Spammers are getting smarter (or at least trying)

[Shawn Gossman]

I have a forum all about hiking.

To mitigate spam, I approve all new member requests. Had this one in my Que today.



If it wasn't for the email (gave it away as a spammer), I might have considered this a legit member based on the username since.

My guess is that's it's AI spam scraping the topic of the forum and using it in the username.

Forum owners beware!

 

[Cpvr]

I've seen some of them as well, I'd block that email range though in the spam filter. I think some of them are running some type of AI bot to mass join forums.

 

[Mike30]

I will make an anti-spam/bot tool for forums... I just need a little more of time. but that's on the plans since long time. No AI bots will be able to go through, not even human spammers Just wait for it...

 

[Heatman]

I will make an anti-spam/bot tool for forums... I just need a little more of time. but that's on the plans since long time. No AI bots will be able to go through, not even human spammers Just wait for it...

It's going to be very helpful to forum owners when you finally pull off making the anti-spam/bot tool for forums because spamming is one of the biggest challenges communities deal with today. Moderators don't have a break because of spammers who made it through.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I've seen some of them as well, I'd block that email range though in the spam filter. I think some of them are running some type of AI bot to mass join forums.

That's what I've been doing - banning a whole email range. I also ban many gTLDs because who is really using those for domains and emails these days?

 

[Cpvr]

That's what I've been doing - banning a whole email range. I also ban many gTLDs because who is really using those for domains and emails these days?

Exactly, you're absolutely right. I also have "approved" members on for now on my forum. I get hit with a bunch of spammers a few weeks back, then I banned those ips/ranges and emails.

I should deactivate it again though lol.

 

[Heatman]

Exactly, you're absolutely right. I also have "approved" members on for now on my forum. I get hit with a bunch of spammers a few weeks back, then I banned those ips/ranges and emails.

I should deactivate it again though lol.

It's funny how some of them thinks they are smarter than the person who invested his time, energy and money into running his forum believing they can sneak in without being found out.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

True human spammers just don't realize how long some of us have been in the game.

 

[Heatman]

True human spammers just don't realize how long some of us have been in the game.

Most of them do know but they feel that irrespective of how long the forum owners have been in the game, as long as they manage to sneak in and pull off a single spam, they would achieve part of their goals.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Most of them do know but they feel that irrespective of how long the forum owners have been in the game, as long as they manage to sneak in and pull off a single spam, they would achieve part of their goals.

We need ways to alert us when signature has been changed.

I'm sure there is a way to alert when posts have been changed. I know you can always restrict editing times.

 

[Heatman]

We need ways to alert us when signature has been changed.

I'm sure there is a way to alert when posts have been changed. I know you can always restrict editing times.

I don't think I've seen any kind of alerts for any changes made on signatures until you see their post with the signature.

As for posts, I've seen it several times on different boards where the time the post was edited is known too.

 

[Mike30]

It's going to be very helpful to forum owners when you finally pull off making the anti-spam/bot tool for forums because spamming is one of the biggest challenges communities deal with today. Moderators don't have a break because of spammers who made it through.

I will bring that tool further to the top on my list then. Next week I will have more time to sit down and do coding...

Yes, moderators should be busy assisting good members, not with bots or scammers/spammers

 

[Heatman]

I will bring that tool further to the top on my list then. Next week I will have more time to sit down and do coding...

Yes, moderators should be busy assisting good members, not with bots or scammers/spammers

Take your time and get the coding right because it better take some time and come out perfectly fine than being rushed and it end up like Meta's mod's anti-spam bots that are completely useless.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I will bring that tool further to the top on my list then. Next week I will have more time to sit down and do coding...

Yes, moderators should be busy assisting good members, not with bots or scammers/spammers

If you make this addon and it works great, I'll definitely promote it and become a posterchild of it LOL

 

[Cedric]

I hate it when people act like a normal member and then post links that are obviously spam attempts. Sometimes they quote posts and hide links, or just hide links generally speaking.

This is a recent example on Admin Junkies, where you don't need to do much trouble to find many more:



Hidden until you check closely:

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I'm dealing with one on my general forum. She posts normal posts but occasionally will post positive posts about a Las Vegas bus touring company and then link it.

I haven't banned her yet because I like to call her out on it and then also say I heard a lot of negative stuff about that bus service. They don't like it when you say something negative about the company they link to!

 

[Mike30]

I hate it when people act like a normal member and then post links that are obviously spam attempts. Sometimes they quote posts and hide links, or just hide links generally speaking.

This is a recent example on Admin Junkies, where you don't need to do much trouble to find many more

You said you are not interested in MicroLikes...

But MicroLikes fixes that problem... You just don't know what MicroLikes does at all, but you know you are not interested lol...

 

[Cedric]

You said you are not interested in MicroLikes...

But MicroLikes fixes that problem... You just don't know what MicroLikes does at all, but you know you are not interested lol...

Invision has its own spam defense, there's rarely any spam attempts on Administrata (Was talking about AJ btw, not Administrata) - Not saying it doesn't happen, I just moderate the board on sneaky spam attempts and there's only a one way ticket - gone.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Invision has its own spam defense, there's rarely any spam attempts on Administrata (Was talking about AJ btw, not Administrata) - Not saying it doesn't happen, I just moderate the board on sneaky spam attempts and there's only a one way ticket - gone.

What's Invision's spam defenses?

 

[Heatman]

I hate it when people act like a normal member and then post links that are obviously spam attempts. Sometimes they quote posts and hide links, or just hide links generally speaking.

This is a recent example on Admin Junkies, where you don't need to do much trouble to find many more:

View attachment 506

Hidden until you check closely:
View attachment 507

Yeah, it's a very big problem on Admin Junkies especially with new members who joined as well as so many other posts that came from merging Bizdustry with AJ. Bizdustry had lots of such linked spam posts especially in the investment and cryptocurrency sections.