Forum Topic

Scam website: warning

An outfit called “nextdoor.co.uk” is trying to get people in Ealing to sign up and is sending letters directly to residents to drum up business. I got one of these letters yesterday morning. It appears to be signed by a neighbour – their name and the name of the street appear at the bottom of the letter. So I had a word with my neighbour. He said he had signed up to the website - but he had no idea that his name was being printed on hundreds of promotional letters being sent out to residents and was appalled when I showed him.Reports from other London boroughs suggest that nextdoor.co.uk is not what it seems and there are concerns about what is being done with the data they’re getting hold of.Beware, beware, beware.

David Marshall ● 2457d14 Comments

Nextdoor which is an American company bought Streetlife which was British. The users were transferred over but many abandoned it because the privacy rules were very different. Nextdoor loses quite large amount of money but many feel their business model is to get to a size which means Facebook has to buy them out. I would steer clear of both personally.

Mark Evans ● 2434d

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the entire Internet is dangerous but I take basic precautions. I don't use Uber as I can't see any difference between using it and accepting a lift from a stranger. Ditto Airbnb: would you arrive in a foreign city and accept a bed for the night from a stranger?Maybe I'm over-cautious!

Susan Kelly ● 2436d

I think this used to be called something else but was the bought up and started asking for a lot more info from you - so I declined to move on with it - which was a shame because it was a good website although there were too many messages to keep up with.

Philippa Bond ● 2437d

Although you are supposed to use real names it apparently is relatively easy to use a fake one on NextDoor just as it is with Facebook. It is almost impossible for them to stop this happening. It is quite controversial in the States as it is blamed for increasing ethnic tension and fear of crime. It probably bears some responsibility for the elevated level of anxiety about crime in the area - I don't use it but people who do tell me most of the posts are on this subject. However EalingToday.co.uk and Facebook are probably also a factor here and, as crime actually is increasing, blaming them and NextDoor would be shooting the messenger.

Andy Jones ● 2438d

Maybe what works with Americans just annoys us British!!

Peter Chadburn ● 2452d

Nextdoor has been a huge success in the US. Nextdoor describes itself as a private social network, but one where people give their real names and addresses. No hiding behind an alias.

Fred Hunt ● 2452d

Obviously nextdoor have got something very wrong and as a result may just fade and die.

Peter Chadburn ● 2452d

Below is the Spamhaus link to their block list. Spamhaus is used by just about every internet provider on the planet. They are the world's top company in the war against spammers.https://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/Spamming is illegal. Below is the Information Commissioner link to report any illicit spam. If they are an EU based pillock outfit they have the power to squash them, The link quotes the law and contains the link to report them, and the steps you have to take before you report them.https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/online/spam-emails.Pesonally, i mailbomb spammers 300,000 emails a minute.

Dennis Bailey ● 2452d

Don't think Nextdoor is a scam per se but when I signed per se but when I signed up I did get complaints from friends about a number of emails which purportedly came from me but I never sent. I was also getting far too many emails from them which were never that interesting or relevant so I closed my account.

Tricia Arbuthnot ● 2452d

The entire internet is unsafe. Thanks to Snowdon doing his Wikileaks thing it was discovered that ALL internet based companies are required to allow the USA's Homeland Security to slot their own monitoring equipment into the companpany setup to record everything.Windows 10 tags every bit of everyone's internet traffic with a unique identifier. Win 10 incorporates Key and audio loggers that passes telemetry over to places like reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com,telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com,telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.NSAtc.netoca.telemetry.microsoft.com,oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net.The latest Windows has over 40 components that transmits your activities over the Atlantic.All the big names are at it, every single one. The Google toolbar, Chrome, They all tag your internet activities with a unique identifier to monitor your activities.Recently there was this generation's version of the Cuban missile crisis. The USA's bigwig at the UN used the phrase that their military were "locked and Loaded" live on TV. This was down down to social networks, or rather foreign government use of over a billion bots registered with them.https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/twitter-says-it-removed-troll-accounts-tied-russia-iran-venezuela-n965491

Dennis Bailey ● 2455d

Very True Tony. Allowing strangers into your life on Facebook is like leaving the front door open at night whilst we sleep with a neon sign saying rob me.

Peter Chadburn ● 2455d

>>Dennis wrote>> They are clean.In the wider picture, no social network is 'clean'.  They all operate in a viral fashion, and for each of them their objective is singular, namely pecuniary advantage for the operator.

Tony Heath ● 2455d

nextdoor.co.uk was first registered in 1999. At the moment they are using four servers protected by two security companies, one Dutch, one French. The registrar who listed them was an outfit called Gandi.net and they registered nextdoor.co.uk on 10-Feb-1999, and the domain expires on 10-Feb-2020. There are no ISP registered black marks against nextdoor.co.uk, and they come up clean against the usual ISP block lists. The are clean, not very good at what they do, but they are clean.

Dennis Bailey ● 2456d

It would appear to be an attempt at a social network based on communities. However the management of it according to reviews has led to problems with some local people. Some people have found it useful but others have had some very unpleasant experiences with it which is common for social networks. So whilst it would appear to be legitimate there are a lot of negative experiences with it. So it looks like it does not always work as intended. Sounds like it is not very effective.

Peter Chadburn ● 2457d