Spam?
#41
If you saw the Human Computation speak, you would pick up that certain companies (say, porn sites etc) are able to feed a forum registration captcha into their websites to have their browsing users solve the captcha for them, live. Thus, giving them a filled form (hidden from the user, they only see the actual captcha and eagerly fill it in to see the next pair of hooters) that they are able to (?) process and get another spam account.
Atleast thats the gist of what the speaker hinted at when he mentioned creative ways to circumvent computer automated problems that cannot be solved my machines.
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#42
Quote:[/delurk] Greetings.
I'd say this is because it's the top in alphabetical order. Making it so that the first post can't be made in Armory might, just might, reduce the amount of spam bots. This would only affect the bots attacking the forum in alphabetical order, though.
Why not create a new forum called "AAA SPAM Trap" with a description stating not to post in it. Then place it high up on the page and use a style sheet property to hide it. It would be invisible to most people and still attract the SPAM bots. Anyone posting there would either be illiterate or a SPAM bot. It would not stop the bots, but it should safely contain them a bit better.
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#43
Quote:Why not create a new forum called "AAA SPAM Trap" with a description stating not to post in it. Then place it high up on the page and use a style sheet property to hide it. It would be invisible to most people and still attract the SPAM bots. Anyone posting there would either be illiterate or a SPAM bot. It would not stop the bots, but it should safely contain them a bit better.


I like this idea, but I advocate changing the style sheet to show the text in a nice big Comic font and give it a bright pink background. Use some javascript trickery to float some images around randomly and it would be a pretty hilarious place to visit.

edit: embedded MIDIs!
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#44
So, here's what was done today.

The spambots all use simple code that just creates new topics to perform their spam. This code is common and used on hundreds (thousands?) of forums every day.

They never post replies.

All members of the LL forums have been moved to a new usergroup, "Lurkers". The default usergroup, "Members", is now a spambot catcher. Users in this group cannot post new threads. They can only reply to current ones. Upon their first post in any thread, they are automatically promoted to the Lurkers usergroup and can then create new threads.

"But Bolty, what if the bots get smarter and just start posting replies?" Well, we'll face that hurdle when/if it comes. :)

Also, users now just have 24 hours to validate their new account or it's thrown out (old value was 48 hours).

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#45
Quote:So, here's what was done today.

The spambots all use simple code that just creates new topics to perform their spam. This code is common and used on hundreds (thousands?) of forums every day.

They never post replies.

All members of the LL forums have been moved to a new usergroup, "Lurkers". The default usergroup, "Members", is now a spambot catcher. Users in this group cannot post new threads. They can only reply to current ones. Upon their first post in any thread, they are automatically promoted to the Lurkers usergroup and can then create new threads.

"But Bolty, what if the bots get smarter and just start posting replies?" Well, we'll face that hurdle when/if it comes. :)

Also, users now just have 24 hours to validate their new account or it's thrown out (old value was 48 hours).

-Bolty

Good job! Now can you stop the spammers in WoW? :angry:
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Sinomin ~ Rogue, Terenas

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#46
Woot! Thanks Bolty!
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#47
Sounds great, thanks Bolty!
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#48
Hi,

Quote:So, here's what was done today.

. . .

-Bolty
Good job!

Thanks.

--Pete

How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?

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#49
Great job, Bolty!:)
Ask me about Norwegian humour Smile
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#50
A number of people have informed me that the spambots were sending out PMs. This should stop now.

They were smart enough not to PM me, so thanks for letting me know. :)

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#51
Hi,

Quote:They never post replies.
That seems to have changed lately.:(

Quote:"But Bolty, what if the bots get smarter and just start posting replies?" Well, we'll face that hurdle when/if it comes. :)
Has that time come?

Was about to post mentioning the large amount of pr0n spam recently, then remembered this thread and thought necromancy was preferable to spamming about spam;)

--Pete

How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?

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#52
Quote:Has that time come?
Could be. We've been dishing out a lot of IP bans as of late, and it died down for a bit, but picked up again recently.

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#53
Quote:Could be. We've been dishing out a lot of IP bans as of late, and it died down for a bit, but picked up again recently.

-Bolty

Getting hit hard out of .ru domains.

--Mav
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#54
We seem to be getting a new influx of spam.
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#55
Purrourry even went as far as to announce in the additional information the intention to spam porn. >Sheesh< Unless their WOW/Diablo character really is Chinese_Schgirl_Porn...
”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

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#56
It seems a 'new' tactics from these spambots is to send PM's to users with links going to 'bad' places (I didn't go to the site though, but I am in general very very paranoid about unknown russian websites).
I have gotten 2 PM's these lasts days with links in that goes to the same russian site.

Can anything be done about these guys and their PM sending? Or perhaps give out a general warning to users to not click the links?
Or am I simply assuming it is bad, when it is not (the link that is)?

Edit: clarification
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#57
Quote:It seems a 'new' tactics from these spambots is to send PM's to users with links going to 'bad' places (I didn't go to the site though, but I am in general very very paranoid about unknown russian websites).
Short of disabling the PM system entirely, I don't know of a way to stop this at the moment.

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#58
More PM spam just now

user: angelikzusa
registered today
Conc / Concillian -- Vintage player of many games. Deadly leader of the All Pally Team (or was it Death leader?)
Terenas WoW player... while we waited for Diablo III.
And it came... and it went... and I played Hearthstone longer than Diablo III.
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#59
Das Spam
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#60
Ah, I guess I will just disable my PM box for now; there's other ways to contact people.;)

They also are spamming the forums, so I'm not even sure if a minimum post requirement can help.
With great power comes the great need to blame other people.
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