Ask HN: How can I stop scammers from targeting my local classifieds site?

2 points by AdilD 17y ago ↗ HN

Hey everyone, a friend of mine sent me the following note and I didn't have a good answer but I figured if someone would, it would be from this community. Appreciate any thoughts you might have. Thanks.

"How can I stop scammers from targeting my local classifieds site?

I run a local classifieds site (http://www.smartbrideboutique.ca/)for wedding related products. We're having some serious trouble with fraudulent buyers e-mailing every listing on the site with an identical e-mail - some sellers are being fooled.

Our site is coded in django, and we're using google apps as our mail host.

Does anyone have any suggestions or resources that we can check out to fend off our fraudulent friends??

2 comments

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omarchowdhury 17y ago ↗

Have all email go through your email servers (instead of directly to the users email box). Since you know which emails are being sent, automatically stop any emails from reaching the sellers that are obvious duplicates (eg. someone sending 100 emails from bob@bobscam.com would not be sent to the seller's email box).

AdilD 17y ago ↗

good idea, thanks.