23 replies to this topic

[ChasUK]

OK, so we all have noticed the spammers starting all sorts of weird and wonderful threads and posts, many of which are Russian. I had noticed something that they all shared in common and after investigating I discovered that they are bots, not people. i.e. software is registering the users and then generating the posts.

If you see a thread or post which might be a spam bot you can confirm by clicking their username and looking at their profile. If you see the number "143040" anywhere in their profile or contact details it is a spam bot at work.
CLICK THE REPORT BUTTON BY ANY POST YOU SEE MADE BY A USER WHO HAS THIS NUMBER IN THEIR PROFILE.

DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS IN THEIR POSTS. Just by clicking on the links earns them money. In a few cases the links are malicious and lead to sites with trojans and other viruses but most are simply revenue earners.

So just click the report button and we will remove the spam and ban the account. Now I know that they are spam bots I am also banning the I.P. addresses too.

Death to Spam.

[SirFuntik]

Subject threatened to be interesting , perhaps the stock of popcorn

Edited by ChasUK, 10 February 2012 - 03:50 PM.
Spam link removed sucka! bye!

[jwhouk]

Oh, you have GOT to be kidding.

[ChasUK]

Yeah, I had to laugh!

[ChasUK]

Well I made an alteration to the registration process. Let's see if that stops the bots at least. It now requires new registrations to reply to an email and also to answer a simple question. Let's see the bots get round that! Of course if it's a carbon based spammer they could still reply and answer to get in but hopefully it's too much trouble now.

[ChasUK]

Seems I beat them. By adding some simple questions to the registration, (who is the captain, what is head coach Barry's last name or what is the main colour of the home jerseys), we haven't had any spam bots in 5 days.

[worstfaceoffmanever]

[ChasUK]

Lovely Spam, wonderful spaaaam1

[admiral18z32]

I think your bots must have been studying Preds history. They're back.

[101st_fan]

Viagra spam for the upcoming influx of Wings fans. Appropriate.

[jwhouk]

You have to wonder if it's drones or "Make money from home!" people.

[ChasUK]

I think you're right Houkster. They must be affiliates on a pay per click scheme.

[jones-36]

I'm turning on the Admin validation for the time being. That should slow this down.

[jwhouk]

Part of me wonders if this is actually a sign of low-traffic message boards. A spammer looks (or has his software look) for the Alexa rating of a certain website with a forum, tests the registration method, and sees how long a thread is up before it gets locked/banned/whatevered.

[jwhouk]

Oh my goodness, there's been like about FIVE spam threads started! WTH is going on?

[jones-36]

the report button works....

[jwhouk]

I... I was scared to click on them.

 

Seriously.

[jones-36]

We are trying to wax the new accounts before they start, aside from having to manually approve new members the registration requirements are as high as can be.

[ChasUK]

Crazy thing is, I set the registrations to require admin authorisation, but they just go through normal validation. Still, as Jonesy says, the new board had a great function where we can view new registrations in the last 24 hours, we can simply go down the list and flag the obvious spammers before they even post. We have got loads that way.

[Dodgie]

       Keep up the good work. We appreciate it.