ve already reached the limit and if i remove someone from the list to add another, i won’t solve anything because in one way or another .. one user will still annoy me. I hope the ignore id limit will be increased.
Comment by Mary — December 5, 2007 #
Very good point. Yahoo! Messenger doesn’t have to be so complicated. All most people want is a place to talk with their friends, the ability to completely ignore a profile, and open chat rooms. In Messenger 7.0+, every time you go on Yahoo! Chat, you have to click on a link that opens a window that opens a tool bar in which a code must be typed in from a banner above. That is a huge setback for normal Yahoo! users. Then, the matter of spammers…Well, as it is most spammers are mindless script-run programs that type random jiberish in fonts that are hard-if not impossible- to read by just looking at it. A good and easy way to figure this out it by simply highlighting the text and right-clicking on it and v’ola! the jiberish is revealed. Some though, as mentioned before, are spams that promote/advertise porn. Even sometimes through the microphone/open-speech function
of Yahoo! Chat are they promoted. I hope that this problem can soon be resolved.
Comment by Ne0 — December 19, 2007 #
I would like to agree with Ne0, Yahoo! Chat doesnt have to be so complicated. You should make a similar program but that allows people to talk with the friends, webcam, and mic, functions. thats wat most people want
Comment by V — January 17, 2008 #
I’m seeing a continuous flood of “add friend” requests coming from [x]@live.cn where x = [a-z,1-9]+ but usually some combination.that vaguely resembles yahoo (example: yah00.28@live.cn) .. Is anybody else seeing this? It is making the use of Yahoo Messenger incredibly annoying and they are never stopping the requests?
Comment by Daryl — July 3, 2008 #
You all just don’t get it, do you? Why would yahoo not get rid of spam? I wouldn’t be surprised that they may have a hand at causing them, or at the least get a cut of the money. It is all about the money. Even if the so called spam filter works, they might get so much cash that it pays for just about everything, if not more. All for distributing a so called free messenger. Please, YM has been round for many years. Don’t you think that the technology is there to end this kind of thing by now? But why stop it right,Y! Take the money and roll with it! For those silly enough to use your ridiculous program and all its security problems, i highly suggest finding something better and stop complaining.
More than likely, if the dollars roll in, they will not fix anything to your advantage.
Comment by j — March 27, 2009 #
Daryl, Yup, I’m getting those a couple times a week. Makes me wish instead of ,or maybe in addition to, the ignore list Yahoo Messenger had a rule or wild card feature. Such as:
If senders name contains @live.cn then ignore
or
Ignore *@live.cn
Comment by Bill — April 17, 2009 #
I have 4 yahoo ids…yes, I said 4…don’t ask?!?!
I only get IM spams on one of my accounts. This was the account that I used to communicate with my ex and right after we broke up the spams started pouring in on that very account, but not the other accounts that he was unaware of. I wonder if he was fishing for my yahoo password???? Any idea/s?
Comment by Lolla — June 14, 2009 #