Please Read: Watch Out for Trolls!!!

Hello Mac-Forums members. Not very often we find it necessary to send out a sight-wide announcement. The Mac-Forums Staff has been dealing with some trolls for quite some time now...and up to this point we have been dealing with the situation behind the scenes (as we normally do with unruly members and spammers). Which is to revoke membership or ban them for unacceptable activity.

Up to this point...this person or person's has been creating multiple accounts/userid's...posting unacceptable content in the open forum's...and the occasional silly/unacceptable private message to the Mac-Forums Staff. When these userids/accounts have been banned...this troll or trolls create new account's...and the process starts over again. We have had no trouble dealing with this.

But lately this troll or trolls has taken things to the next level...and has begun impersonating/spoofing the Mac-Forums Staff...by creating subtly similar userids and copy & paste Mac-Forums Staff avatars. For example...Raz0rEdge becomes RazOrEdge...and pigoo3 becomes pigoo3. (period at the end)...and using the same avatar.

This person or person's then makes thread posts with this fake Mac-Forums Staff userid & avatar...and appears to be a legitimate Mac-Forum's Staff member. Also...this person or person's has started to private message member's (posing as a Mac-Forums Staff member)...which is totally unacceptable.

An important goal for us is to keep Mac-Forums a friendly, welcoming, non-bullying, clean-language, spam-free, safe place to visit. Nothing mentioned above is in anyway anything to be concerned about...just a little extra work for us. We just wanted to communicate to everyone what was up...and if you see anything out of the ordinary...or receive a strange private message...please report the strange thread, post, or PM to us...and we will take care of it!

We are currently working with Penton (the owner of Mac-Forums) to improve site security & anti-spam measure's to eliminate these issues. As always...we really appreciate the posting reports we receive from members. It really helps the Mac-Forums Staff identify as quickly as possible...posts that may be unacceptable...and deal with them as necessary.

Thanks very much,

The Mac-Forums Staff

I think that the Forum members owe a great debt of gratitude to the Staff for containing and dealing with the problem that has noticeably affected us over the last few days.

The offender(s) have gone to a lot of trouble using sophisticated tactics to disrupt the Forums.

So a big thanks for sorting this out.

Ian

Absolutely. Users have no idea how much work goes on to keep the forum a safe place until something like this happens. I've been subject to everything described over the last few days but suspected the real pigoo3 wouldn't be sending me sweet nothings!

Ian: Thanks for the kind words. The Mac-Forums Staff are definitely a very professional, knowledgeable, and dedicated group! But enjoy being jokester's too!

Sue: Apologies for the unwanted PM/PM's. Trying to get things corrected/sorted out ASAP. Hopefully the PM/PM's contained a bit of humor...after figuring out what was going on! Lol

- Nick

Cut it out Ian!

They will be after more money and ten gallon hats like Sly's.

@Harry Speaking on behalf of the staff in lieu of cash we'll settle for any Apple stock you can spare.

Slydude said:

@Harry Speaking on behalf of the staff in lieu of cash we'll settle for any Apple stock you can spare.

Click to expand...

+1 Lol

- Nick

I can't spare a single share Sly if I want an iMac Pro come February.

Boy was I lucky turning 60 on 29 June 1999, forced retirement, and putting some money into Apple shares and then getting a full year's franking on my tax return!