More spam

smoke665 · Nov 2, 2022

I'm guessing somewhere there is a pimple face computer whiz kid with time on his hands that's feeding his weirdo humor making TPF mods jump through hoops to try and stop him. :bouncingsmileys:

limr · Nov 2, 2022

Pretty sure it's a bot.

480sparky · Nov 2, 2022

If it's a bot, why the 2- and 3-letter mystery posts before the spam dam breaks?

limr · Nov 2, 2022

480sparky said:
If it's a bot, why the 2- and 3-letter mystery posts before the spam dam breaks?

I don't know. It could be an algorithm that is setting up the accounts and posting the initial posts, and then humans come in to edit the existing post and create the others? Or it could be humans creating accounts and those first posts to 'tag' the bot to allow it to start posting 10-20 threads at a time? Or it could be a whole factory of people whose sole job is to create new accounts, post to make sure they aren't blocked, and then start spamming the forum.

One way or another, it's a more sophisticated set up than the usual spam or a disgruntled hacker. China certainly has the manpower but also the technical knowledge to make the bot messages more difficult to block, and not just forum spam, but robo spam calls, email scams...

480sparky · Nov 2, 2022

The random short posts (f56, r7h, 1yi etc) are a huge red flag of what's to come.

snowbear · Nov 2, 2022

480sparky said:
The random short posts (f56, r7h, 1yi etc) are a huge red flag of what's to come.

I'm on a couple of other boards that require a few posts in specific forums before you can start posting in the general areas. I agree that these may be the equivalent.

Ozzie_Traveller · Nov 2, 2022

RAZKY said:
I'm curious - what does this spam do besides irritate? This is the only place I've ever seen anything like it, but I only belong to one other social media forum. Do other sites have better filters, or more moderators online all the time, or does someone have it in for the Photo Forum? Looks like you folks are doing what you can, and I'll shut up about it now!

G'day all

As I have mentioned before - I was a mod on the recently-closed UK Photography Forum. Part of my activities (along with the other mods) was to zap the occasional spam msg that sneaked into the site ... and being Sydney Aus based, the 12-hour time difference made it easy to do, so that by the time "you lot up there" got out of bed, it was all deleted

They also had a filtering system for admin-approval of new arrivals, and it was occasionally found that a new member applicant would be passed as 'okay' then a month later the spam and advertising would start. That quickly earned them a 'kill' code

Phil

missislozar · Nov 3, 2022

Hello! Really so much spam on the forum? I'm just new, I was at only a few threads and there seemed to be no spam...

480sparky · Nov 3, 2022

missislozar said:
Hello! Really so much spam on the forum? I'm just new, I was at only a few threads and there seemed to be no spam...

They pile up during the night. They're cleaned up by the time you got here.

Rickbb · Nov 3, 2022

As LIMR has said, those random short bursts of nonsense text are searchable tags that humans post, (copy and pasted), to let the bot software know where the account was authenticated and to start the flood.

They use predefined usernames and passwords, and the bot software uses a search engine looking for those text lines, then logs in, and viola. All this happens in less than a minute including the human that creates the account and logs in to post the text.

Some are work from home dark web kind of people or a low/no wage slave in a crime/shady deal syndicate. The few pennies they earn from a successful click on the link or infection from the hapless user that clicks on the link is nothing to most of us. But it adds up to a living for some. It's like any pyramid or MLM scheme, the top of the pyramid makes out well, the others not so much.

Maybe the admins could make the first post of a new user go to a restricted folder and run through an AI of some kind to see that it's just gibberish and block the account? But then the syndicate would just resort to a normal language sentence that a new user would likely post defeating the text scan. Oh well, just rambling here.

Warhorse · Nov 4, 2022

I do not know of or have an answer to this "spam' problem, but I belong to a varied group of forums, and this is the only one with this particular problem.

terri · Nov 4, 2022

The TPF techs and site owners have been made aware of this. The daily team here keeps things tidy while we wait on them to make the call on additional spam ware extensions, or whatever it will take.

RAZKY · Nov 10, 2022

terri said:
The TPF techs and site owners have been made aware of this. The daily team here keeps things tidy while we wait on them to make the call on additional spam ware extensions, or whatever it will take.

Sure would be great if we had some TPH techs and site owners who actually cared about this crap! It's too stupid to even comment on.

Ozzie_Traveller · Nov 10, 2022

RAZKY said:
Sure would be great if we had some TPH techs and site owners who actually cared about this crap! It's too stupid to even comment on.

G'day mate

May I say that "I think that you're being a bit harsh" ... people here do have lives to lead rather than sitting at the Admin keyboard 24 hrs a day just waiting to pounce upon someone's nasty message text

I think the fact that the spam =is= deleted quickly rather than being left there for 2 or 3 days is a credit to the team members who keep this forum going

Phil

480sparky · Nov 10, 2022

Ozzie_Traveller said:
....
I think the fact that the spam =is= deleted quickly rather than being left there for 2 or 3 days is a credit to the team members who keep this forum going

Phil

The flip side is........ this has been going on for MONTHS.