The spreadsheet only seems to indicate what is available for 'albums' which does not answer my question.

Mark,

Also, I don't know how the companies' helpdesks are getting signed up:
All the lists require a confirmation email so whoever signs them up
has to somehow have access to the confirmation email.

Not necessarily.

If all that is required is a reply to the confirmation email that could happen automatically as part of the helpdesk's response to any new case.

The trick, if this is done by a malcontent/prankster, is to forge the helpdesk's address as the From address in a subscribe request to the list. Such forgery used to be quite easy with most ISP email accounts, though many have tightened up on this in the last decade or so.

It could be done by a random-address spambot if the list has a separate email address for subscription (like the +subscribe address of a Groups.io group). If the spambot has both the helpdesk address and the list subscribe address in its collection then it is only a matter of time before it sends a spam (virus, phishing, malware, etc.) message To: the list's subscribe address From: the helpdesk address.

In the latter case there is no intent other than the wide distribution of the initial junk email message. The rest is just automatons beating on each other. The primary fault is that (apparently) neither the list software nor the helpdesk software did sufficient authentication of the incoming messages.

A decade and a half ago this problem nearly made Yahoo Groups unusable before Yahoo implemented the minimal amount of authentication needed (reverse DNS) to reject incoming messages from spambots.

But these days it wouldn't surprise me to find if that were no longer sufficient: a lot of spammers are using compromised email accounts at legit services to send spam. Usually they can't forge the From address in that case, but maybe there are some lax services out there that don't restrict that ability.

Shal


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开云体育

Only one of the six responded by forwarding a message, which showed a different AOL.com email address as the intended recipient. I looked up that email address in our membership records. There appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary in that member’s subscription. No bounces, and the last message sent out to the group was shown to have been received without problem. So ?I wrote to that member and asked whether they were receiving the group’s messages normally (they’re subscribed to single messages) and let them know that a non-member had received at least one of their emails. I’d like to find out whether the non-member received a duplicate or whether the actual subscriber is missing any emails. That list member has not written back.

There is a certain (limited) similarity between what you are experiencing and what has been happening on some public mail lists (mostly Mailman based I think) over the last year or so. Here is what happens:

(1) Somehow, I do not know how, a legitimate company's customer service email address is signed up to the mail list. In all cases that I have seen, the company is using some sort of CRM/helpdesk software (possibly outsourced, but I'm not sure).

(2) They start receiving messages from the mail list. This automatically generates response emails that are then sent either back to the mail list or to the individual message sender (depending on the mail list settings).

(3) In all cases where I have been bothered to engage, the customer service staff seem clueless. I have never received an intelligent reply and requests to pass it on to their IT people seem to fall on deaf ears. And yet I have been able to establish in all cases where I've looked that the companies are real, legitimate companies.

(4) They either (eventually) learn to read the footers and unsubscribe their email address from the list or the list admin eventually unsubscribes them (a lot of mail lists don't have very attentive admins).

In my experience this has happened over a number of unrelated technical mail lists with a variety of companies' customer service desks (from wholesale flower sellers to travel companies, in my experience).

I am at a loss to know what is going on. It looks like someone trying to carry out a rather feeble DoS attack against either the mail list or the company. Perhaps the companies are getting signed up to thousands of mail lists. I don't know.

Also, I don't know how the companies' helpdesks are getting signed up: All the lists require a confirmation email so whoever signs them up has to somehow have access to the confirmation email.

Although Mailman is far from perfect, I do not know of any vulnerabilities in it that would let a non-admin user sign up a third party to a mail list unless they had access to the third party's incoming email.

So how does this compare with what is happening to you? It seems to me that there is a similarity in that someone, somewhere is redirecting emails to others without their permission. It's technically different and yet perhaps motives are similar (not that I know what such motives really are).

-- 
Mark Rousell

>?I know that photo and file albums do not exist anymore.
Stan

Albums, Photos, Attachments, Files.and more, all exist and arenalive and well, in IO...

BillSF9c

Deb,

Is there a way that one subgroup can send a message to another
subgroup"

Since all subgroup members are perforce members of the primary group, in the target subgroup's Settings page, on the Messages Policies panel, you can check the "Allow Parent Members to Post" box.

That won't restrict messages based on the subgroup(s) of the sending member, but may do what you need.

Shal


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Peggy,

So I write back to each one ... and explain that their email address
is not signed up to get our messages, and ask them to forward to me
any messages they’ve received from my group, so I can see the email
address of the actual subscriber.

Good move!

Only one of the six responded by forwarding a message, which showed a
different AOL.com email address as the intended recipient. ... So I
wrote to that member and asked whether they were receiving the group’s
messages normally (they’re subscribed to single messages) and let them
know that a non-member had received at least one of their emails. ...
That list member has not written back.

I'd be inclined to set the member to No Email (or Special Notices Only) until you arrive at a resolution.

My reason is to stop the delivery to the wrong address, however it is happening. I would not want that person to be marking the group's messages as spam, or taking other actions out of frustration.

I should add, my group has over 15,232 members, and it’s time-
consuming to have to deal with this problem. I would like to get to
the bottom of it, so I'm not dealing with this every morning.

In a group that size I might just leave it at that, and wait for the member to contact me about what happened. Maybe calendar a note to myself to check on the member's settings in a week and see if he/she has set it back.

If you get answers from any the other five implicating the same member, or the first one gets additional messages and the member has turned their delivery back on, I might conclude the misdirection of messages was willful and take the further step of banning the member. At that point you and the member have to reach an understanding about what happened and how to prevent it.

In other groups I might try following up with the member a few times before giving up. That would be a judgement call based on how much support effort I want to give in that group.

Is this a glitch in the Groups.io system, or is it an AOL anomaly – or
some combination of both?

I don't know, but either of those seem like a long shot. Delivery to the wrong Inbox would be a major failure for an email system.

I'm inclined to agree with Duane that the problem likely has to do with some action by the member, or by someone with access to the member's email account.

Shal


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Peggy,

I ran into something odd a few months back that is 'similar'.? Found out that one of the people posting to the thread liked to CC more people in on the discussion? who were OUTSIDE the group.?

Thus, when they sent out a reply or started a new thread, the CCs got pulled in via the person's email program.

main@(yourgroupname).groups.io, fred@..., nancy@..., sally@..., etc

With the number of members you have, it's possible to have an oddity like this happen.

Also, emails can be setup as email-reflectors.? One email address subscribes to your-group.? Any message to that email is reflected and forward to many more NOT in the group.? This is called email forwarding, aka email reflector.?

In either case, there is limited ability to correct this.? The non-member people can block your messages, but really they are blocking the email-reflector.?
Finding in your huge email member listing the email-reflector is a big chore.? BUT, when you get a few of those people to send you their email 'header' info, you nailed the email reflector!

I will not post here email forwarding nor email reflectors here because it can cause further damage to GroupsIO here.? Best to talk about it and not demonstrate it's evil intent.? Yes, there are good ways to use it for business, not for here.

BMaverick

On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 07:25 PM, Debra Claffey wrote:

We're using subgroups for our committees, so they can each have their own messaging without bothering the main group. Is there a way that one subgroup can send a message to another subgroup"

Not that I know of. However, subgroup members are all members of the main group as well. You could use the main group for that.

Frances
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We're using subgroups for our committees, so they can each have their own messaging without bothering the main group. Is there a way that one subgroup can send a message to another subgroup"

Thanks,
Deb Claffey
New England Wax

I've been having the same issue for the last month, generally one of the Yahoo mail portals, not exclusively aol.com.
One was @simpatico.com
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www.shastasprings.com

There is a file created by a moderator on this forum.
/g/GroupManagersForum/files/Groups.io%20features%20%28includes%20legacy%20stuff%29.pdf

And of course, there is the official page -?
/static/pricing

Frances
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On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 02:06 PM, Bernardino wrote:

I don't get the administration option. If you wish, you can subscribe yourself to my group [email protected], and see directly how the configuration is, and what I must correct.

Bernadino -- It sounds as if you are not logged in with the same email address that created the group. Or perhaps you are not logged in at all?

If logged in correctly, there will be a blue "owner" badge at upper left (next to the Home button).

See?/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/8512?for additional details (third section).

Regards,
Bruce

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Check out the groups.io Help Center?and?groups.io Owners Manual

I need to create a group for a small group of automobile enthusiasts. I could not find a good description of the features in the Groups.io web site for the free 1G group. I know there have been changes made since I created my group in 2018. Since the free group has 1G of space, I assume this means photos and files can still be attached to a post/email message. I know that photo and file albums do not exist anymore.
Stan

Hi Cindy

Admin > Settings > Message Policies > Reply To (select option)

Scroll to bottom and select Update Group


Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK)

Cynthia,

To change the default to reply-to-sender, go to admin > settings > message policies, and change "Reply To" to sender.

:Pete

On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 10:01 AM, Cleveland Park Editor wrote:

Does anyone have any clue what’s going on? Is this a glitch in the Groups.io system, or is it an AOL anomaly – or some combination of both?

It sounds to me like the address that's subscribed is now being used for a spammer (most likely, IMO) or is forwarding the messages to others.

Duane
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