Tradehill must take action NOW and ban referral spammers

[Justsomeforumuser]

Edit: Changed topic title since this has gone into numbers and seems to be spreading.
Thread on same topic https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19731.0

--

Given the community permeating behavior of tradehill users, I now call for a boycott of Tradehill and it's referral practices as they are the root cause for all this behavior.
At the point where you intrude into other people's privacy something has to be done.

I now actively discourage use of a system that breeds abusers and misusers of both the forum and the emailing system.
Also, since Tradehill is not actively reacting to this and prosecuting abusers and disabling the account of abusers, they are showing silent consent to this spamming behavior.


-----------Original Post----------
Hi,

some spamming idiot has sent not one but two emails begging for signup at Tradehill, including of course cunningly his referall alongside to everyone in the MtGox database.

All of this referall begging is nothing other than overall fraudulent behavior and it makes me f*cking sick to begin with. We already had every other forum user use begging BTC addresses in their signature, now it's turned into TH referall begging / cheating.

Threads pop up with the sole purpose of either begging for BTC or referrals.

People need to be put in their place and realize that spamming is not a nice nor allowable thing. Ironically the guy who spammed the 60.000+ email addresses TWICE called himself a BTC supporter.

I have two emails both telling me
"As a Bitcoin supporter I'm now sending a message to every email address contained in the hacked database."

which I already knew 2 hours earlier, when MtGox itself sent the official warning. Then a subtle link to Tradehill with the above mentioned referral TH-R15683.

Dude, you are just as bad as people who a) stole the MtGox data b) DDOS pools.

You are wasting other people's traffic and trying to benefit from misery by sucking in referrals!

May bad karma get you.

</fuuuuu rant>
--

Putting this in the trading forum because this is also where all the TH related stuff keeps popping up.

[grue]

agreed.

also, it was 3 times.

[EricSU]

I already reported the spammer to his hosting provider.
abuse@savvis.net

Forward the spams there, they will shut him down after a few complaints.

[hashme]

Please, ban TH-R13698 as well - for spam

[CubedRoot]

Here here on the ban of this douchebag

[pancakes]

This is the email I received. Only one.

Dear Sir or Madam,


A few hours ago the Bitcoin trading website Mt Gox has been hacked. Malicious individuals have been able to obtain a database containing usernames, email address and encrypted passwords. This information has been posted publicly on the internet.

As a Bitcoin supporter I'm now sending a message to every email address contained in the hacked database. This is to warn you that your username, email address and password have been leaked. I therefore strongly advice you to change your passwords. If you have used the same password on different websites it's highly recommended to change your password on all of your accounts!

For a more secure alternative to Mt Gox, the community appears to be moving to TradeHill. So this is no reason to lose faith in Bitcoin itself. It must be seen as a warning that not every website can be trusted with your data however! Their link is http://www.tradehill.com/?r=TH-R15683 (Note: You can remove the Referral Code when registering if you want!) This is certainly not the only website where you can exchange Bitcoins, also check out http://www.thebitcoinlist.com/dp_bitcoin/bitcoin-exchange/


Sincerely,

It doesn't seem that bad. He mentions exchanges other than Tradehill and you don't HAVE to click his link. Actually I think it could be quite informative to traders who don't follow the forums or know of any other exchanges.

[Horkabork]

It doesn't seem that bad. He mentions exchanges other than Tradehill and you don't HAVE to click his link. Actually I think it could be quite informative to traders who don't follow the forums or know of any other exchanges.

So sending 60,000 emails using a stolen database is okay, because we didn't HAVE to click the link in it? That's insane, even coming from a guy named "pancakes". Just because I hate you now, I'm eating your namesake for breakfast tomorrow. I hope their fluffy, syrupy demise transmits some telepathic pain to you. Man, I'm telling you, I can eat a lot of pancakes, so prepare for my wrath.

By the way, guy-who-did-this-if-you-are-reading-this, that counts as a felony if you happened to send emails to people in certain states, like Virginia. Hopefully tradehill has some good records of you.

[Justsomeforumuser]

Just got it again from

"Tony Ray" <noreply@netcoders.cc>
With the ID TH-R15977.

It is phrased almost identical, but this time it includes spam for netcoders.cc.

I assume someone is piggybacking off the idea and using it to promote both his referrals as well as the netcoders site.

The level of scum is revealed further by the site saying they "offer undetected multiplayer cheats"..which is against every Terms Of Service of any game, ever..

Where is the Tradehill owner?
Promoting the site in comments elsewhere or taking strong action against these accounts?


------
Update:
Just found another in my spam folder from "bittrader566@yahoo.com" <bittrader566@yahoo.com>
Tradehill referral ID: TH-R13698

Even lazier this time, just saying "The latest in a string of hacks to Mt Gox has made me move to Trade Hill. Use this referral code to get 10% off all trade fees: TH-R13698"

---

If only we had some way of showing them how un-nice this is. Like entering them into spam bomb subscription lists, DDOSing their sites and reporting them to someone, somewhere(say, tradehill, yahoo and the webhost)..

[Justsomeforumuser]

It doesn't seem that bad. He mentions exchanges other than Tradehill and you don't HAVE to click his link. Actually I think it could be quite informative to traders who don't follow the forums or know of any other exchanges.

This 9000th Cialis spam mail doesn't seem that bad. They mention other penis pills than Viagra and you don't HAVE to buy it right away. I think it could be quite informative to anyone who never heard about google or the wiki/homepage/anything at all of the thing they are interested in using.

Like, it could inform you that there are douchebags out there trying to sell Cialis via unsolicited spam.

-

Do you really not understand the difference between being informed by a system you opted into and unsolicited spam that promotes it's own agenda? Are you ... serious?

[kseistrup]

It doesn't seem that bad. He mentions exchanges other than Tradehill and you don't HAVE to click his link. Actually I think it could be quite informative to traders who don't follow the forums or know of any other exchanges.

You're wrong, Mt. Gox already sent out a warning email to all of their users with an associated email account.  Furthermore, there's no need for the spammer to mail bomb each and every person from the leaked db — I've received the spam 9 (NINE!) times from the asshole who claims to have ref.code TH-R15683.

Cheers,

[pancakes]

It doesn't seem that bad. He mentions exchanges other than Tradehill and you don't HAVE to click his link. Actually I think it could be quite informative to traders who don't follow the forums or know of any other exchanges.

So sending 60,000 emails using a stolen database is okay, because we didn't HAVE to click the link in it? That's insane, even coming from a guy named "pancakes". Just because I hate you now, I'm eating your namesake for breakfast tomorrow. I hope their fluffy, syrupy demise transmits some telepathic pain to you. Man, I'm telling you, I can eat a lot of pancakes, so prepare for my wrath.

By the way, guy-who-did-this-if-you-are-reading-this, that counts as a felony if you happened to send emails to people in certain states, like Virginia. Hopefully tradehill has some good records of you.

I suppose your right. I guess I just got excited when I saw I had an email. It seemed like he almost cared about me

Also, I am a great believer in the ingestion of pancakes even if it is for the sole purpose of inflicting pain. May the syrup be bountiful and may your arteries stay strong throughout the fatty onslaught. Admittedly I don't think you will be able to transmit pain to me by eating pancakes but if I am pained tomorrow morning then you are a wizard and have earned my respect.

[PHPAdam]

since Tradehill is not actively reacting to this and prosecuting abusers and disabling the account of abusers, they are showing silent consent to this spamming behavior.

In a reply to a topic Tradehill did say they will ban/remove commission from the spammer.
They wont reveal their identity which is bad for this situation but great seance of security for those who want to stay anon with Tradehill.

Lets not overeact, Tradehill is using referrals for marketing and it is working. The spammers crossed the line and tradehill put a stop to it, so boycott not necessary, lets move on.

[Justsomeforumuser]

Lets not overeact, Tradehill is using referrals for marketing and it is working.

It is working to incentivise people to spam others to use their signup link.
And in turn we have this.

If you can't convince people with better service, fees and general offering, don't stoop to spam tactics.

If they want to give early adopters an incentive, make it so that ANYONE gets an early adopter bonus like 3 months of cheaper or 4 weeks comission free trading.
Don't incentivise bothering the crap out of other people, which referrals are doing.
It's a very malicious form of marketing and it gets worse if combined with online tactics(signatures, posts, websites, url misdirection) and spam.

[Bind]

Tradehill needs to have a no-tolerance spam policy.

Referral programs are completely legitimate and legal.

[iCEBREAKER]

It doesn't seem that bad. He mentions exchanges other than Tradehill and you don't HAVE to click his link. Actually I think it could be quite informative to traders who don't follow the forums or know of any other exchanges.

So sending 60,000 emails using a stolen database is okay, because we didn't HAVE to click the link in it? That's insane, even coming from a guy named "pancakes". Just because I hate you now, I'm eating your namesake for breakfast tomorrow. I hope their fluffy, syrupy demise transmits some telepathic pain to you. Man, I'm telling you, I can eat a lot of pancakes, so prepare for my wrath.

By the way, guy-who-did-this-if-you-are-reading-this, that counts as a felony if you happened to send emails to people in certain states, like Virginia. Hopefully tradehill has some good records of you.

It's not a felony, or spam.  So you can stop crying and shedding greasy burger tears everywhere.

The situation is exactly the same as when Hint.io emailed the compromised Gawker users to inform them that their accounts were hacked.

I'll even google that for you http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gawker+hint.io so (hopefully) all of you drama queens can stop being so huffy and butt-hurt.

Get the picture?   No?  Well here it is anyway.

This morning I got an email from hint.io telling me that my Gawker account had been compromised. I very nearly ignored it as phishing. From the screenshot at the top of this post, you can probably see why. All three of the links in it, including the one to the Forbes article, link to the hint.io domain, which I'd never heard of. Googling the domain name mostly resulted in other people on message boards discussing it. The site itself has only a vague description of what it is and says that it's in beta.

But it is in fact, a legitimate email, for certain definitions of legitimate.

A legitimate email that should have come from Gawker. They have finally posted a brief apology and a FAQ, neither of which mention hint.io (presumably because they have nothing to do with each other). And as far as I can tell, Gawker still hasn't sent out emails to the compromised accounts themselves, although the FAQ suggests that they're "in the process of notifying those users."

So what of hint.io, then? It appears to be the tool for a group that took matters into their own hands after Gawker opted to leave its users in the dark. TNW (The Next Web) calls them "good Samaritans." But at least one commenter there thinks that those sending the emails are as bad as those who compromised the accounts to begin with, since they're using the compromised data to sent the alerts.

As one of the recipients, I disagree. I'm thankful for their transparency where Gawker was unwilling. The data has been released. That can't be changed. But they've used it for good, not evil. Or at least as an effort to help prevent more evil.

http://opensource.com/life/10/12/what-hintio-and-why-are-they-emailing-you

Now, tell us all how much success you had suing Hint.io for spamming Gawker users.

Oh that's right you can't because your opinion is simply flat dead wrong!

But something tells me that you'll keep clinging onto it, rather than admit you don't know understand the objective definition of spam, as opposed to your subjective, emotional 'I knows spam when I sees it' herpiddy-derp.

[Oldminer]

www.spamcop.net

Ban their asses

[eturnerx]

I got a few. Added tradehill to my spam filters. Email me anything with tradehill mentioned someplace and I'll remain blissfully unaware.

[Horkabork]

It doesn't seem that bad. He mentions exchanges other than Tradehill and you don't HAVE to click his link. Actually I think it could be quite informative to traders who don't follow the forums or know of any other exchanges.

So sending 60,000 emails using a stolen database is okay, because we didn't HAVE to click the link in it? That's insane, even coming from a guy named "pancakes". Just because I hate you now, I'm eating your namesake for breakfast tomorrow. I hope their fluffy, syrupy demise transmits some telepathic pain to you. Man, I'm telling you, I can eat a lot of pancakes, so prepare for my wrath.

By the way, guy-who-did-this-if-you-are-reading-this, that counts as a felony if you happened to send emails to people in certain states, like Virginia. Hopefully tradehill has some good records of you.

It's not a felony, or spam.  So you can stop crying and shedding greasy burger tears everywhere.

The situation is exactly the same as when Hint.io emailed the compromised Gawker users to inform them that their accounts were hacked.

I'll even google that for you http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gawker+hint.io so (hopefully) all of you drama queens can stop being so huffy and butt-hurt.

Get the picture?   No?  Well here it is anyway.

This morning I got an email from hint.io telling me that my Gawker account had been compromised. I very nearly ignored it as phishing. From the screenshot at the top of this post, you can probably see why. All three of the links in it, including the one to the Forbes article, link to the hint.io domain, which I'd never heard of. Googling the domain name mostly resulted in other people on message boards discussing it. The site itself has only a vague description of what it is and says that it's in beta.

But it is in fact, a legitimate email, for certain definitions of legitimate.

A legitimate email that should have come from Gawker. They have finally posted a brief apology and a FAQ, neither of which mention hint.io (presumably because they have nothing to do with each other). And as far as I can tell, Gawker still hasn't sent out emails to the compromised accounts themselves, although the FAQ suggests that they're "in the process of notifying those users."

So what of hint.io, then? It appears to be the tool for a group that took matters into their own hands after Gawker opted to leave its users in the dark. TNW (The Next Web) calls them "good Samaritans." But at least one commenter there thinks that those sending the emails are as bad as those who compromised the accounts to begin with, since they're using the compromised data to sent the alerts.

As one of the recipients, I disagree. I'm thankful for their transparency where Gawker was unwilling. The data has been released. That can't be changed. But they've used it for good, not evil. Or at least as an effort to help prevent more evil.

http://opensource.com/life/10/12/what-hintio-and-why-are-they-emailing-you

Now, tell us all how much success you had suing Hint.io for spamming Gawker users.

Oh that's right you can't because your opinion is simply flat dead wrong!

But something tells me that you'll keep clinging onto it, rather than admit you don't know understand the objective definition of spam, as opposed to your subjective, emotional 'I knows spam when I sees it' herpiddy-derp.

That's not the same at all and you know it. If you don't know it, then you're probably just a sentient bottle of hand lotion or something, in which case I guess I can forgive you for not understanding ideas like this.  The people who notified gawker users, while it was unsolicited mass email, was neither advertising nor misleading. The referral spam sent to Mt. Gox users was misleading, unsolicited, an advertisement, and above all, unnecessary as Mt. Gox already informed everyone with an earlier email. The gawker email you mentioned might escape the CAN-SPAM act and similar, stricter state laws because it wasn't advertising or soliciting. And they identified themselves. However even it was, strictly speaking, spam because they obtained the email addresses from the hacked database. If I sent a one-sentence email, saying nothing but "Icebreaker is a sentient bottle of hand lotion" to everyone using this database, that would be committing a crime unless I could demonstrate that I had obtained each and every email from a legitimate source.

The Mt. Gox spam also contained deliberately deceptive statements, such as that the community was moving to tradehill, thus implying that Mt. Gox had permitted the email or endorsed tradehill. It was also unsigned, anonymous, and sent likely using modified headers, an open relay, or other such methods meant to disguise the origin of the email. In Virginia and other places, that's not just "CAN-SPAM noncompliant" but actually criminal (see the Virginia Computer Crimes Act).

The unsolicited Gawker email, unless someone were to prove criminal conspiracy in their use of the hacked database, probably qualifies as free speech. But free speech does not apply when the main purpose of the email is to advertise a commercial product or service, which is obviously what the Tradehill spammer was doing.

[iCEBREAKER]

However even it was, strictly speaking, spam because they obtained the email addresses from the hacked database.

Thank you for coming out and admitting that your hyper-legalistic definition of spam is so broad that it would include the heroic Hint.io warning sent to compromised Gawker users.

That allows us to disregard whatever else you say about the matter, because your initial position is so flawed and your is logic so strenuously harsh as to defy common usage and normal considerations of equity.

Please go back to being funny Horkabork.  You are a much better forum comedian than internet lawyer.  Your bit about using excess mining heat for distilling booze is an all-time classic!