Ok, someone implied that a moderator or administrator would somehow be responsible. I do not have access to any db connection strings where I can query and dump a list of member email addresses, and I certainly am not going to point and click through the profiles of 20,000+ members to obtain email addresses to spam.
That is NOT how spam works. Spam bots can be programmed to work many ways, they can sift email addresses from a website they encounter (this is where email address encoding comes in, to confuse bots, or Javascript can be used but causes functionality issues in a crossplatform world, i.e. the internet), or they can simply go through what we call a DICTIONARY file(s) which is exactly how a password cracker works as well (brute force method).
The list will contain standard words, you can of course add or subtract, and often dictionary files are available in other languages to increase chances of cracking your target. Anyhow, so if a dictionary entry like DOG is being used to start spamming people, you can set your spamming program to add numbers or foreign characters or both, and you can tell it how many characters deep to do this. So
dog1@aol.com ,
dog2@aol.com and so on would receive email, many of these will bounce but invariably some go through.
Why do you think so many forums, and whois lookups on the net, and etc have authentication methods to prevent mass sign ups now? You will undoubtedly have seen at some point a graphical represenation of numbers and leters you have to enter in order to complete a registration process, many forums now have this, to prevent BOTS from mass signup spam hits. So if someone here really believes that a human is pointing and clicking through 20,000+ profiles to spam people and maybe sucker even 50 people, you are seriously short of some BASIC tech knowlege.
I get spam for HGH and steroids to email addresses not listed on any message board AT ALL right along with penise enlargement and viagra and cialis and all the other crap, mortgage quotes and so on.
I see these SAME EMAILS AT MY WORKPLACE, am I going to suspect that everyone at my work is juicing or using HGH to "feel and look younger" - ? Of course not, they dont have to be a member of any board or organization to receive spam. Many people have signed up for brand new accounts on AOL, Yahoo or other services and have received spam within minutes, much less before using that address on any website.
I've worked in tech since the 90s and have worked with computers since I was a kid, I still run email servers and I deal with spam every day as a constant nuisance, and spam bots have been around for at LEAST 10 years now, to even imply anyone is doing this by hand or that moderators have some db connection string to run SQL queries at home only shows that you dont know what you are talking about.
Sorry kids, but this is random spam and it has nothing to do with Steroidology, I'd just delete the crap but I'm sure it was appreciated that it was brought up because there is no affiliation or backing from this site and probably not any other either.
This person(s) is probably looking to sucker a few people because they know this would blow up rapidly in their face, if it didn't work thats great for us as "consumers," if it did work they could have cleared 10 grand or who knows how much in a matter of half a day or even less - again whooooooooo knows.
Stay smart its YOUR MONEY, dont try and pass the buck that this is some freakish underground attempt from a site like this, who has no intention of going anywhere anytime soon.
My company got almost NO spam until about 2 years ago, and when it hit us it hit us EN MASSE, its not a human doing the work its spambots. Anyone ever gotten spam with a jumbled message, or even a blank message? A spambot that obviously crapped out or was setup incorrectly, this is not people pointing and clicking.
