Sneaky Spammers

[Joe Ross]

Here's something else I found interesting.

I used to think that as long as the posts with spam links were deleted in a timely manner, everything was ok. However, there are a lot of spammers that have spam links in their signature, but never post (and so the links stay there for years).

I recently ran a google search for something related to chiefdelphi. What I found were a lot of results that were spammers member pages, such as this one: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/member.php?u=34231

There were also pages that contained links to member's pages, which had spam in the signature. By posting a link to a page that has a link to what the spammer advertise also helps them, and it looks much more benign on the other page. Running a google search shows that there may be millions of things doing that. I've cleaned up some of them, but there are still a lot left.

Just one more thing to watch out for.

[DonRotolo]

Fascinating.
I just got a spam PM from someone. While they were highlighting (hawking) their CD of CNC plans they're selling on feeBay - nominally of interest to someone who posted in a CNC thread - it was a clever bit of distasteful marketing.

VB has several ways to manage this, the best being people with fewer than X posts are in a different group than those with X or more. The first group can't use links in signatures, or PM, or several other things.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Fascinating.
I just got a spam PM from someone. While they were highlighting (hawking) their CD of CNC plans they're selling on feeBay - nominally of interest to someone who posted in a CNC thread - it was a clever bit of distasteful marketing.

I received what is likely the same spam from the same Lindsy, on October 30. Perhaps it has taken that long for the spammer to make it through the alphabet from A to R?

[Joe Ross]

Another tactic is for the spammer to ask a innocuous question, and then in a day or two register a new account to answer that question. Here's one example (at least until it gets cleaned up) http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...365#post989365

[gvarndell]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Another tactic is for the spammer to ask a innocuous question, and then in a day or two register a new account to answer that question. Here's one example (at least until it gets cleaned up) http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...365#post989365

So, is 'Kirkbride' the spammer?
If so, he is still in business on CD.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/member.php?u=43766

[216Robochick288]

Is it possible to have a thread that we could put suspected spammers in? Because "Jjohnson23" just joined, all he has are links in his sig and is OBVIOUSLY not a kid. Hes on team "0000"... yeah, auto Insurance is not a team, sorry. Just a thread of suspected spammers to make deleteing them easier?

[PAR_WIG1350]

youtubedownload

This spammer's profile is fairly new, it's been active as recently as today
once again, there are links in the signature that seem 'bad', but no posts have been made from the account, so it is probably linked to from elsewhere. Google search turned up nothing but a scary picture of just how many different spammers link to a CD profile page.

[synth3tk]

There are plenty of ways to stop this spam, or at least decrease the amount. I'm sure it's just a matter of Brandon having the time to implement it.

[Billfred]

I'm going to bump this thread a bit, since the problem seems to be returning a bit.

A bit of Googling yielded this mod for the version of vBulletin that CD is running that can block links in signatures of users with under X posts:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123002

I don't know if it's something that's worth pursuing, but fixes (other than playing whack-a-mole) are out there.

[Molten]

I'll be interested if someone posts a helpful solution to preventing spam and then turns out to be spam. At the rate the spammers are evolving, it won't be long until this becomes a reality.

Jason

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Billfred

I'm going to bump this thread a bit, since the problem seems to be returning a bit.

A bit of Googling yielded this mod for the version of vBulletin that CD is running that can block links in signatures of users with under X posts:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=123002

I don't know if it's something that's worth pursuing, but fixes (other than playing whack-a-mole) are out there.

There is built-in functionality to prevent links in signatures in certain user groups -- I've added it to the usergroup promotion that moves people from new users to trusted non-spam users.

Originally Posted by Brandon Martus

There is built-in functionality to prevent links in signatures in certain user groups -- I've added it to the usergroup promotion that moves people from new users to trusted non-spam users.

Oohhh! Fancy!

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

Oohhh! Fancy!

And much appreciated!