Forum Spam - why?

[2ndGearRubber]

I'm sure others have noticed, a few spam threads lately. What's the purpose?


I fully understand people spamming "+1" or random non-sequitur comments to up post count. Gain classified access, extra subforums, whatever. I understand search time limits, to prevent someone spamming the search function and bringing the site down. Why? Not a clue; malicious for a laugh? But I understand the need for search query time limits.




What I'm curious about is the random characters, "GeT nEw IpHoNe NoW LiNK", that sort of thing. There can't be any money in doing it, the number of times the link gets clicked has to be basically zero. Nobody is reading the gibberish, it's indecipherable anyways. And why would anyone solicit such services? I suppose even the Nigerian Prince scam gets a person now and then? Who would even want to advertise on forum posts?

What's the angle here?

 

[CJM8515]

they spam in hopes someone is doubt enough to go to their links.

 

[kukko]

What's the purpose?

Who would even want to advertise on forum posts?

What's the angle here?

seriously? is this your first day on the internet?

 

[2ndGearRubber]

seriously? is this your first day on the internet?

Nope, just curious about the business model.

I just reported a post of

"@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@"

Lines and lines of it.



So, who is paying to have that done, and why?

 

[bgarrett]

seriously? is this your first day on the internet?

I am curious as to why they do it too and I have been on the internet for 20 years

 

[kukko]

see post #2, and substitute "dumb" for "doubt". sums it up succintly.
y'all need to get out more (on the internet).

 

[FlaGman]

I have wondered whether the spam was a type of blackmail against the site administration. “Pay me one Bitcoin or I will @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ you!”

 

[2ndGearRubber]

I am curious as to why they do it too and I have been on the internet for 20 years

see post #2, and substitute "dumb" for "doubt". sums it up succintly.
y'all need to get out more (on the internet).

\



I understand the concept of posting links with malicious software. Why post it in such a dumb way then?

Wouldn't - HF coupon code for 20% off US general boxes {LINK} - be better bait?



I understand conceptually, the point of spam. My actual question is - why is it done so poorly, and with no effort? It's almost like the poster WANTS the offending posts removed. If I wanted to spread malware, why would I hire @@@@@@@@@@ guy? I'm sure he's cheap, but I also have to imagine my money would be better spent on a "better" spam technique.

 

[kukko]

How about a forum refresher for everyone: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252382

This holds true for any other forum as well.

 

[MikeF2316]

I often try to figure out their business model too. A lot of the things they do just don't make sense to me. But I usually give up after a few seconds, then do something productive, like reading the Thread of Awesome!

 

[Outlander]

robot spammers are not quite as clever as you give them credit for.....

 

[d.mcfarland]

It gets really bad overnight I noticed.

 

[Stuart in MN]

The person or bot who posted was apparently from Russia, so it may have been Cyrillic characters that didn't translate correctly.

 

[HOTFR8]

All spam in some way is to take your money in any way they can. Report it and move on. Never click on the links and never post a reply to anything posted or use any contacts in any of the posts.

Kukko posted the link every one should read to help the forum run clean with out Spam.

Also I have not been so active over the last week and not being in my own time zone I have not been seeing the Asian based spammers joining.

 

[dadsEH]

Why cant we just block korea from joining .?

 

[HOTFR8]

Why cant we just block korea from joining .?

It is not just Korea. Much of the SPAM also comes from Indonesia, Vietnam and India. Some also comes from the USA and Europe. Blocking one area may also take out many of our active members.

Another example would be say traveling to Bali (Indonesia) then you could not post from that location. The new format when Ryan has it ready will allow members to report a post and once it has been reported twice it is soft deleted and not seen as a post then a Mod or Admin can remove it.

 

[mmsalvage]

Same reason they send out 10000s of emails, just hoping that .000001% of the people click on the link and then buy something or infect their PC to be part of a botnet.

 

[rlitman]

they spam in hopes someone is doubt enough to go to their links.

Not exactly. They post on forums, because forums such as this get spidered by large search engines. So, the link they post here will show up in google searches. And more importantly, since it was linked on a highly active site (such as this forum), that pushes the link's score up on the search engines, giving the site they are spamming more prominence in the search results.

I don't think most care if you click the link here or not. The simple presence of a link on this site gives that linked site a level of authority it didn't have before.

 

[dadsEH]

Soooo...my next question is :
Apart from the dude that posted about 25 posts today...

How many Korean members do we have???

 

[HOTFR8]

Soooo...my next question is :
Apart from the dude that posted about 25 posts today...

How many Korean members do we have???

We have members in Singapore so we could not ban an area in such a way and I understand what you are saying but it is not easy. Many forums have Australia blocked so work on that

 

[Chaznsc]

It wouldnt matter (much) to block a continent, they would just climb or burrow under that fence. And the WHY is simple. If they send out a million emails, and just 1 percent fall for it, well, do the math. It costs nothing to send the message so the overhead is low.

 

[Daedalus]

I understand we can't ban regions and, with VPN usage, also know that it would be ineffective anyway.

But...can GJ not delete accounts that post certain characters? Say someone with less than 5 posts puts "임" in their title (or ".com" for that matter); is it not possible to customize vbulletin to delete this account immediately? We have spam filters for email...why not forum posts too?

 

[mailpup]

We have spam filters for email...why not forum posts too?

They likely do have spam filters. You just don't see them because...they're filtered. A moderator or admin usually has to look at it for a final determination that it is indeed spam. The spam filters are not perfect and sometimes legit posts get filtered. Yet some spam does slip through.

I happen to be a moderator on another website's forums and I can tell you spammers are relentless. You probably only see a small percentage of what spammers post.

 

[Daedalus]

Again, why not automate it? No legit post will have Korean characters in it. Most won't have .com in them. Humans can always review later and reinstate if legit.

 

[ckeene]

Money

 

[Lassen Forge]

A lot of the spamers are automated context-matching software, no person required... there are even programs to get around the "Captcha" stuff...

I was an admin on a couple sites for years, but it took SO much of my time I finally had to step away, because it made the lists no longer any fun. But yeah, they can do a lot of stuff from blocking individuals to entire IP address families, Block certain languages / character sets (like Korean), but they're all add ons to the software (IF they're running the forum software that has those blockers), and they cost.

But the bottom line is time... no one is going to babysit a list 24/7, and the spammers know it.

Add to this a spammer can dump 10-30 posts on a list in a minute when they're "Active", and most lists will only let a civillian (like us) report one spammer every 60 seconds. That makes it rough, when you're following a spammer and you can't get enough reports in to give a feel to shut them down.

 

[HOTFR8]

That makes it rough, when you're following a spammer and you can't get enough reports in to give a feel to shut them down.

1, Report all spammers. If the spammer has multiple posts just report the one post and state multiple spam posts by this spammer in your report message. (otherwise you will be forever sending reports).