Spammers getting a little more clever

Railwaymodeler · Post by **Railwaymodeler** » 04 Jul 2012 14:38

Was wondering when the spambots would catch on:

Seems that the latest forum spam here, has hidden links, of sort. Links here generally show as yellow color (Using the TT forum theme, as I do, and the winter TT theme they are green). Apparently, they now are specifying a black color for the links so they blend with the rest of the text. If one hovers a mouse over, then one sees a yellow underline. Attached is a picture that may show better what I mean.

FLHerne · Post by **FLHerne** » 04 Jul 2012 19:25

Also interesting that it's a topical post in an existing topic? Most of the ones I've seen are either new topics or just randomly stuck on the bottom of a few existing ones, with no attempt to fit into the existing discussion.

Post by **orudge** » 04 Jul 2012 21:09

Spammers have various devious means, indeed. We do usually notice any spam that gets posted reasonably quickly, however.

Railwaymodeler · Post by **Railwaymodeler** » 05 Jul 2012 00:10

FLHerne wrote:Also interesting that it's a topical post in an existing topic? Most of the ones I've seen are either new topics or just randomly stuck on the bottom of a few existing ones, with no attempt to fit into the existing discussion.

Seems that the AI spambots use, is getting pretty good. Anyone care to find the coding used for it? Might be fun to take a spambot's coding and make it into OTTD AI. Perhaps as a test, could have it randomly plant advertising signs all over, but instead of for real world products, make it into ads for players' transport companies (Might be interesting in multiplayer environments, for the laughs if nothing else!).

Now I wonder what spambot AI would be like if Chris Sawyer developed it along the lines of TT's AI. That would almost be funny.

doktorhonig · Post by **doktorhonig** » 05 Jul 2012 07:42

There's also non-automatic spam.

Lukenwolf · Post by **Lukenwolf** » 05 Jul 2012 12:31

The really "clever" spam is usually posted by humans. Now that most forums have hardened their defenses against spambots, scriptkiddies and other desperate souls are paid to spam forums manually.

Post by **Dave** » 05 Jul 2012 13:10

A lot of call-centre staff are doing it as a sideline.

We have (legit) staff in India finding information on products through a third-party. Same thing.

Illegal_Alien · Post by **Illegal_Alien** » 27 Jul 2012 22:31

Holy spam attack batman!

Can i nominate http://www.tt-forums.net/memberlist.php ... le&u=62320 for the best spammer award?

APDAF · Post by **APDAF** » 27 Jul 2012 22:33

HELP US PLEASE SROTU!

YNM · Post by **YNM** » 27 Jul 2012 22:36

C'MON ALMIGHTY SROTU !! ERASE THEM ALL !!!

@ ALL MODERATORS OF ANY TYPE : JUST LEAVE THE OLYMPIAD SHOW AND SEE THE FORUMS !!!

DeletedUser14 · Post by **DeletedUser14** » 27 Jul 2012 22:38

We need to report every single post that bot just made!

Illegal_Alien · Post by **Illegal_Alien** » 27 Jul 2012 22:39

Just send a message to Orudge wich i have on my skype account

YNM · Post by **YNM** » 27 Jul 2012 22:41

Illegal_Alien wrote:Just send a message to Orudge wich i have on my skype account

I have PM'd him to, also Raichase, Badger, andel and others... I can't remember exactly.

DeletedUser14 · Post by **DeletedUser14** » 27 Jul 2012 22:42

Perhaps a partial solution to the problem lies in this

: spambot.png (52.33 KiB) Viewed 3889 times

If a user has a decent amount of posts (say 30, or 50) but not two in one single thread, perhaps take away their posting privileges and/or hide their posts until a moderator/admin reviews the account?

Illegal_Alien · Post by **Illegal_Alien** » 27 Jul 2012 22:44

Nah dont restrain "legal" posters because some idiots are abusing the forum for spam. Just have more control/moderators to fix this kind of stuff.

YNM · Post by **YNM** » 27 Jul 2012 22:46

KasperVld wrote:Perhaps a partial solution to the problem lies in this

spambot.png
If a user has a decent amount of posts (say 30, or 50) but not two in one single thread, perhaps take away their posting privileges and/or hide their posts until a moderator/admin reviews the account?

No, I'd say don't post anything until they back and kill that extra fast weed.

He have 303 post now, much more faster than Alan fry

(Or how about if someone hijack the mods account and then kill them all ? I don't know TBH, this is so terrible and surprising as the opening just happen)

Illegal_Alien · Post by **Illegal_Alien** » 27 Jul 2012 22:48

Would love to take a mod account in this case, will be worth the permaban

YNM · Post by **YNM** » 27 Jul 2012 22:54

Or, for now, just lock the whole site, and unlock it at the time where mods are gathered.

Anyway, I'd say DONT POST ANYTHING AFTER THIS LINE. USE PM INSTEAD FOR A WHILE.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Illegal_Alien · Post by **Illegal_Alien** » 27 Jul 2012 22:56

No that wont help. And how to lock a site when no-one is online who can lock it or remove the stuff?

YNM · Post by **YNM** » 27 Jul 2012 23:05

Sorry for crossing my own rule, but it have shown in google search that erglerluci is, indeed, also a spam on other sites.
http://www.google.com/m?q=erglerluci&ie ... S:official

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