Spammers

[TazKristi]

Hi, everyone:
The spammers and spambots seem to be out in force these days (I removed over 60 accounts yesterday). We've made a few tweaks to the board and instituted a new "gate" for new registrations to go through. Hopefully, our efforts will make a difference. The spammers and spambots have become very sophisticated and definitely try to stay one step ahead of the technology at our disposal, but we are and will continue to do all that we can to keep our community free from the scourge of the digital world.

If you spot a spammy post or even a questionable post please use the Report Post feature on the forum. If you aren't familiar it's in the row of buttons that appear above every post - specifically the ! button (desktop version). If you are on a mobile device there is a button with lines in the top right corner of every post - tap that and Report Post is the 3rd option on the list.

Please avoid posting replies to obvious spam or quoting it as that just adds to what we have to clean up.

We'll continue to monitor and adjust as needed to keep our community free of spam. Thank you!

Kristi

[SG89]

Thanks for all your hard work!

[swigert]

Thanks for working so hard Kristi. Appreciate you all.

[Evil D]

I'm on all throughout most days. I'll flag all I see.

[DutchBlades]

I've reported all the spambots I see when they pop up, but I'm sure there's a whole lot more to come...
I don't know what prevention our forum uses nowadays, but a there are some ways that seems to work for a lot of forums.
- Account verification via email after registration
- Captcha's before being able to activate the account/posting
- Custom verification questions that require intelligence (like asking "What's bigger? A pea or an elephant?"

A lot of bots have timeouts when they don't have the ability to post soon enough. So perhaps a white listing of a week or something, or making sure that users read at least 15 threads before starting a thread is possible on their account?
And I was wondering if we use some sort of max number of accounts per external IP?
A lot of the times companies use one or two computers to place this &€!*$ on forums. They'll use a ton of virtual machines running on a single client, but they all come knocking at the door of the forums with the same public IP.

I'm sure you're doing all you can and you're doing one **** of a good job seeing how quickly the spambots are removed, threads deleted, etc.
If there's anything that comes to mind or something I come across on different sites that might come in handy, I'll be sure to drop a reply here :)
Thanks for all the hard work thus far!

[defenestrate]

Of course, Kristi. Will watch out and report as always.

[Water Bug]

Thank you, Kristi and Spyderco, for all you do!

[Dr. Snubnose]

Good information Kristi: "Please avoid posting replies to obvious spam or quoting it as that just adds to what we have to clean up. " I never realized that, bot it makes sense...Thanks...Doc:)

[palonej]

Tons of fake accounts popping up on Blade Forums also.
Ugh
Appreciate all you do Kristi!!
Joe

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Thank you for your work on this, Taz Kristi, and along with others I do not respond to the spammers anymore, either. Thank you.

My question is this: What do the spammers get out of wasting their efforts like this? Do they realize that they will be deleted and people will ignore them, or do the people behind the bots think someone is going to go to their site and buy what they offer or whatever?

[TazKristi]

Thank you for your work on this, Taz Kristi, and along with others I do not respond to the spammers anymore, either. Thank you.

My question is this: What do the spammers get out of wasting their efforts like this? Do they realize that they will be deleted and people will ignore them, or do the people behind the bots think someone is going to go to their site and buy what they offer or whatever?

You have to realize that a high percentage of spam is posted by bots. There is a person behind the development of these bots, but no emotion or rational thought. Many times links shared are to "retail" sites, but the real goal is malware and hijacking someone's computer/device. Much more nefarious than simply selling something.

Clearly, our last tweaking of the forum didn't close the door on spam. I honestly don't think that is even a reachable goal, but we'll continue to do all that we can to mitigate risk and clean up their messes as quickly as we can. The developers who create spam bots, malware, etc. aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Neither are we though.

Kristi

[anagarika]

Kristi,

The bad guys are going to stay and so do we. Keep up fighting!
:cool:

[Ankerson]

:eek: WOW, we got flooded today. :eek:

[Knutty]

I've long wished I could flip a switch and instantly wipe all spammers off the face of existence. Then, bring them back, punch them in the face a few times, and eradicate them all over again.

I used to be a mod on a totally unrelated forum some time ago. It did not take long at all for me to be utterly disgusted with the whole enterprise and to lose all interest. It's not just spambots; these scumbags have an army of low-paid humans whose job it is to manually sign up for forum accounts, and then post whatever garbage they're supposed to post. Oh of course they also send their spam private messages (which is the reason I never keep PM enabled on a forum--thanks, scumbags).

But this is why all the Captcha crap in the world won't cut it. Bottom line is there are apparently enough idiots who buy into whatever spammers are selling, which boggles my mind.

[bearfacedkiller]

Hmmm... I have never received a PM from a spammer? I really hope that doesn't start happening to me! That sucks...

[jabba359]

Dang, the spammers are out today. Two new accounts spamming the boards. :mad:

[TazKristi]

Dang, the spammers are out today. Two new accounts spamming the boards. :mad:

There were actually about 8... not all had posted yet. They're all gone now.

[The Deacon]

Dang, the spammers are out today. Two new accounts spamming the boards. :mad:

There were actually about 8... not all had posted yet. They're all gone now.

And, unfortunately, it looks like you'll be playing whack-a-mole yet again this morning. :mad:

I've long wished I could flip a switch and instantly wipe all spammers off the face of existence. Then, bring them back, punch them in the face a few times, and eradicate them all over again.

I used to be a mod on a totally unrelated forum some time ago. It did not take long at all for me to be utterly disgusted with the whole enterprise and to lose all interest. It's not just spambots; these scumbags have an army of low-paid humans whose job it is to manually sign up for forum accounts, and then post whatever garbage they're supposed to post. Oh of course they also send their spam private messages (which is the reason I never keep PM enabled on a forum--thanks, scumbags).

But this is why all the Captcha crap in the world won't cut it. Bottom line is there are apparently enough idiots who buy into whatever spammers are selling, which boggles my mind.

FWIW, in the 13+ years I've been using this forum I've never received a spam PM. A few obscene ones from folks who took exception to my views on certain subjects and/or my (often very dark) humor. I've also gotten a few from folks wanting to sell me something, but that something was always a Spyderco something.

[PayneTrain]

Holy cow. It was like the forum just threw up all over itself just now. It actually made me jump back a bit from the screen. Real winners out there. What do you think their mothers would say about their career choice? Or their grandmothers? Hopefully there's someone in their lineage who would slap these people in their heads for how they choose to lead their lives.

[holeshot]

Taz, you rock!!