Spam threads - and their increasing number...

[Savvypro]

I've started this thread to discuss the issue of the spam threads which keep popping up.

Examples, ask I type this post - are:

"Scooters for sale" thread: http://www.energeticforum.com/announ...ters-sale.html
"Recognized Golf Drivers By Taylormade" thread: http://www.energeticforum.com/announ...aylormade.html
"Actively playing golf Instructions Information to get Out of Golfing Enthusiasts" thread: http://www.energeticforum.com/announ...thusiasts.html
"Basic Suggestions to the Newcomers of Golfing" thread: http://www.energeticforum.com/announ...s-golfing.html

"More of Marc Jacobs Handbags" thread: http://www.energeticforum.com/paths/...-handbags.html

"Myths about piles" thread: http://www.energeticforum.com/health...out-piles.html

What all these threads have in common is as follows:

New user
Very low post count - their posts only consist of spam threads, that they have created - for the single purpose of gaining a link back to their target site.

Their goal is the link, because they believe that the more links they get to a site, the greater SEO effect it will have on their search engine rankings.

When the fact is that google (who is the main search engine they target) has moved on to more sophisticated means of determining who should be where in the search engine results. Basically the search engines have moved on, while the people who are manually doing the spam posting - are still doing it as if they were still back in 2004.

Anyway...

The solution is to remove their ability to gain the link.

So all new users should have the ability to create posts with active links removed, until they have actually contributed to the forum - in the form of a minimum number of posts.

Another option would also be to remove the ability of new users, from creating new threads until they have a minimum post count as well, but the minimum post count for thread creation should be higher than that for links.

The software running this forum should have that ability.

As it stands, this thread is an easy target. Only worsened by the Copyright bit at the bottom of the page (which should not be in HTML, but should be in image form).

[blackchisel97]

Second that I usually report them as soon as they pop. Bunch of a******s.


V

[charly2]

Another option would also be to remove the ability of new users, from creating new threads until they have a minimum post count as well, but the minimum post count for thread creation should be higher than that for links.

I think this is the best solution to stop all those mf.

[Savvypro]

You want to know how much of a joke the spam issue is, take a look at the following thread: http://www.energeticforum.com/genera...worldwide.html

Actually it's ironic, a thread about offering a service to Spam 10,000 forums, something no human could manually do.

For posterity I've quoted the post below:

Get amazing online web traffic using amazing xrumer blast today. We are able post your custom post up to 10K forums around the web, get thousands of backlinks and great online web traffic in shortest time. Most affordable and most powerful service for web traffic and backlinks in the world!!!!
Just for $55 your post will be published to 10000 forums worldwide your website will get insatnt traffic and massive increase in rankings just after few days or weeks. Order now:
xrumer service

[Nadda]

Yeah thats crazy, pay 55 bucks to advertise to a bunch of people who dont care about what your selling. Why not pay towards legit advertising that actually targets your audience. People spam the heck out of everything, every kind of message system and chat rooms always have spam. Thats why anyone using spam is wasting their time, everyone uses it and nobody reads it.

It even sucks how people will buy good domain names to advertise, just because they know it will naturally get traffic and earn money. Nothing wrong there but its like mission impossible to create a website and find a good name for it lol. That and companies that buy domain names just to re-sell them.

[Pierre Monteux]

The minimum post count for live links is a good idea. Disabling links in the signature is also a good idea.

This website does not have a robots.txt file. It may not slow the bots down, but blocking profile pages by using robots.txt to disallow crawlers from looking at them, means links to personal websites there are not elevated in rankings.


One thing I resorted to on a phpbb forum I help run, is set the auto allow links level high, and manually approve genuine users sooner.

[Savvypro]

The minimum post count for live links is a good idea. Disabling links in the signature is also a good idea.

This website does not have a robots.txt file. It may not slow the bots down, but blocking profile pages by using robots.txt to disallow crawlers from looking at them, means links to personal websites there are not elevated in rankings.


One thing I resorted to on a phpbb forum I help run, is set the auto allow links level high, and manually approve genuine users sooner.

At the moment, the signature looks to be only viewable when you login - so no viewable (by search engines) link is gained.

[Savvypro]

The following thread is a good example of a spam thread:
http://www.energeticforum.com/genera...avel-tips.html

Although the thread creator does post some info. All the posts and threads they have created, have all been geared for links back to their site.

The other posts except for the one by Tesla_Son, all have spam links in their signature box.

[Savvypro]

How about some Russian spam - see:
http://www.energeticforum.com/genera...on/8581-a.html

For posterity I've quoted the post below:

вэн фэт компл&
средства для похудения расчёт собственного веса как можно быстро похудеть? диета для похудения горький шоколад, диета для похудения попки комплекс для похудения афродита отзывы комплекс упражнений дома для похудения, быстро похудеть на 5 кг диета как быстро похудеть и потом не набрать киллограмы сайт диетолога марины трифонова, самый хороший способ похудеть сайт лучших в мире диет как похудеть подростку на 4 кг быстро, срочно похудеть в голени эффективная и быстрас диета для похудения быстро похудеть, народные советы, быстро похудеть на 30 кг диета для похудения бедер, ног комплекс для похудения юнона отзывы, как быстро похудеть бедрам с помощью диеты как быстро похудеть турбослим чай как быстро похудетьот занятий шейпингом, психологический форум способы похудеть косметические средства для похудения как быстро похудеть за три дняъ

[krzysiek]

The program is called Xrumer. It can bypass captcha, so best bet is to put some type of "What is the colour of this forums logo"? type of question rather than captcha, as it does not know how to answer all questions like that above.

Do that, and you stop the registrations, and then you stop the spam. Don't try and keep up with deleting posts made by the software, stop it at the source and you're fine It would be best to keep several questions on hand and have the forum serve one of many questions while a user is registering. Then the only way software will make it past is if a user SPECIFICALLY tells the software the answers (requires them to manually work out answers for all specific questions) or if the answers are too general "What is 2+2?" the software will already have such questions in it's database.

Another alternative is like:

"Wh*t is 2 pl*s tw0?"

Something like that and even though the software would technically know the answer, it won't be able to recognise it as it is not in the form it is used to.

[Nadda]

krzysiek, great post. I've seen other forums ask questions like that and didnt really know why. How does the program bypass captcha? Thats the gargled words right? I thought that was the point of it, to stop these programs..

[krzysiek]

Sorry for my late reply!

The programs are made to bypass the captcha, since without bypassing it - the programs would be useless.

The program Xrumer can crack the captcha all on it's own. Uses a bit of processing power, but we have plenty of that these days. If it fails, it will just re-try. It's quite good at cracking captcha.

Otherwise, software that does not have the potential to crack the captcha, they usually integrate with a service like Fast,24/7 and well supported Captcha Bypass service - Bypass Captcha where they crack the captcha, then send it back to the software so the software can enter in the decrypted code. I hope this makes some sense.

So the best way to remove the spam is to remove a captcha limitation, and put a "question" instead as the software cannot answer all questions like that. Some it will know, but a forum specific question it won't, such as "Who runs this forum" for example - but yeah, newcomers wouldn't know the answer to that one yet - but you get the idea!

[Savvypro]

Just found a spam user ( Sekme1 ) with 41 posts all with link spam.

[Nadda]

5 pages of spam...what the hell

[Mad Scientist]

How about this for a new business opportunity for some computer geek?

Start a company that when given the name of a spammer they would then load up the spammers site with spam.