Spammers or bots?

[dee-u]

I have seen and reported posts of some members which does posts non-sense, this is one of them again, what are they?

Thhis one have the same signatures as the one I reported recently and it was banned and all its posts were deleted.

[MartinLiss]

It's taken care of.

[dee-u]

The posts of the other member which I reported were all deleted, doesn't this apply also to this member? His posts are all garbage which pollutes our forum.

[gep13]

dee-u,

The member that you linked to seemed to post a valid question over here:

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=622925

Gary

[dee-u]

No, the member actually just copied the question of the OP, it was not his original question.

[gep13]

Woah, you are right!!

I never noticed that, I thought it was just an extension to the original thread.

I notice that the member has now been banned.

Good catch!!

Gary

[dee-u]

That was the scheme of the other member I reporte and was banned also.

[Nightwalker83]

I would reckon he was a spammer since there is a random question that need to be answered upon registeration. This is the current question as an example of what I'm talking about.

At the top of this page is a horizontal toolbar, with several words. The first reads "Internet.com". The 2nd reads "IT professionals", the 3rd reads "developers". What does the 4th one say?

[dee-u]

I am not sure if I am correct but I think I remember when a new member's posts will not be shown until a moderator/admin approves them, I think such will help in mitigating this problem.

[Nightwalker83]

I am not sure if I am correct but I think I remember when a new member's posts will not be shown until a moderator/admin approves them, I think such will help in mitigating this problem.

Yes, you are correct! That happens until the post has reached 10 posts I believe.

[si_the_geek]

The approval system helps massively, but isn't perfect. Unfortunately some people find ways to get past it, so extra work is needed at times.

You guys are very good at reporting things like this situation to us, and I'd like to take this opportunity to again say thanks to all of you who do it.


In this particular case it certainly seems to be a manual spammer, and it is the same one as last week (same links and techniques).

All of the posts by this new member were deleted earlier today.

[JPnyc]

Currently there are no bots getting through. Any spam that makes it to the forum is human generated, and 99% of that comes from Asia, about 1% from Nigeria. Of the Asian spam, 90% of that comes from India.

[dee-u]

The approval system helps massively, but isn't perfect. Unfortunately some people find ways to get past it, so extra work is needed at times.

You guys are very good at reporting things like this situation to us, and I'd like to take this opportunity to again say thanks to all of you who do it.


In this particular case it certainly seems to be a manual spammer, and it is the same one as last week (same links and techniques).

All of the posts by this new member were deleted earlier today.

VBForums has been an 'online' home to me ever since joining it, and I want to keep it tidy and protect it from trespassers. =)

[gep13]

VBForums has been an 'online' home to me ever since joining it, and I want to keep it tidy and protect it from trespassers. =)

Can't agree more!!

[Nightwalker83]

VBForums has been an 'online' home to me ever since joining it, and I want to keep it tidy and protect it from trespassers. =)

I can't even remember what a real home looks like.

[dilettante]

The approval system helps massively, but isn't perfect. Unfortunately some people find ways to get past it, so extra work is needed at times.

You guys are very good at reporting things like this situation to us, and I'd like to take this opportunity to again say thanks to all of you who do it.


In this particular case it certainly seems to be a manual spammer, and it is the same one as last week (same links and techniques).

All of the posts by this new member were deleted earlier today.

See Amazon Mechanical Turk.

[si_the_geek]

Yep, automated systems can only do so much.

[Nightwalker83]

Yep, automated systems can only do so much.

Which, begs the question why shouldn't they be A.I? That way the system can finish writing itself without having to wait for a coder. However, that would add to the problem of bots.