Messages from group moderators

[Judy]

This thread is for occasional messages from the group mods.

To start with, just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that there is a problem at the moment, which has been mentioned in the Goodreads Feedback group, with spambots sending out fake GR friend requests.

These are being sent out in various names, by profiles which are just links to sex sites. So it's a good idea to check any friend requests before accepting them.

For spam requests, the advice from Goodreads is to block the member and then to report it via the Contact Us link - https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...

[Ruth]

Thanks for the warning Judy - I've just had a friend request which looks suspicious.

[Lady Clementina]

Thanks for pointing that out- I've only been accepting requests from friends of friends or people from groups I'm part of - usually if we have books/genres in common. I hope that's enough of a check.

[Betsy]

I've received 2 of those suspicious requests so I just blocked them. They're obvious if you check their profile.

[Lady Clementina]

Betsy wrote: "I've received 2 of those suspicious requests so I just blocked them. They're obvious if you check their profile."

That I do.

[Susan]

I have also had a couple of these requests, which I blocked but did not report. Thanks for the link, Judy, as I will report them in future.

[Jay-me (Janet)]

I've not had any suspicious requests, but possibly having my profile set to private is some protection.

[Abigail]

Thanks so much for the heads-up!

I just got one from some guy whose profile was in Russian; I checked the books he liked, and not one of them was anything familiar to or interesting to me, so I hit "Ignore." Hope that was the right thing to do!

[Jill]

I've had one but the profile was really suspicious. Blocked it but didn't report it. Will do so in the future if I get any more. Thanks for the link, Judy.

[Marcus]

Until now no friend request of this sort. Will pay more attention.

[Lesley]

Do check the profile of any friend request you receive and report it if it looks odd. I've had three now - one I ignored and it came back for another try; the other I reported last night, and bless me, I have another one this morning! Different people each time, but I think a hacker is using existing profiles.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Lesley~aka Ella's Gran wrote: "Do check the profile of any friend request you receive and report it if it looks odd. I've had three now - one I ignored and it came back for another try; the other I reported last night, and bless..."

That could be -someone somewhere mentioned a dodgy profile with a join date of 2009. I've just got a request from a 2012 profile. None of this current lot have profile pictures so they can't be flagged(!) but email support AT goodreads DOT com. Do not click on the link!

If you want, to join Goodreads Feedback & join the chorus who want to be able to flag profiles easily.

[Jan C]

Oh, now you tell me. I think I did get one or two. I think I may have accepted one but couldn't figure out how to get rid of it. Plus, I've probably forgotten who that was now.

[Susan]

You can block friends, Jan, so they can't look at your profile - even if you inadvertently clicked on them. This is a fairly recent thing, as I never had such requests until a month or so ago. I think most of us feel so comfortable on Goodreads that we just tend to accept friend requests as given - but I always click on the profile anyway, otherwise you end up 'following authors' half the time, rather than actually accepting friends.

[Jan C]

Not sure what happened. I generally click on the profile. I think I didn't realize until after I clicked ok. And then I tried finding the person. Doesn't exist. This was my first indication.

[Lesley]

I think it must be spam season. I had 24 spammers break through our very robust spam system to greet me at work today. All ranged from mildly questionable to downright filth. My normal, which will mostly involve "send me some money and you will inherit" or the bank wanting my password to adjust my account, is usually 1 or 2 a day.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I've just heard from support & it looks like my latest is under investigation. I put "Dirty Spammer" as the subject of my email to make sure it got prompt attention.

[Lesley]

Carol ♔Type, Oh Queen!♕ wrote: "I've just heard from support & it looks like my latest is under investigation. I put "Dirty Spammer" as the subject of my email to make sure it got prompt attention."

Yeah, I've had a response too, and they are investigating as well as looking to see better ways to prevent this happening.

[Jan C]

I think that I got another one of those requests today. Declined this one.

[Susan]

I have been declining them too, Jan, but perhaps we should report them? I suspect loads of us have just rejected them, without Goodreads being aware of how big the issue is.

[Lady Clementina]

Lesley~aka Ella's Gran wrote: "I think it must be spam season. I had 24 spammers break through our very robust spam system to greet me at work today. All ranged from mildly questionable to downright filth. My normal, which will ..."

I always seem to win millions of dollars/pounds every single day- just have make a little deposit.... (luckily these are still safely in the spam box but I keep checking since some legitimate mail goes in there as well)

[Miss M]

There's been an ongoing discussion over in Feedback and yesterday Emily from GR posted:

"Today we’ll be taking proactive measures to remove these spammers’ access to Goodreads. We’re optimistic that this will greatly reduce the amount of activity generated from these spam accounts. Please be assured that we are committed to keeping spam off the site and limiting its impact on our members as much as we can."

Hopefully that will cut down the latest spam 'trend.'

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(Emily is msg #94)

[Everyman]

Susan wrote: "I have also had a couple of these requests, which I blocked but did not report. Thanks for the link, Judy, as I will report them in future."

I feel left out. I haven't had any. What's wrong with me?

[Deborah]

Everyman wrote: "Susan wrote: "I have also had a couple of these requests, which I blocked but did not report. Thanks for the link, Judy, as I will report them in future."

I feel left out. I haven't had any. What'..."

Lol, I haven't either. We've both been left out

[Lady Clementina]

Everyman wrote: "Susan wrote: "I have also had a couple of these requests, which I blocked but did not report. Thanks for the link, Judy, as I will report them in future."

I feel left out. I haven't had any. What'..."
Ha ha- the ones I've got seem genuine too- but I am still wary of accepting requests from people I don't know from groups or otherwise.

[Lesley]

I'll share! I got another one yesterday, and with what they are offering, I don't know why they're bothering an old bird like me :)

[Jill]

I always look at the profie and profile picture which is usually just the avatar first. Then I look at when they joined, how many books they read, and their friends. That will usually give you all the hints you need to identify the spam bot. Although I might have let one slip through last month, so far nothing strange has happened......maybe I should wait for the other shoe to drop!!!

[Susan]

Everyman, I would feel left out if I were you. My opportunities for joining odd clubs in NY seems unlikely in the extreme, even should I want to :)