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Spam Accounts & Posting

iCareUK December 7th, 2022
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Spam Accounts & Posting


There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that 7 Cups is a great community of people.

There is, however, some people that have and are creating accounts in order to breach the privacy and security of the site, so in this post, I will detail this issue so that the whole community is aware, and I am currently in discussions with Glen about this issue.

It is absolutely paramount that we inform the community of such issues and provide relevant safety information so that we can keep 7 Cups as safe as possible.

Problem Detected

I have personally seen and dealt with a very small number of accounts that have been created in order to try and disrupt the 7 Cups community, they have, up to now, done this by replying to forum threads with a general story that is most likely unrelated to the topic of the thread.

This post will also contain a link, some may appear with a censor triggered and some may not, I have noticed however, that these links contain the word "hack", and these links can pose a threat to not only site safety but the safety of your account.

Safety comes first!

The first thing I would like to stress, is do not click the links and avoid direct contact these people either by replying or sending PM's, this could potentially make you a target.

Sadly, these situations are all the more common on the internet these days, so it is paramount that you follow the following safety advice.

1) Do not click unknown links, look at web addresses carefully, I'll give an example of my experience in this field, I once saw a YouTube link, but YouTube's website is youtube.com and not youtube.wordpress.com (link changed) look for specific wording, such as the word "hack".

2) Do not communicate with these people, this could make you a target for any future accounts to come.

3) Report: You can make a report here, it is very useful if you click "Report A Member" and provide the accounts username and the link of the post (see below) and this will help us to tackle this issue much quicker.

Post Links

In order to find a post link, visit www.7cups.com on your phone, tablet, laptop or PC and load the post of concern, in the address bar at the top, you will see "https://www.7cups.com/ and will also contain a specific address that directs to each individual post, copy all of this and paste it into the form.

4) Safety Patrol - I am a member of the safety patrol as well as a fantastic team, and I'm now working around the clock to have these issues rectified quickly and effectively, but there are chances I may not see all of them, there is also the team who run the forums who do some very incredible work to keep the forums free of such content and to ensure the forums are kept safe at all times.

5) Passwords

Passwords are something you can personally focus on, creating a strong password will help to keep your account secure.

We have weak and strong passwords and I'll give an example.

If my password was icareuk1, the chances are, my account could very easily be logged in by someone else, so it is very important to think about your password (please don't post passwords anywhere on this site, your password is personal to you and you should tell nobody what it is)

A strong password is something a little more difficult, so as an example, let's assume I really loved vegetables, but nobody knew that on 7 Cups, so I set my password as "vegetablesaresogood1234" it is a better password, but it is still very easily guessable.

Strong passwords contain many characters, mine contains over 20 characters (not saying how many 😜) but also contains capital letters, numbers and special characters also work very well for creating a strong password.

Veget@bles@reS0g00d713 would be an extremely strong password, and even if you didn't want to use so much, Vetetables@resogood713 is still a good password.

Think of your password like you would the key to unlock your front door, you want to keep it safe and secure so only you have access to it.

5) Share information.

If you come across any posts as detailed in this thread, please feel free to send the Post Link (see above) by posting it below in the comments so we can take action, we may have just missed this particular post, or was unavailable at the specific time, or you have my permission to PM the link to me for this reason only.

7 Cups is a community, and a great community 7 Cups is, a place where everyone comes together to share love, support and kindness to all, and these particular accounts do not belong in the 7 Cups community because it goes against that very standard.

Everyone works so hard at 7 Cups, especially behind the scenes, from Members registering to get some support, to the admins and leaders who work on specific areas of the site to make sure it works well for you, your voices are heard, and the community is safe.

For this, I would like to thank everyone who has joined 7 cups in all instances (members, listeners, leaders, community leaders, ambassadors, and admins for all your hard work to strengthen not only our own lives, but the lives of everyone in the community

Thank you ❤️

7
Sunisshiningandsoareyou December 7th, 2022
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@iCareUK

So wise and thoughtful of you, Care. Thankyou for taking the time to reflect on this issue, and to intimate the community about the same, encouraging everyone to try and be as cautious and safe as possible.

Sadly internet world does have lots of cons too, and we can only try our best to keep ourselves and those around us safe.

I appreciate the tips, and the generous offer to reach out for anything also. ❤

Truly hoping there's more concrete solution someday against such issues that surface in the forums too often.

While safety patrol members cannot *flag* the "profiles" of anyone who is violating a forum guidelines, if anyone (any user in 7 cups) ever comes across a forum post (whether a thread, or a post/ comment/ reply in one), that you find is violating the forum guidelines or community guidelines, at large then please use the "flag" button in that particular post or thread, it'll intimate the forum flag team members who can then make the necessary edit or removal as necessary.

One can also reach out to the "community mentor" or "community mentor leader" (if there is one) of a particular sub community, where the post is located in too, to request a second opinion, if needed on edit/ removal of a forum post. (Flagging the forum post itself is easier and a faster way to get it edited or removed though, I feel)

Essential links-

Communicating Forum Post Deletions

Expanded Forum Guidelines Post

Safety & Reporting

Also, users can email forum@7cups.com to report any violations of guidelines in the forums. And/ Or for anything forum related.

(Text in blue is clickable)

Stay safe, everyone! ❤

And let's keep our forums safe and supportive for everyone also, if you find any such postings, please flag them, providing a relevant reason in the pop up space where asked, it helps the forum team heapsss. ❤



iCareUK OP December 7th, 2022
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@Sunisshiningandsoareyou

Thank you, Sun!

And thank you also for providing additional crucial links and more information <3


RarelyCharlie December 7th, 2022
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@iCareUK It's always good for people to know about Internet safety and security 😀 I'll just add a few further remarks.

Do not click unknown links. Very good advice, but the corollary is: Do not post unknown links. For example, if you post a link like https://bit.ly/37MApoY, no one knows in advance where it will take them. OK, you don't mean any harm. But posting that helps to normalize mysterious links and the feeling that all links at 7 Cups are safe (which they are not).

In order to find a post link… The method described only works if you got to the post from a notification, or if someone went to considerable trouble to create a post link. Most links into the forum only specify the thread, not the specific post. If you use the app, I don't see a way to find any kind of link into the forum.

Passwords My understanding is that 7 Cups only uses the first 15 characters of your password. This means vegetablesaresogood1234 is no better than vegetablesareso. I reported this as a bug long ago. 7 Cups replied acknowledging it and with no intention to fix it, but I haven't verified it recently.

Charlie

iCareUK OP December 7th, 2022
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@RarelyCharlie

Hi Charlie,

Another very good addition, I don't personally use the app because I find it doesn't work well for me, so the links described are for the thread as a whole, not the individual comment.

Very interesting about passwords, my password is as I believe, more than 20 characters so I would be interested to know if it is actually typing anything beyond 15 characters but very useful to know, I have mentioned to Glen that it may be worthy to introduce two-factor authentication.

RarelyCharlie December 7th, 2022
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@iCareUK One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is:

Don't use the same password for different logins. The exception is if you have a member account and a listener account at 7 Cups, because they behave like a single login.

Why not use the same password? Because if one site is hacked, the hacker can more easily access your accounts on other sites.

Two factor authentication for 7 Cups has been proposed in the past, but the same thing applies: Don't use the same second factor for different logins. The previous proposal was to require a phone number. But that would mean no one could securely use their phone number to log in anywhere else, because 7 Cups or one of its business partners might be hacked. There are so many sites now asking for phone numbers that they no longer provide good security.

There's a system called U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) that solves the problem by using a special device to generate a unique second factor for each login. This works well, and it would be good if 7 Cups could make it an option, but each user has to buy a device.

Charlie

iCareUK OP December 7th, 2022
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@RarelyCharlie

That is very useful information Charlie, I think banks use U2F, I have a machine that runs on batteries so for accessing information relating to my account and even just to log in to my bank online, I need to put my card into a card reading machine and put in the card PIN number which generates an 8 digit code.

If this is the same thing you are talking about, it is a great layer of security, but also, you are absolutely right, I have different passwords for each account, but they are all relevant to me so I can easily remember, sure, there are times I get confused and I have to try multiple passwords, but I get there in the end. 😊

HopieRemi December 7th, 2022
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@iCareUK

Thanks for writing this post and sharing it with the community. It is very important to never click links, here or anywhere, if it is not coming from a trusted source. This is the best way to protect your devices and sensitive information these devices may hold.