A few words about spam

[Mervi]

I just deleted a bunch of accounts that have been spamming this forum. I suspect they were some sort of bots, as their messages were repetitive, they quoted parts of other users' texts and they only posted a few messages each. The first two fooled me because they just appeared to be rather enthusiastic writers that had some difficulties with proper English (which is totally acceptable here, as we are an international community ).
Anyway, I'm posting this to say that please let me know:
- if I have accidentally deleted you/your posts although you're not a spam bot
- if you come across any other suspicious messages that I might have missed

I'll upgrade our forum script tonight and hope it solves the problem for now.

[chriSchaeffer]

Thanks for taking care of that, it was annoying!

[Mervi]

My apologies about the disappearing topics. There have been a few pretty decent ones in the off-topic area lately that I could have saved, but as they were started by spammers and I deleted the users and all their other posts, it would have been a bit messy to keep them around.

[Mervi]

I'm amused. The latest effort to conceal the fact that the user is a spammer was to copy someone else's comment, word for word, about a Megan Lindholm book from another site and post it here. There were still several telltale signs, and the IP was once again listed to be a known spammer.

[chriSchaeffer]

Mervi, you are quite the detective!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I'm amused. The latest effort to conceal the fact that the user is a spammer was to copy someone else's comment, word for word, about a Megan Lindholm book from another site and post it here. There were still several telltale signs, and the IP was once again listed to be a known spammer.

Why the heck would anyone do that? This isn't just spamming people to annoy them, this is a very specific kind of spam, tailor-made to the author this forum is about.

[Mervi]

Well, the "new" method for forum spamming seems to be to use real people instead of bots to go around the different spam prevention systems that forums usually have in place. (Such as the captcha image when registering, or limited posting access until a certain number or approved posts have been made etc.)
So these users register and act like they are just regular users for awhile, trying to write messages that imitate the special topic of the forum in question although they have no real knowledge or experience about it. (Hence copying from other sites.) Then after they've established themselves as "trusted" members, they start filling topics with spam or change their signature to include spam. The idea behind posting those links is not to annoy, but to increase search engine visibility for their products.

It's not just us, this is going on in other forums as well. The really sad thing is that we're living in a world where people are actually being paid to leave garbage in our virtual living rooms.

[Mervi]

And the fight continues... Thanks for all the reports you've been sending, it's very helpful! (For those of you who haven't noticed: there's a button beneath each post that you can use to report it if you suspect spam or other stupidities).

A brief note for the spammers: when copying pieces of reviews from amazon to post as your "opinion" here, at least make sure it's the correct book. ESPECIALLY if you're posting in one of the on-topic threads. I don't know if you were aware of this, but sometimes different authors use same title for their books.
#fail #lol #getarealjob

[Nuytsia]

It's just unreal that it is worth while for people to be paid to do that!!!!!!!!
Hey stop giving them tips Mervi
They may offer you a job!!!
It really must be a fulfilling career choice :rolleyes:

[Farseer]

I just wanted to add my thanks for the spam reports too as the number of spammers has increased significantly of late.

I am on here pretty often to check so it's funny how sneaky they can be, slipping in here between my visits. Great that we have the globe covered and someone or other is on here at some stage each day!

Spammers, if you're going to bother registering, get a bit creative why don't you? Hint: birthdates! Seriously...