What's the latest SPAM game?

[Wagtail]

Could Muhammed, Ibrahim or anyone else give an explanation regarding the latest wave of SPAM that TBN is receiving?

It makes no sense... sometimes it's an in-active https link, others are simple chunks of text or three 'posts' of text and, now, I'm beginning to seriously doubt a couple of nonsensical 'new member' introductions.

I, jeff and others have been steadily reporting them, which I don't mind doing. I'd just like to know what 'their' game is. :confused3:

 

[jeff9366]

I reported about six spam entries this morning about 3:00 AM/EDT. Not my favorite activity on T-B-N.

Several were the third or fourth SPAM post in the same bogus account.

More effort should be made to block or delete SPAM accounts after one entry.

 

[majorwager]

I recently asked Moss Road about the malware reference words that appear in posts. He indicated that moderators have no control over that scenario.

Certain words in many posts are high- lighted. If clicked, reader is taken to an advertiser's site, renders the appearance that poster has endorsed that advertiser.

 

[mikester]

It's called referrer spam. It doesn't matter what the content of the post is, they are simply posting so they can include a back link to their website they are trying to promote.

The more back links they generate, the higher they get in google rankings, then the higher ranking they get in things like "googleadservices" and "amazon-adsystem".

It's a bizarre false economy where "clicks" and "page views" get translated into tiny tiny fractions of a dollar. You need millions of page views to generate some kind of cash flow.

If you are living in a third world country then these tiny little payouts amount to something. Spam farmers hire hundreds of people to target forums to generate back links for companies to sell page rankings to suckers who don't know or don't care.

Try googling "tulip mania".

 

[abunchofidiots]

Other forums I have been on require new users to have 5 post before starting a "New" thread.

 

[4570Man]

Other forums I have been on require new users to have 5 post before starting a "New" thread.

Which isn’t hard to do. I don’t see that helping.

 

[jeff9366]

Other forums I have been on require new users to have 5 post before starting a "New" thread.

As one who reports a good deal of this SPAM around 3:00 AM, several days per week, I would be grateful for incremental discouragement to spammers. Worth a try.

 

[nbking]

I think upping the required posts to say 25 before a new thread is started, would help. Most people that come here want some help to fix a problem, and that would make it a pain for them to ask a question. But maybe a sticky for new people until they get their 25 post's

 

[4570Man]

I think upping the required posts to say 25 before a new thread is started, would help. Most people that come here want some help to fix a problem, and that would make it a pain for them to ask a question. But maybe a sticky for new people until they get their 25 post's

Maybe writing a short biography for moderator review before you can join would help. Sure you could make it up, but I don’t see the post limit as being a good thing either.

 

[/pine]

The majority of spam posts are made by bots...the most effective way to control bot activity is with an effective CAPTCHA script...if one could be implemented to only be used for new members for the first so many posts...