Spambots

moneyistooshorttomention

Robin9 wrote: »

I am still using the old style site at the bottom of which is a "Welcome to our newest member" - bikkhj 4

When I see this alarm bells ring and there he is Spammingq in bulk.

If I can see this why can't MSE ?

Makes sense. There are "real" posters that use an odd jumble of letters or the like as their "name" - but it does tend to be those Korean spammers.

prowla

Logged in - loads of spam - can't be bothered - logging out...

kathrynha

Worse than ever this morning


I have been on forums in the past where new users have had limited access until they prove themselves to be okay. Would something like that be possible with MSE?


Maybe limiting new users to certain sections of the forums
Or only allowing them to post 3/5 times then an admin has to approve them
Or not allowing new users to post anything other than basic English alphabet


I know it potentially could cause admin more work, but surely no more than having to keep deleting lots of spam.

marty2be2000

Worse than ever, and still actively posting as I type this.

I said earlier on in this thread on a number of occasions it will get worse, and my fears are playing out. Soon MSE will not have a viable forum, unless drastic action is taken sooner rather than later. Instead of putting a lot of time and effort into the much hated new format (thank goodness I have access to the old one) they should have put time and effort into fixing the spam problem.

Please MSE towers make it stop.

fermi

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404475

4 thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404480

12 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404484

22 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404488

46 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404489

26 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404491

4 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404494

16 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404475

6 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404500

5 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404504

10 threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404507

2 + threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404508

just registered

Some still going and probably more besides.....

fermi

Another

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404509

fermi

more

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=2404510

fermi

OK. This morning I have personally deleted 180+ threads, and those are just ones on my boards.

I'm not doing any more this morning.

Whatever "measures" MSE were putting in place appear to have failed. In fact the spammers are taking the $$$$ and making it worse.

fermi

Bye bye for this morning.

Hope you all like the taste of :spam:

moneyistooshorttomention

Thank you for your hard work Fermi.

I'm still thinking "S*d it" and I'm not going to report any of them - the number of "flies on the carcase" is starting to obliterate the carcase itself.

I have been wondering what times MSE staff are there at the Towers and we can reasonably expect that their first duty is to remove all existing spam?

Does anyone know if they work standard office hours only - ie 9-5pm Monday-Friday or is there someone "on duty" there for longer than that?

I am tending towards thinking "If its got to 9am of a morning then I should be able to expect MSE Towers has cleared the latest lot of spam" and maybe I wont bother to log in until after that time.