What exatcly are spammers

cloudddae · 2008-10-01 7:15 pm

hoping to gain by signing up at my forum? Recently we have had a rush of new people signing up at our forum. Up until yesterday this had not occurred.
Why all of the sudden?
I was letting them join at first. Gmail addy`s, looked harmless. Then it got a bit crazy. 7 people in one day? Red flag went up.
Googled the most recent one and found this site.
Ran all new members through your search, all botts. Sux, cause I was excited at first. I even welcomed the ones I let in.
Could they have harmed my forum curring the short time they were there?
What are the signs that something is amiss. I am a noob, please bear with me on this.

MysteryFCM · 2008-10-01 9:50 pm

What do spammers gain? exposure for their links > money

Do the spammers care which forums they hit? Nope, aslong as they can get their spam there

Could they have done any damage to your actual forum? Doubtful (spamming is far from the same as hacking)

What are the signs of a spammer? Usually the IP and/or e-mail address will give it away. Otherwise, their posts are a definate giveaway. Usual examples are;

1. Spam with links in the post itself
2. Spam with random rubbish but no links in the actual post - these have their links in the "Homepage" field of their profile.

Ax Slinger · 2008-10-01 10:41 pm

MysteryFCM wrote:

2. Spam with random rubbish but no links in the actual post - these have their links in the "Homepage" field of their profile.

Also, some spammers don't post at all. They just register a bunch of accounts, and put their website links in the the website field, and anything else they can put it into such as the forum signature, instant messenger links, or the field for the address for a photo gallery or something similar. This is then picked up by search engine spiders and other assorted user agents (bots) and that helps boost the page ranks for the websites they've linked to.

Then there are a few that post these seemingly innocent looking posts like this:

Hello all!
This is my first time on this site.
I would like to tell what I really like the topic "[random topic]".
I've been reading it for a while, and I have learned so much here.
So, I decided to try my luck asking a few questions...
How can you IM, PM or whatever you call it to certain members? .
I'd like to ask more questions about this project.
By the way, nice domain name [current forum's domain name].

I fell for that one not just once, but twice...

MacHeadCase · 2008-10-02 1:30 am

Or they have those "tag teams". I love 'em!

One spammer joins the forum and ask about a good DVD copier or video converter and the like. Then out of the blue, about 24 hours later, even if the first spammer already has plenty of answers, the second spammer joins and links to some app no one has ever heard of... a lot of times, Windows-only.

Doh! We are a Mac forum! LOL

A developer friend of mine says that many times those apps have been ripped off other developers (sometimes the rip artists will change a few lines of code but most times not) and have been repackaged. When you need some support, the company that sold you the application will either never reply or the website is closed down.

Ax Slinger · 2008-10-02 6:38 pm

MacHeadCase wrote:

A developer friend of mine says that many times those apps have been ripped off other developers (sometimes the rip artists will change a few lines of code but most times not) and have been repackaged.

Well, you know what they say about some of the countries there spammers and scammers come from. Even the governments use stolen software. So if they do it, that doesn't exactly set a good example for the people of the countries, does it? And some of those people are big time "Monkey See, Monkey Do" types...

MacHeadCase wrote:

When you need some support, the company that sold you the application will either never reply or the website is closed down.

If they even had one in the first place.

cloudddae · 2008-10-06 12:39 am

Thanks for the replies to my question. My spammers simply signed up, no posts were made.
Thanks to your site, I caught on to them and deleted their memberships.

MacHeadCase · 2008-10-06 1:24 am

It's best no to delete those spammer accounts (but do ban them!) and submit all the info you have on these spammers to Stop Forum Spam.

For this, you will need to sign up for an API key and then go to the Add a Spammer page.

This way you help all of us as we also help you when you come to this website to look up IPs and Spammer domain names like these.

#1 2008-10-01 7:15 pm

What exatcly are spammers

#2 2008-10-01 9:50 pm

Re: What exatcly are spammers

#3 2008-10-01 10:41 pm

Re: What exatcly are spammers

#4 2008-10-02 1:30 am

Re: What exatcly are spammers

#5 2008-10-02 6:38 pm

Re: What exatcly are spammers

#6 2008-10-06 12:39 am

Re: What exatcly are spammers

#7 2008-10-06 1:24 am

Re: What exatcly are spammers

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