Getting a "shady/spam" reply to my post.

report - yes

I did click the box asking for a staff member to reply to my question. Is there a specific way to report the email? I have also seen that they posted a new topic (thread) regarding the fake passports and IDs. Have just never seen this on the website.

Sometimes the spammers are busy on the weekends! I noticed yesterday a number of old posts were pushed to the top with no new posts at the bottom, so concluded someone had added spam posts and they were removed. I usually report especially if there is a spam post buried within a thread. I figure when the web folks come in on Monday they will see all the spam passport posts in the All Topics list. If there are a bunch by one person, report the whole person so they can wipe out the account.

Did they actually send you a personal message or just post on your thread?

You can report it but the webmaster stays on top on this pretty well. If you want to report it, go to the bottom, click on the highlighted blue text that says, report violations. Fill out the form. Fairly common weekend spam. It is in the public section and not a PM to her. With a little luck it will be gone tomorrow and they will be back the next day. Cannot believe that there is any pay off for their actions.

karen,

The spammers undoubtedly knew this was a holiday, and that the Webmaster would probably not be in the office today. I'm sure it will be removed as soon as the web team are back in the office.

BTW, happy 4th of July to all of you!!!

This same person(s) has been posting this same notice (fake passports) for several months. They come on the site, get a logon, then post their spams. The webmaster finds out and eliminates their account, but they just open a new one.

At the top or bottom of most pages is a link to notify the webmaster of the violation or guidelines (I already have). Copy the poster's username verbatim, then paste it into the comments box. That's all that is necessary. The webmaster can use the username to look up the post and smite the user, and all of his post will disappear.

Whatever you do, don't respond to his email address with from your personal email. Some have suggested (I don't believe it) that someone is just agitating to get people to respond so he can collect live email addresses. What we might do is take out a disposable (eg, hotmail, etc) account and send him massive emails to overload his email, then delete the account in case he is selling it.

I reported this post on your question to the webmaster yesterday when I saw it. I was not certain they would find it inside a thread. All of what the other said holds.

Thanks to everyone for the information and help. Thank you Larry for reporting the problem. I am fairly new to this forum and have never seen spam on here before. Guess no one is immune to the spammers! I have faith the webmasters will take care of this problem on Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

Gee, do some of you really consider that periodic posting to be spam? I have been dealing with those people for about three years now. I have arranged for several passports and visas which have proved very helpful on recent trips, and the service was much cheaper and faster than those provided by governments, and I even picked up two graduate degrees that helped me land visiting professorships at two different universities overseas. It's wonderful that RS and his folks maintain this travel forum that allows sharing such helpful opportunities, don't you think?

Best to you all, Other Larry

To the serious Larry, all the webmaster needs is the log in name. When he cancels the log-in name all of the postings regardless where they are posted are pulled. So only one reporting is needed.

@ Other Larry....I wondered how their service was. I have applied for fake credit cards to use to purchase the fake IDs and fake passports so I hope it all clears quickly.

thanks, Frank, I was not sure if at found spurious replies inside topics.
looking at this on an iPad from Germany, typing sucks, and delighted that the site is not being bombarded, as I thought it would be during World Cup as this thing is not fun to use.

I recently found and reported a similar spam-inside-a-posting that was about Switzerland. Webmaster appreciates everyone's reports and will block each new IP address that the spammer uses (which other staff don't have access to do).