Welcome. Some basic rules

[Miyuki]

What to post:
1. Questions about internet fraud and scams.
2. Questions about scam emails.
3. Anything related to fraud.

What NOT to post:
1. Your real name (use a nickname here).
2. Your real email, phone number, keitai, etc.
3. Other people's real email, phone numbers, keitai, etc.
4. Your real picture or passport photo.
5. Other people's passport photos.
6. Abusive comments about other members.

And NO spammers!!!

 

[Gentle Giant]

As Miyuki has said elsewhere, we will treat each other with respect, as we would be expect to be treated.

In general we will have a "three strike" policy here, since some of us like baseball.

If you are not playing well with others, you will receive a "Formal Warning" from admin or mods. This just puts you on notice that you will be monitored. (This is strike 1).

A second warning will result in a ban, of from 7-30 days from the site. You can still read but you will be unable to login or post. (That's strike 2).

A third strike will result in your being removed (banned from the site). We hope that this will be totally unnecessary, although we will do it if necessary. We're still not sure about trolls. We might keep them around for laughs.

Oy yes, spammers will get no strikes. They will just be removed.

Miyuki has been known to use a rather mild sort-of "pre warning". This usually comes in the form of a PM from her. If you get one of those, you should take it seriously.

Have fun.

We're going to create a new category as a general catchall here for "conduct unbecoming". They use that in law enforcement, the military, and similar things occur under lawyer's codes of ethics etc.

This will be any behavior by a member which in not in accord with things that are done here.

Conduct unbecoming can include formal warnings or temporary bans etc. It will depend on the severity of the infraction(s).

 

[The Doctor]

Some other old rules

Something else to note:

Spammers are not allowed. Spammers will be disposed of, forcibly if necessary, or magically otherwise.

 

[De Master Yoda]

Just a couple more

We are a site that encourages participation by international members. And we have a policy of zero tolerance to any kind of racism or religious bias.
We come from many different countries and backgrounds, and as with ALL nationalities, there are good and bad people in them. We hope to attract the good ones.

Please be considerate of your fellow members, they too have feelings and are here to help, educate and assist in matters relating to fraud.

If any one has any concerns, then please feel free to contact any of the admins or mods and we will try and assist you in any way we can, to help us all get along in a spirit of friendship.
Be kind to one another and enjoy the work we all do here.
Thank you and enjoy your time here.

 

[Miyuki]

And this is not designed as a political forum so please save the politics for some other site. You may not like your president or prime minister. That's fine. Feel free NOT to share it here.

1. Choose a user name that uses Roman letters (the ones like this<-----). Please do not use hiragana or Chinese characters, Russian letters, etc, as these may not read in the general forum. In addition to which most other members will not know who you are.

2. Also do not use offensive names in any language. "Dipstick" or "Dimbulb" are OK if that's how you want to be known, but humor goes a long way. Or a favorite fictional character etc.

3. Try not to swear in any language. Admittedly in dealing with scammers we do sometimes lose our tempers, but try to keep it to a minimum.

4. Nudity may or may not be tolerated. This is still under discussion among admins. For the moment, anything that contains nudity should be marked "NSFW", Not safe for Work, which means it isn't.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

The Private Message system

It is what it says. It is a way for you to contact members in private. When you use it, we (admin) have no control over what is said in PM's.

It's a nice system but it can be abused. Abuse of the system will not be allowed. If you receive a PM which is not appreciated or is abusive, you can forward a copy to admin and we'll contact the person who sent you the email. Also, you can block PM's from members if you do not want them. If necessary we can block a member from sending PM's but we really hope that it would not ever get to that point.

You do not have to give out information to someone in a PM if you do not feel comfortable with it. Also, since scammers can sometimes join AFI, if they send you PM's, we can't control that unless it gets reported to us. We will to our best to immediately remove any scammer we find, but we may not catch them right away.

If you get any PM that is strange, questionable, unwanted, or offensive, Please, please hit the forward button and send it to admin and let us take care of it. That's our job.

Please enjoy your stay.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

And please do NOT sign up here using your yahoo or other internet name.

And let's try to avoid any overtly religious user names which might be offensive to other members.

 

[Spanish Administrator]

Maybe being a troll needs to be mentioned again. If you are a troll, things can happen. Enough said.

If we didn't mention it before, one user account per person. No multiple account business. We have enough trouble just keeping up with things at the moment.

 

[Gentle Giant]

We should have written this before but it wasn't a problem.

Please keep in mind that this is an international forum. Especially in the English forums, please remember that people do have different local expressions in English that you may not know. Also remember that for many people English is not their first language and they may have trouble translating. People may have difficulty expressing themselves and they are not necessarily trying to be rude. They may also be from a different culture and may have different cultural values and norms.

A golden rule is: when in doubt, assume the person is not being rude but may be having problems with English or may have problems with the translation of their culture into yours.

 

[Miyuki]

We need to mention again: NO SPAMMERS.

Many spammers join here every day. We will not allow you to post spam. Your permissions will be turned off and you can do nothing here. Just keep looking for some other community that welcomes your spam. This community does NOT welcome spam.

@ spammers,

If you a link to a website here we assume that you want us to kill it and we WILL do that for you. Just so you know.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

A note for all the new spammers registering here: don't.

Spammers are not welcome or tolerated. You will not spam here and you will not advertise here. Save your time and go somewhere else. They won't like you either but maybe they will tolerate you. We don't.

 

[Wonderwoman]

PLEASE DISABLE LINKS

Dear A.F.I. members, a quick reminder:

Please disable each of the links in your posts using the functions
< > [ ]

Links can be hazardous and may contain malware, in addition we are not promoting or advertising anybody or anything.

Thank you very much for your valuable help to prevent scams and educate our readers.

Wonderwoman

 

[Gentle Giant]

Внимание спамеры:

Пожалуйста, не регистрируйтесь здесь и ожидать размещения спама. Это не произойдет.

 

[Garreg Ddu]

With the move of Antifraudintl.org to a xenFORO forum some changes have occured in the way in which email addresses and links are processed. The use of <> bracketing no longer prevents the link being active in the post. The global functions to disable parsing of links and suppress smilies do not exist in the post creation options. The method to prevent links and unwanted smilies is to bracket the post in BB code directives [plain]...text to be suppressed...[/plain]

Thus if the original text was:
scammer_email@scammer.hostingsite.com
http://scammer.hostingsite.com/

the use of the BB codes makes this:
scammer_email@scammer.hostingsite.com :D :p
http://scammer.hostingsite.com/

 

[De Master Yoda]

It has been noticed that a new member has contacted one of our lady members asking for personal details and information.

The safety of our members is paramount and we will take strong action against any who could endanger any member. Please never give out your personal details to any one if you do not know them personally.

If any one receives requests for personal information or any message that could be considered in any way inappropriate, please bring it to the attention of one of our Moderators or Admins.

If any lady members receive such messages they can report it to one of our lady mods or admins if they feel more comfortable with doing this. Any unwelcome attention to any member will not be tolerated. Thank you.

 

[Garreg Ddu]

The post at The Private Message system above should be updated to refer to "Conversations"

The Private Message system

It is what it says. It is a way for you to contact members in private. When you use it, we (admin) have no control over what is said in PM's.

It's a nice system but it can be abused. Abuse of the system will not be allowed. If you receive a PM which is not appreciated or is abusive, you can forward a copy to admin and we'll contact the person who sent you the email. Also, you can block PM's from members if you do not want them. If necessary we can block a member from sending PM's but we really hope that it would not ever get to that point.

You do not have to give out information to someone in a PM if you do not feel comfortable with it. Also, since scammers can sometimes join AFI, if they send you PM's, we can't control that unless it gets reported to us. We will to our best to immediately remove any scammer we find, but we may not catch them right away.

If you get any PM that is strange, questionable, unwanted, or offensive, Please, please hit the forward button and send it to admin and let us take care of it. That's our job.

Please enjoy your stay.

Should now read:
Conversations

It is what it says. It is a way for you to contact members in private. When you use it, we (admin) have no control over what is said in Conversations.

It's a nice system but it can be abused. Abuse of the system will not be allowed. If you receive a message which is not appreciated or is abusive, you can forward a copy to admin and we'll contact the person who sent you the email. Also, you can block all Conversations from members if you do not want them. If necessary we can block a member from sending Conversation Messages but we really hope that it would never get to that point.

You do not have to give out information to someone in a Conversation if you do not feel comfortable with it. Also, since scammers can sometimes join AFI, if they start Conversations with you, we can't control that unless it gets reported to us. We will do our best to remove immediately any scammer we find, but we may not catch them right away.

If you get any Conversation Message that is strange, questionable, unwanted, or offensive, Please, please hit the forward button and send it to admin and let us take care of it. That's our job.

Conversations are found by going to the link in the upper right of the screen, by your log-in name, where clicking on Inbox will take you to the Conversations menu.

Please note that Conversations may be used by registered members only. Spammers and other undesireables are banned from using Conversations.

Please enjoy your stay.

 

[Garreg Ddu]

Profile Posts

Profile posts are intended as a means for senior members and staff to communicate in a visible manner with members, where a private "Conversation" is not appropriate.

Due to some abuse of the system by other members access has been removed to Profile Posts for all except senior members and staff.

 

[Sphinx]

A reminder once again to spammers who seem to have the IQ of dirt: don't even waste your time posting spam here.

 

[De Master Yoda]

Dear guests and members. Please refrain from posting quotes by themselves without any further information.

We already have the original to look at. If you wish to quote and have a question or addition this is fine but just posting quotes only wastes bandwidth and our time to remove them.

If you just post a quote we do not know what your intention is.
Are you asking the question again?
Are you seeking more information?
Are you wanting to re confirm the information already in the original post? ETC.

We are happy to answer your questions or queries but with just a quote to work from we are unsure what you would like.

Thank you for your understanding.

 

[Sphinx]

Hey Russian spammers: Нет!