Spamming the forums

[nerfherder]

Heya. Looks like some new logins from India or thereabouts are hardcore spamming the forums, one by one. Are the moderators on the case? I realize it's late on the east coast...

 

[donna723]

I reported them last night but it was very late - maybe nobody has seen them yet.

 

[busywend]

I think DammitJanet & I got them all now. Let us know if there are more. Thanks for your help!

 

[runawaybunny]

Sorry about that. Those spammers were really busy but the mods had cleaned up most of it by the time I got here.

A few of those spam topics made me smile. Who isn't looking for a Desired Love Specialist or some Blackmagic?

 

[donna723]

Yeah, I was kind of looking forward to using some of that online black magic on a few people I know ...

 

[nerfherder]

Yeah, I was kind of looking forward to using some of that online black magic on a few people I know ...

It rarely works on-line - you need to be "line-of-sight" to get that kind of thing to work. And I think a phone bank in Mumbai or New Delhi is just too far away, kthxgbye.

 

[Lothlorien]

Looks like I missed all the "fun" . I'm glad the other mods were on top of things!

Sent using ConductDisorders mobile app

 

[nerfherder]

Looks like it's started up again.

 

[runawaybunny]

Yep... guess we're going to have to tighten up new accounts permission to post.

 

[SuZir]

Those same type of spams have been very active lately in several forums I visit. Seem to be aimed more to Indian market, but they also spam international and other forums. Even one of our local forums (not in English, certainly out of the target audience) has had a problem with these during last week.

 

[donna723]

Don't new people have to be "approved" by admins before they are able to access the pages and post? Or do they just keep coming up with new names?

 

[runawaybunny]

Don't new people have to be "approved" by admins before they are able to access the pages and post? Or do they just keep coming up with new names?

It's all automated. New members can't post links and certain spammy words force their post into the mod queue so that the post that contains the word has to be approved by a mod before it displays on the public forum, but they can post right away.

I guess blackmagic isn't on the spammy word list.

 

[nerfherder]

Looking at the shoutbox, looks like they're at it again. Maybe time to lock down new members? Sucks, but I don't know what else to suggest. Track down their ISP and block that?

 

[donna723]

Right now the entire first page of the General forum is nothing but this stuff!

 

[BusynMember]

I put the spammer on ignore and at least I couldn't see all the postings.

This happens on all forums. It's a pain. Poor mods. Seriously.

 

[cubsgirl]

Yeah- they really spammed it this time - thankful to mods who got the forums back to normal!

 

[DammitJanet]

I was trying to delete as fast as I could but darn...that guy was busy!

 

[donna723]

Is this some kind of "automated" spammer? Yesterday I saw some exactly like these only on Facebook. They were tacked on as random comments on posts from various popular TV shows.

 

[SuZir]

Is this some kind of "automated" spammer?

I'm quite sure this one is a robot. Most are and these are very random spams, and the same spams have been around a lot lately.

More targeted, human written spamming is little different. There is much less of it, target audience is correct (not many of us in this board are likely target audience for these spams) and it is done much, much subtler way.

 

[DammitJanet]

It probably was a bot but we do get our fair share of human spam here too. I have no idea why grown people have so little to do that they find it amusing to spam.