SPAM ! Mods please help.

Imma_Number

I think it'd be nice if people who report spam correctly and don't abuse it got double spam hitter points so it didn't take so many people hitting spam to get rid of them.

PS Spam button only shows up if you are logged in.

minimike2

Gary123456790 wrote: »

Is there a mod on this board that can remove all the rubbish, its unreadable.

Although I do chuckle at the time someone has clearly spend spamming a forum with USA phone numbers, not realising that it is a UK forum!

Ta.

It won't have been "someone". These spam threads are usually the result of an indiscriminate bot which just posts wherever lets it register. All done on scripts.

fwor

minimike2 wrote: »

It won't have been "someone". These spam threads are usually the result of an indiscriminate bot which just posts wherever lets it register. All done on scripts.

Indeed - but "someone" has to set up the scripts, and if you look closely, it seems to have been done by only a small number of people - possibly just one person, if you look carefully at the typos and finer detail.

Quite why they are prepared to put that much effort into repeated failure I can't quite figure out, and I'm not sure that anyone ever will.

TadleyBaggie

Their plan is to get their bogus phone number appearing at the top of search engine hits, so when somebody needs support with Amazon, Comcast or whoever, they will call the number not realising they are actually calling a scammer.

fwor

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

Their plan is to get their bogus phone number appearing at the top of search engine hits

Even I had managed to work that out. The thing I can't understand is that this particular "campaign" has failed (as far as I can tell) to get any of their spam to stick, anywhere on this forum, having tried for months. So why, if there is no reward (i.e. their spam never appears on any search engines) do they persist, month after month?

This is not the first time - we had the "Man woman problem" one from India and the "Discount K.i.t.c.h.e.n.s in <insert random town name>" before, and they were similarly complete failures in terms of their aim to get onto Google.

All I can assume is that someone is employed to do it, and they get paid to do it - so they continue to do it whether it works or not. Makes it pretty pointless, but that seems to be how it is.

prowla

I don't think the site is doing enough to combat these spams and it is ruining the forums for me.

The "it's nasty people" or "it's bots" we can't control is a lame excuse.

As it stands, I login to the site and if I see spams I report one and then l close my browser window and do something else.

These spams are to a formula and there are many similar ones at the same time; it would not be impossible to implement rules/filters to prevent them.

I don't understand why it's not being done.

Raxiel

Gary123456790 wrote: »

I see Report and Spam buttons, after the Quick Reply, Thankyou and 2 Quote mini-buttons.

I don't see the same:


I'm logged in (obviously, or I wouldn't be posted) but no spam button for me.

I guess they don't trust me :eek:

Edit: I tried changing the forum skin, I have 'default', '2014 redesign' (which looks the same) and 'new masthead (fixed width)' (Holy 2001information superhighway batman!). No spam buttons on any of them

Imma_Number

Odd. It should look like this (assuming I can get image links to work):



Maybe a forum mod can help?

Raxiel

I've sent an email to the forum team, will have to see what they say.

Tried multiple browsers and machines, so its certainly account related.

After looking at a couple of threads on the site feedback board, it does seem like there are others in the same situation.

[Deleted User]

Board guides are all doing what they can across MSE