Just curious about why these spammers post here

[bosomblaster]

I consider myself pretty well-versed on the ways and means of the internet.

Yet...

I have never understood the reason for spamming a discussion board like ours. I know why spammers send emails and of course I detest that.

But why do these "individuals" come here and paste these long texts of complete gibberish? Of course curiosity gets the best of me and I read them unless one of the good guys in here deletes them, rightly so.

I have to suspect that there is something in it for the spammer. But what exactly?? Just a "thrill" to pass some of the time away??

Would they really waste their time because they have so little to do in their contribution to society at large?

Just curious to get some reaction from others...!!!

[JustSomeone]

It helps boost their page rank on google. Google considers a site 'important' when it has many sites linking back to it. The gibberish isn't really all that important. Its the backlink that counts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlink

[Bonecracker]

Well said, JS. We collectively decimate their spam ASAP!

[bosomblaster]

It helps boost their page rank on google. Google considers a site 'important' when it has many sites linking back to it. The gibberish isn't really all that important. Its the backlink that counts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlink

But I thought that in recent years Google has cracked down on spammy backlinks. Maybe I am mistaken.

[tea]

i think the primary thing spambots are used for these days is the spread of malware to aid in the formation of a botnet. people pay big money to access these botnets (which are comprised of exploited personal computers) for unscrupulous deeds

the giant blobs of text are madlibs to try and fool anti-spam services that have algorithms to detect spam. one of the big ones is akismet

its actually very easy to do, theres lots of software specifically designed to automate the spamming process like xrumer

http://www.botmasterlabs.net/xrumer/

you can see how it works right here:

http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/blogs...xrumer.swf

i've been very successful in preventing spam on my website because i'm using layered services to achieve defense in depth. this has enabled me to not require a captcha on my forum/imageboard. theres a lot of things out there like the aforementioned akismet

[Agent Dee]

I love banning them before they can even post I stealth ban em *evil laugh*.

AD

[Agent Dee]

dumb question time how come banned users can still show up under users online at the bottom of the page? I know they cannot post anymore but at times I see their names show up sometimes with the horizontal line through it, sometimes not. if they are banned shouldn't they not even be allowed to be on the site?

AD

[JustSomeone]

When a user is banned, it means that they can authenticate to the site, but they can not participate on it. They can't read or post. It's nothing to worry about. This is very common across bbs software. It's the same in phpbb, I think.

[Agent Dee]

I have been banning a lot of them in the past 90% of them have tags with alternating caps in them like this: 1lT3urK4oT etc I usually give them the benefit of the doubt but if they spam they get banned/posts edited etc. I have YET to see one with tags like that that do not spam, maybe not right away maybe a few days down the road but they do. At times I just want to ban those with tags just like one above but who is to say that user is not a spammer until he/she/it spams the forum.

AD

[Agent Dee]

Ha I just banned another before he/she got to even post, god I am good he he.

Agent "spammer killer extraordinaire!" Dee

[bosomblaster]

Well done AD; I would be willing to bet that he/she was pretty freaked out by how quick you jettisoned their contri!

[Agent Dee]

I just blasted another one anna178860373 was banned after I saw that user name showing up on multiple forums all within a few days apart and the only thread that had a post in it was spam, so anna178860373 was banned before 'she' had her account even activated .

Agent "quick like bunneh" Dee

[Agent Dee]

I just banned 2 users in 24hrs before they could even post as I said in a previous posts user names that have alternating upper and lower case and numbers mixed in are 9 times out of 10 spammers or potential spammers. Just doing a simple Google search of the names of those I banned showed up as having memberships in MULTIPLE forums all joined on the same day minutes apart and some even were flagged on sites that monitor bots and bot accounts.

AD

[Agent Dee]

guys I was bored the other day and I went through all 65 pages of members and only did searches on tags that had the alternating upper and lower case with numbers in the tags and most of them were already banned on other sites and the rest were as I said before showing up as new accounts on MULTIPLE sites all on the same day and minutes apart. I went back and banned those accounts so if you or any other mods or anybody else who can ban an account sees a new account name with the alt upper and lower case with numbers tag, BAN HAMMER THEM!

AD

[Agent Dee]

case in point I banned another one who spammed in a post in the Model ID thread with that same style of upper and lower case letters mixed with numbers tag. so as I said please ban them if those style tags show up don't even give them a chance to spoil our forum, thanks.

AD

[Agent Dee]

Okay I just banned another, dumb question time how come some users are awaiting activation and some can just join and start spamming? I am the only person online as of this posting and banning that can activate accounts yet some spammers can just cruise right in and start spamming their shitty sites, how?

EDIT: the user I banned, ayqvjfbvw17 did not even show up at the bottom of the page under the banner 'welcome our newest member' which as of this posting was sonic131988 who joined 3hrs before ayqvjibvw17 who joined literally minutes before is first (and ONLY post thanks to me) post.

AD

[Cutter]

I love the smell of smoking BAN HAMMER in the morning.

*looks at all the smoking craters where ficticious members were*

Good Job Dee.

[Cutter]

A pic I came across that I know belongs here.

This should be the caption:

"This Site protected by Flaming Banhammer"

[JustSomeone]

Haha, so true. Thanks for the report.

[Agent Dee]

for those who can edit/delete posts and ban people it is easier to just edit the offending post then to delete it and have the gibberish remain on the main page, I removed the thread all together so it would not clutter the forum and have also banned the offending poster as well.

AD

[Agent Dee]

guys been getting a lot of spam again, I have personally banned at least 6 or more today alone if you see new members with tags that have random combos of numbers and letters in them ban them. I cannot always access the forum but I try to from my android when I can.

AD

[Archaon]

I don't remember from when I registered - is this board set up with things like a CAPTCHA check?

Not foolproof but if not it might help a little.

[JustSomeone]

I don't remember from when I registered - is this board set up with things like a CAPTCHA check?

Not foolproof but if not it might help a little.

The captcha is enabled...