SPAM email message received through ZOTERO domain!

AdrianMediaAnalyst

Hello

Please help! I received a SPAM email message (via the Zotero do-not-reply[at]zotero.org domain). This is highly concerning, as it suggests that Zotero servers were hacked.

Message quoted:

"Hi, AdrianMediaAnalyst. You have received a new private message at Zotero.org from Mrs edward.adeline.
----------
hi

Hello Dear
I'm Mrs. Adeline,widow to late Dr. Edward Gautier,
It's my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I and my son
intend to establish in your country. Though I have not met with you before
but I believe, one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed
sometimes in life. There is this amount of Four Million, Five hundred thousand US
Dollars ($4.5 million) ) my late husband deposited in a bank
, which he wanted to used for his political ambitions
before he was assassinated during the political crisis in our country.

I and my son Richard have now decided to invest this money in abroad
for security reasons.Currently the fund is with the bank,

I am soliciting for your assistance to help us
to secure this fund to your holding account on my behalf and will assist me in
investing this fund in any lucrative business. I will like to invest
part of the money into these three investment but, if there is any
other business that is better than what I am suggesting, I will be
very glad to follow your advice.

1). Real estate
2). The transport industry
3). Hotels management

You shall be entitled to a significant portion of the fund for your
assistance to me and my son.

. I await your soonest response to my email (edward.adeline@yahoo.fr )

I will give you all details and proof of the deposit when i recieve your
reply. for quick communication, you can call us on this telephone +225 4835 9832
thanks for your anticipating co-operation.

Respectfully yours,
Mrs. Adeline Edward Gautier

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Best,
Team Zotero
--
Change your notification settings at https://www.zotero.org/settings/notifications"

adamsmith

That doesn't suggest any issues with the Zotero server or domain. It's just someone using the forum's built-in messaging software for spam. That person/software does not have access to your e-mail (let alone any other data) they're just sending you a private forum message the way you could send me one via https://www.zotero.org/adamsmith

I don't think there has been much spam sent this way, but if it increases there's likely a need for a better human authentication requirement before sending private messages in the forum software. I also believe that Zotero's web developer [edit: that's fcheslack posting below] is working on moving the forums to the next version of the forums software, which has better spam protection.

But again, the problem here is just that you're getting spam, there is absolutely no concern about the security of the Zotero forums or webpage.

fcheslack

It does not indicate the Zotero servers got hacked. The message was sent to your account on zotero.org through the provided messaging system. There's little we can do to prevent actual humans from registering an account and sending a few messages, but that user was flagged and banned an hour before your post.

AdrianMediaAnalyst

Thank you adamsmith & fcheslack. Much appreciated for your credible explanations provided. Kind regards.

Rintze

@fcheslack, I just received some spam from https://forums.zotero.org/profile/5638021/BARRISTERJAMESDUKE via my Zotero inbox (probably my first spam there ever).

fcheslack

Thanks.
They've been banned and I've made the message throttling much stricter.