Spam & Replies, again...*sigh*

What I don't get is why some members feel the need to reply to these threads?

Please keep in mind that even one reply to a spam thread gives the spammer exactly what they want...ATTENTION! They don't care if it's negative or positive as long as the thread is active. Why would you lower yourself to their level by replying to their crap?

Replying bumps the thread to the top of the forum thus reflecting poorly on MG's. Going to any forum and the first thing you see at the top of the page is a spam thread looks bad.

Please report the thread as spam http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/star17abby/Smilies/thumbsup.gif and we'll take care of it. Don't reply to it! And for your own protection, don't click their lame links either. Every time you click a link you are taking a big risk (prime example here of a clicked spam link before it got removed) AND it is very likely they keep track of where the click throughs are coming from. They see they are getting traffic from MG's it only encourages them to post more often.

For those that don't know how to report a thread/post: Every post has an 'report a bad post icon' --> http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f368/star-n-abby/reportpost.gif in the upper right corner of the post. Click that and it will take you to a page where you can enter your comments. If it's a spam post you can simply say spam or if it's something else like a thread that needs to be moved or a link to something bad..something brief is all that's needed. Click send report and we get an instant email on it. Piece of cake and a big help to us!

Thanks everyone for helping us keep MG's spam free AND protecting all members and guests from malicious links and all the other crapola spam that's been hitting our forums!http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/star17abby/Smilies/cheers2.gif

 

Yea, I was one of those that accidentally clicked the above link and gave me a trojan..when will spammers ever learn that noone needs, wants, or desires their retarded spam.

 

Abby can you make this a Sticky?

 

@Abby, you must mean the dollar thread. Oops, hehe I didn't even realize it was a spam until I just saw it locked. I didn't even see a link. Apologies.

 

Probably when you all stop clicking their spam links........ *grins*

 

But the thing is...I thought the link was genuine and I wanted to see if the US dollar value had really gone up and I was pretty sure the link was real since it has US News in it.

 

*Looks at BladesofHalo's forehead*

Yup...just as I thought......*grins*

Always surf for your own link when the poster only has a post count of 1

 

My theory is....missing a few good links is worth missing a few bad worms.

Jack

 

*Looks down in shame*
I never noticed that

 

how does MG prevent bad links on the 'interesting website links' ? to the best of my knowledge i've never had a 'bad' link from there, but i've always wondered. aloha everyone and happy sunday

 

Exactly...now we understand fully the expression "The early bird catches the worm" lol

 

Yea I ditto McAdams statement, most of us who have been here for awhile know the drill, but newbies don't, so having this as a sticky would help those who look first and post second!!!!

 

It would be worth having the sticky in the Lounge and the Welcome Forum aka "Your Thread Has Been Moved" forum

 

Good idea Lev

 

I like clicking the triangle. I just don't get to do it very often.

 

...you mean like when they're still viewing their spam post and don't realize it's GONE?
I think that is sooooooo funny!

 

Yep was me that posted the pic in that thread, just thought I would give everyone a heads up not to click on the link before removed(as two users in this thread already had) From the time I linked to the thread to the time it was removed was 45 min and 30 odd views. How many others could have linked to the site in that time? Oh well in future I will keep my mouth shut and let others find out the hard way. As you can see my security stopped any damage so what do I care.

 

@ mgpower..you miss my point or I didn't make it clear enough. It's a spam thread so why would anyone click the link in the first place? You are giving the OP what they are after when they hit the forum, and risking who knows what getting past your security?

However, in reference to the previous post of yours I linked to I did so not to slap at you but to show other members the malicious content these links can contain when clicked...many people are unaware of such things until it's to late...our Malware forum shows that quite clearly. Your warning, with the screen-shots was no doubt helpful in alerting members to the problem until the post got removed.

And finally, I took care of 7 or so threads from different posters, in multiple forums. Most of those threads had been replied to, some had several replies like get lost, etc. In the case of the other threads there was no malicious content...it was just plain old spam and the replies only succeeded in doing what I pointed out in my first post in this thread...Attention for the idiot spammer, click throughs and keeping the threads at the top of the forum.

There is a big difference between a single warning of malicious content and unnecessary replies.

 

yeah sorry Abby, i'm sick as at the moment with tonsillitis so was a bit cranky today, but i'm over my little sook now. I know it was dumb clicking the link and after reading augiedoggies post I knew there was something strange about the link but did it anyway. At least it tested out my defences And I wasn't going to post but after about 10 min or so I thought I have to let people know

 

I think I made the mistake of clicking the triangle on one of the replyees, and not the spam post itself.. First I felt really stupid, but now I'm thinking maybe it wasn't so bad after all! http://members.chello.se/solange/smileys/Rotfl.gif

 

What surprised me is that they are actually getting smarter....I didnt think that was possible!
by smarter, i mean that many of the spam threads (iv'e noticed) are now being placed on the board in the early hours of the morning (U.S eastern and pacific time), right about when im having dinner in Aust. I guess their reasoning is that even Mod's have to sleep.
Also, they now are starting to use 'disguised' thread title's in the hope that their threads are opened so as to view or click on what lies inside.
It is all of our responsibility, to check and think before we click on a link, or decide to leave a reply....most of us should know better, as i too, have been caught once, but only once it shall remain!!
Perhaps we could make any interested members Official "MajorGeeks Spam Busters', along with a title and a sole job of picking and reporting the crap as they go about their normal forum and thread searches.
Sort of like, official triangle clickers.....
Then if anyone does fall foul to a spam thread, we have someone to blame!
Mainly, if spammers see this sort of policy in place it may encourage them to move on.

Give me a fancy title and i'm all yours......lol

Regards......

 

Yup, 8-10pm PCT is a spammy time, for sure, but I guarantee you all the mods aren't asleep as they cover at least 3 continents

Lots of regulars already do that incognito

The only person to blame is yourself for clicking on the thread in the first place

Spammers already do see this policy at MajorGeeks....but what they also see is people replying to their threads. Until that stops, neither will the spammers It's all about educating ourselves to do the right thing here.

How about Triangle Tickler?

 

I've found and clicked some. My favorite instance is when I click the triangle, pass the site to the mods, then return to the forum and find the thread already gone. LOL. Quick trigger fingers.

Senseless nuisance spam is bad enough, but so many sites these days are malicious just to VISIT, that you don't ever want to just randomly click links out of curiousity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3atmWmWCwlw

 

He just posted at our forum and there were no viriuses but the guy was spamming USAToday. huh, do they need this type of exposure? I'm confused.

 

LOL. Just clicked the triangle on another fresh one. Go get 'em guys & gals.

 

hes got 3 threads open

watch how long they last lol

 

heh check the second pm it told you to stop replying to the first pm and deal with the spam heh He only had three before lol, must have thought he was getting away with it!

EDIT: there still one in interesting web links lol

EDIT EDIT: not any more

 

LOL...just found one in Networking, and in the time it took me to click on the triangle...type SPAM...and click on submit...it directed me to contact an administrator for the fact that it was an invalid thread!! I thought...WTH!! Went and looked at the forum again, and...I'll be dadgum if that thread didn't exist anymore!! So either these admins watch close and act fast...or I'm hallucinating!!

Roger

 

I reported the make money at home spam yesterday with the triangle, I also told the guy to GetLost

Sorry AbbySue, I'll keep reporting, but next time I will resist the urge to tell the spammer to go to hell.

Noob mistake.

I'll be standing in the corner until further notice.

 

Verrry impressive. I clicked all sorts of links in the .us version and everything worked and was uptodate as to current news. Thanks for this and this bugger will not even get to see the PM I sent. Banned.

 

This is not really recomended to most users unless you have a virtual environment or sandbox specifically for testing. Best bet is to not click on links unless you recognise the poster or its in a thread where users have responded and you feel safe.

something about curiosity and a dead cat (or in this case computer)

Sorry Halo lol (Taking liberties with your posts!)

 

I was using FF(not a garauntee) ATT and it just blocked a popup, I guess that was the exploit. Matt is right, though I have to click but I feel secure. I think I'll invest in a ghoster like Halo has, 15 min compared to who knows how long to fix, if it's even possible. BTW, watch out for a raelian clone attack.

 

@AbbySue - I never click on the links cause' I'm not stupid. But can't we reply to the thread if we have a good zinger to make fun of them with, then report it?

 

I have an idea, why not start a thread where people can post snappy comebacks to replace the deleted spams. Who knows, we might even piss em off.

 

Hmmmm...with spammers, it's an attention thing. Doesn't matter to them if the attention they receive is favorable or not, the simple fact they get a reply of any kind tells them their spam is being read, so they post again....and again....and again...ad nauseum.

It is soooo tempting to make a witty remark......I know that one only too well Working on resisting my urges by reporting the thread with the red triangle feature, and I just put my witty remark (if I have one) in the report bad post for the Admins to enjoy Gets it out my system; doesn't reply to the spam, and gets the job done

Spam vamoooooosed

 

Seems unfair that the mods get to comment on them but nobody else does heh heh.

Seriosuly, replying to a spam thread is a very bad thing to do. Spammers will monitor their posts, so if their spam page gets "updated", then it'll be marked higher in their target list, so you get exponential ammouts of spam growth. If anyone CLICKS on the link, then thats the kiss of death.

There are a number of things that you can do about spam. I attended a talk by a guy from MessageLabs, and he was talking about message filtering and such. There are quite big similarities between email and message boards in that respect.

One very interesting idea that he brought up was the idea of a grey list. The idea is that you have a white list of people that you know can connect to you. They will be able to use the system as normal. But anyone else gets a message saying "Come back in a moment and send it again". The reason being that spammers will very often simply use an automated system that just throws data at webservers and doesn't care what comes back. If the website does something they don't expect, they can't handle it, and their spam never gets to your servers.

Interesting idea, eh? I might have to make an implementation of that for vB

 

That is an excellent idea Goldie! We use Spambayes for email at work as a secondary filter on Outlook, and while it has the whitelist feature, a grey list would be awesome, especially since I seem to get most of the junk, being the website administrator.

Let me know when you've developed it...I'm your first customer

 

For emails you can get lots of server based solutions for an MTA (Mail Transport agent - your server basically). I believe SpamAssasin will let you do greylisting. Obviously it'd need maintaining and so forth, so you can have real users get to you as efficiently as possible.

For web based applications it's a tad more difficult. You can do lots of fun heuristics and such to try and guess who might be a good user and let them through (monitored, mind). Then throw some oddballs at them. Something like, ask them a question. "How long do you want to wait before the message is posted" would do. Then redirect them to a page where they sit and wait for a while until that time has elapsed, then their post is submitted.

It would be fair to say that if you used heuristics on new users, then you apply those strange restrictions on them until they reach a certain number of posts.

Then there is the Akismet spam database. Now that is genius. There is a plugin for vBulletin for that.

 

Thanks for the further info Goldie. I misunderstood that you meant grey listing specifically for boards etc, not just email. It's early here, and I haven't got down the first caffiene hit! That would actually be fun to do -I like the idea of spammers sitting and waiting

I guess an alternative for MGs that I belive has been discussed before, is to have first posts by new members screened before being submitted to the actual forum. However, that would be very labor intensive work, which I'm sure none of the Admins have capacity for on top of everything they already do for us.

 

And for those who might not know this, there is an easy way of finding out where a link leads. Hold your curser over the link, and in the bottom of your browser window, you will see where the link leads to.

 

Didn't know that was the sort of thing you folks looked out for in a suspected spammer.