Purestorm read your e-mails!

[31charlie]

You only need to search this forum for "Purestorm" to see what we all think of this appallingly run website, however I now have proof that they read people's e-mails!
I got suspended in December for offering handjob shoots to models who had "adult" ticked - yeah, I know, ridiculous huh? But that's not the point.
I waited two weeks and just signed up again using completely fake information which had nothing to do with me or my previous profile. I also used a different computer in a different part of the country so therefore a different IP address (I had to sign up again because I had to contact three models on there who had e-mailed me saying they wanted work, and I had shoots to offer them).
So basically I had a totally separate and unrelated profile to my previous one. I then sent messages to these three models and within 20 minutes I had been suspended with the message "Banned user with previous suspension in force".
Now considering NOTHING on my profile could link this new profile with the old one, the ONLY way they could know they were from the same person is if they had actually read the e-mails I sent the models.
Whether this is illegal is a grey area but it is certainly unethical!
So beware all you users of Purestorm (if there are some left!), whatever you send and receive using their messaging system is being read by other people not just the intended recipient!

[Twingo]

[quote]Now considering NOTHING on my profile could link this new profile with the old one, the ONLY way they could know they were from the same person is if they had actually read the e-mails I sent the models[/quote]

Your post says emails, but is actually referring to private messages, which are two completely different things. The only way they can read your emails is if you hand out the details, they guess them or they get them by some other means. By signing up to a forum/website doesn't give anybody the opportunity to read your emails, purestorm or otherwise.

[quote]So beware all you users of Purestorm (if there are some left!), whatever you send and receive using their messaging system is being read by other people not just the intended recipient![/quote]

People should be aware that any forum they join, the admins can read any private message and can get access to any passwords you use on the site. Most do not, but all can. Thats why people should NEVER sign up to a forum using a password they use elsewhere, especially there email address password.

P.S im nothing to do with purestorm, just wanted to point out the above details .

[31charlie]

Quote: "Your post says emails, but is actually referring to private messages, which are two completely different things."

OK, let's not nit-pick here. Yes, I meant private messages but that's the only way you can communicate on Purestorm - using their own private messaging system! So yes, if we are being picky then what I meant was:-

"Purestorm read your private messages!" Happy now? !happy!

And your comment about passwords is irrelevant to this thread as I said nothing about passwords.

My point was that the Purestorm moderators are reading the private messages. You say that on any forum the moderators can read people's private messages but what you are missing is the fact that the ONLY way to communicate with models on Purestorm is using the private messaging system - they even remove e-mail addresses if you put them in your profile. So in effect they are forcing people to use their own system and then sitting back and reading the messages - pretty unethical practice if you ask me.

[croftycc]

Charlie- is your post a joke?

Purestorm's policy, which they make quite clear, is that boy girl adult work is not allowed to be booked through their site.

As such by " I got suspended in December for offering handjob shoots to models "

You have broken ther rules.

Secondly, making an alternative profile after you have been suspended in order to continue to persue boy-girl adult work is also breaking their rules.

I honestly don't understand your attitude here- Purestorm is a private site, with rules.


Why this high-and-mighty attidue that THEY are unethical, when it is you who is in the wrong?

[Twingo]

I wasn't trying to be an ass about it even if i came across like that. I was trying to point out that it wasn't emails so that others were aware, as the title of your post "purestorm read you emails" comes across as though they can read your emails which is entirely false/very misleading and probably quite worrying for several people who may be signed up over there.

[joe king]

How is having another profile 'unethical'?

[Cenobitez]

Thats not actually correct unless its modded or custom software most forums that run PHPBB or SMF never actually store the password they store an MD5 Hash or SHA-1 Hash of the password and store that, so unless your silly and use a dictionary word or hack the hell out of the forum software code your password is reletively safe.

Reading Private messages is again something that most software by default doesnt do, there are some modifications around that allow admins to and they are not too hard to write either.

Ofcourse an admin could just login to phpmyadmin and look at the private messages.

I'd say as Purestorm is custom wrote software they could quite easily see the real passwords and private messages.

I however suspect that they have some smart regex running, because purestorm must have 10000s of messages sent daily, so reading them isnt likely.

Odds are they have a 'banbot' running which searches the private messages table in the database for 'banned' attributes, these would be IP, Username, Emails, Phone Numbers, Websites etc, that a banned user has posted, meaning everytime one is mentioned the bot either auto suspends or flags it.

Twingo wrote:
>
> People should be aware that any forum they join, the admins can
> read any private message and can get access to any passwords
> you use on the site. Most do not, but all can. Thats why
> people should NEVER sign up to a forum using a password they
> use elsewhere, especially there email address password.

[Twingo]

[quote]Thats not actually correct unless its modded or custom software most forums that run PHPBB or SMF never actually store the password they store an MD5 Hash or SHA-1 Hash of the password and store that, so unless your silly and use a dictionary word or hack the hell out of the forum software code your password is reletively safe. [/quote]

The problem is the with both phpbb and VB (havent tried SMF) you can add a single line to the login php page so that the passwords get dumped in plaintext before they are checked against the md5 hash. The md5hash is really only there to protect the user if the serverDB is compromised or if the admin is trying to fish them by looking at the sql backups. Extremely trivial for anybody who has setup a forum.

For private messages, as you already mentioned you can simply read the backup files (sql dump) that phpbb makes in a text reader, at the very least

[croftycc]

Having another profile in itself isn't exactly "unethical" (I never said it was).

However, making a new profile under a different name in order to get round a suspension (directly breaking the sites rules), in order to continue to use the site agaist the sites rules is a bit unethical, I would say.

[joe king]

Do you think the breaking of rules is 'unethical'?