Spam attacks again

Jason,

Seems the spam filtering, which was working well, is either not working or has been compromised.

Folks, I'm incredibly sorry for this mess. Somehow the spammers have figured out how to get past our spam filters and directly inject posts into the database.  This leaves the site corrupted and it takes me an hour or so to fix each time.  I'll do my best to stay on top of it and try to plug whatever hole they've discovered.

In the meantime, if you find the spammers, I suggest you tie them to their chair and make them watch hours upon hours of "I just got my first theremin" videos on YouTube.

Thanks Jason.

Suggest switching off new membership approvals until you get ahead of these criminals. (This assumes that they haven't managed to bypass the membership application process, too.)

I've deployed some additional measures tonight to help track them down.  I don't get why they're doing this.  If they keep it up, I'll have to shut down the site, and then where would they post?

I guess the reason they do it is because they can. In this instance they are criminals offering fraudulent identity documents and credit cards. Being criminals, my guess is also that they probably simply take money from those who are inclined to buy what is offered (and of course the buyer's identity and credit card details) and deliver nothing in return.

Shutting down the site would be a tragedy. Can you not simply suspend new membership authorizations for a period?

I've disabled new account creation until I can figure out how they're doing this.

I have deployed additional measures tonight. Wish us luck.

Jason, you're doing your best and I gotta say I LUVYA FOR IT!

Much appreciated. I'm just sorry this war has played out in front of all our community members and has been such a hassle.  Thanks everyone for your patience!!

now, back to focusing on content!

Thanks again, Jason.