Spam on Genes Reunited

[PeteW1959]

Has anyone else had spam messages on the Genes Reunited messaging service?

I had a message today from one of my contacts (this person was originally a genuine contact) which was a 'phishing' scam trying to obtain all my personal details on the promise of me receiving an inheritance from a distant relative.

I often get this sort of thing via e-mail and most get filtered through to my spam box, but I certainly didn't expect to get them through a closed messaging system.

If the spammers have found their way into GR, it doesn't bode well for Ancestry's new messaging service.

[KiteRunner]

Have you reported it to GR, Pete?

[PeteW1959]

Yes, I've reported it, and I've had a reply saying that action has been taken against the member, although I doubt that this was directly the member's fault. The message was signed with a different name and gave a Yahoo e-mail address.

The member is a genuine one who has been a member for a while, I had contact with her well over a year ago and she has a tree with over 140 people in it and has several common ancestors, albeit by marriage. I am concerned that the spammers have found a way of infiltrating the system and sending out messages in another's name in the same way they do with e-mail. Without a facility for spam filtering in a messaging system are we just going to get inundated with spam?

[Olde Crone Holden]

AH!!!!

About a month ago, I was absolutely horrified to find over 100 emails in my inbox, all phishing scams. I have a very tight scurity level and I couldn't work out how they got to me.

Eventually I traced the "original" to a contact who I know through a YAHOO group. She was not the originator of my message, but she had somehow become the "carrier" for it - possibly because she uses round-robin type emails to stay in touch with all her contacts.

It cleared up after a few days of intensive virus-scanning etc and touch wood, haven't had a problem since.

OC