Spambots

torbrex

I wonder why the spammers repeat the same line so many times

MothballsWallet

torbrex wrote: »

I wonder why the spammers repeat the same line so many times

It's probably an automated system emulating a user to:

1. Sign up to an account
2. Log in
3. Click on a board link
4. Click "New Thread"
5. Copy & paste their text into the message
6. Click "Post"
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6

It's not that hard to do, there are robotic automation systems available that let you build a script and supporting tools to log into multiple forums (we use one where I work to automate certain application-based processes internally).

fermi

There are loads. One example

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XRumer

torbrex

MothballsWallet wrote: »

It's probably an automated system emulating a user to:

1. Sign up to an account
2. Log in
3. Click on a board link
4. Click "New Thread"
5. Copy & paste their text into the message
6. Click "Post"
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6

It's not that hard to do, there are robotic automation systems available that let you build a script and supporting tools to log into multiple forums (we use one where I work to automate certain application-based processes internally).

so easy to set up but seemingly impossible to prevent from posting.

torbrex

On a side note.

What is the procedure after a member joins simply to post spam which is then removed?
Are they PPR'd and removed from the system straight away or is there a delay in removing them?

redux

Feyfangirl wrote: »

Spambots seem to be flooding the forums at the moment, on the forum I moderate we're heavily under attack by them -_- cleaned out over 250 threads in the space of ten minutes -_-

Get the forum admin to look at the captcha mechanism, a picture from which a human has to copy the text, and so far it seems automatic spambots can't do it.

Or also consider a text question which only a human can answer, like what is 4 + 9, or the third colour of the British flag, red white and ?

Those can cut out 95 to 98 per cent of the problem. On one forum I'm on these must have disappeared for a while, and suddenly there were 40 or 50 junk posts a day; once admin fixed things it's back down to about 10 a week.

Also the settings allow for posts from new users containing links to be pre-moderated, and have to be approved before appearing in public, but I don't think that would work here due to causing more work to approve the ok ones. Here they seem to disallow links for early posts.

redux

torbrex wrote: »

On a side note.

What is the procedure after a member joins simply to post spam which is then removed?
Are they PPR'd and removed from the system straight away or is there a delay in removing them?

It depends what the person sorting it out does.

Obviously if they are online they might still be posting, so I would ban first then delete their posts. If it's been there a while I probably delete first then ban. But it only takes say half a minute anyway, and the ban is effective immediately.

Here, at busy times there may be a queue building up of reported posts for moderation, so that's why it will sometimes seem to take a while.

MothballsWallet

fermi wrote: »

There are loads. One example

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XRumer

Indeed: Blue Prism's another one that allows you to set up a robot that emulates user actions.

moneyistooshorttomention

torbrex wrote: »

At the risk of repeating myself, if they cant be stopped from posting there needs to be someone on duty that can stop them sooner after they have started posting so that it doesn't get this far.

Advertise for some hitmen, I'm sure there are reliable people that are on at the same time as the spammers appear that would be keen to do the job, I know I would.

That sounds a good idea - its basically antisocial hours (ie overnight and Sundays) - but I would have thought a housebound computer-minded person who keeps odd hours, for instance, might be glad of some extra dosh.

....and there's several of the spammer at it again right now...

moneyistooshorttomention

redux wrote: »

Get the forum admin to look at the captcha mechanism, a picture from which a human has to copy the text, and so far it seems automatic spambots can't do it.

Or also consider a text question which only a human can answer, like what is 4 + 9, or the third colour of the British flag, red white and ?

Those can cut out 95 to 98 per cent of the problem. On one forum I'm on these must have disappeared for a while, and suddenly there were 40 or 50 junk posts a day; once admin fixed things it's back down to about 10 a week.

Also the settings allow for posts from new users containing links to be pre-moderated, and have to be approved before appearing in public, but I don't think that would work here due to causing more work to approve the ok ones. Here they seem to disallow links for early posts.

That also sounds a potential idea to me as well. I can think of quite a few web things where I've had to answer a question only a human could answer before I got through.