Spamwar - I'm flagging as fast as I can but.....


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I just flagged one in web site feed back. Sneaky buggers!


I will say this: listening to Duel of the Fates makes flagging spam posts more epic than it has any right to be.

Silver Crusade Contributor

No Youtube link?

Also, PFS General is hit hard.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Here ya go. :)


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Oh my god I just noticed one of the spammers has the handle onemoretry.

That's so pathetic it's adorable.

Grand Lodge

And they're back in General discussion. They're coming in every 30 seconds are so! Pick them off one by one.

SM


Get this one next. He's posting in an already-established thread.


pH unbalanced wrote:
New personal best: Flagged one created 4 seconds earlier

Ahhh!!!! You best my 5 second time! Back to flagging. Must flag faster. Kindle don't fail me now!

Dragoncat wrote:
Get this one next. He's posting in an already-established thread.

There was one in Mark's stalker thread that I flagged earlier, is that the one you linked?


Yes.


Hayato Ken wrote:

Can´t you just block korean IP´s?

That new spamwave is korean and most probably comes from there, as there most probably arent many Pathfinder Players (yet).

That there aren't many is not good enough reason to ban those that exist, especially if Paizo ever wants to make inroads into South Korea like they did China.

Liberty's Edge

The boards are far cleaner now than they were yesterday. Many thanks to all involved.


Spot spam - flag it - it's deleted - refresh forum - spot spam...

I'll say this for them, they're persistent.


This is just like fighting Tyranids... except, much much cheaper. ;-)

Silver Crusade Contributor

I keep seeing spam threads pop up in the sidebar... but a few moments later, when I refresh, they're gone.

Either someone's on the job (in which case, thank you) or they've finally got some sort of tool up and running (in which case, thank you).

Silver Crusade Contributor

They're not just being hidden, either. ^_^


Yeah first morning in a while that the sidebar wasn't swamped as soon as I logged on.

Liberty's Edge

Perhaps that was the maintenance the site underwent yesterday ...

Liberty's Edge

I believe we are fighting robots adapted through human IQ with robots adapted through human IQ AND collaboration with human sentries.

Best of both worlds makes short work of evil bots so far.


Either a moderator is really fast this morning or the downtime yesterday afternoon put a search and destroy filter in for the Korean spam.

Was watching General Discussion, saw three posts and was waiting for the fourth so I refreshed. Bam! All were gone.

Just saw the same thing happen, two posts one about 2 minutes old the other just over a minute old. I had flagged them at about 15 seconds each and all of a sudden, Bam! they were all gone.

Good job guys!!!!

-- david

edit: Again again. 4 flagged and within minutes gone !!!!
edit2: I really hope that it is a filter and not Cort wielding his physic ban hammer.


Yes, I just noticed how fast they're disappearing. My compliments to whoever is responsible, since that person obviously does a really good job.

Software Developer

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Very happy to hear that the forums are more palatable to everyone this morning!

We all appreciate your understanding and cooperation. In order to keep our enemies ignorant, I can't say much else beyond that.

But, hey... Half the fun is in speculation, right? :)

As usual, please continue not posting in spam threads, and let us know if you spot any wild new tactics from them.

Cold eyes, cold heart!


Seems like they may be adapting and slipping through a bit more now. Some seem to have made it to the 2 minute mark.

Edit: Nevermind that seems to be about the limit of existence.


What do they even gain from spamming here?


Icyshadow wrote:
What do they even gain from spamming here?

Technically, little or nothing. However, they don't (yet) realize that; I think our lax anti-spam policies in the past -- well, I say "our" but really mean "Paizo's," doncha know? -- may have put us on someone's valued-target list and it could take a while to get off.

Rather like my still getting junk mail for the person who sold the house to the person who sold the house to the person who sold the house to me.

Dark Archive

This guy made it past 10 minutes. Get him!


And they're coming back...

Community & Digital Content Director

5 people marked this as a favorite.

I can assure this thread that our some members of the tech team (thank you Gary and Winslow!) are putting a nice shiny new red coat of paint onto the banhammer. Thank you for being patient with us while we iron out exactly which decals to slap on the side for maximum power. :)

Liberty's Edge

The spam keeps popping in but most is vanishing after only a minute or two.

There is one that's been there more than 30 minutes though:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2sovd

and one for at least 10:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2sowb


They have come again!


This idiot thinks he's soooo clever, posting in an established thread...


More spammers
http://paizo.com/people/SgsdiyWsdfert
http://paizo.com/people/RfghjCvbnmvf
http://paizo.com/people/PosfkeSdrfvri


Was just flagging in PF RPG Advice. Didn't think I'd get to flag anything tonight.


The spam in that subforum seems to be sticking around. Clearly the banhammer doesnt go looking for advice - it just acts.

Software Developer

That first coat of red paint Robot was talking about appears to have boosted the Banhammer's ego score. Sometimes it gets feisty and likes to make executive decisions.

Thanks for keeping us abreast of developments, everyone!


If you're going to continue reducing spam like this, your going to have to come up with a new forum game for us so we don't get bored.

If you're still looking for stickers for the hammer, you have to get a Monster sticker don't you?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The Ban Hammer in action!

Grand Lodge

I was having fun sniping them last night. It gave me something to do while waiting for the pdf to go live for everyone else.

SM


Awesome to see that, when i right click to open 6 more of them, they had already been removed.

Do the mods have a level dip in ninja by chance?


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Does anyone know how their business model works?

They're still merrily spamming away, despite it being (presumably) obvious that there's negligible benefit to them. I can only presume they are an outsourced IT "service" and get paid-per-post - so the fact they're not actually ranking higher on search engine results doesn't matter to them.

If I was paying them out of my marketing budget and found out they were basically charging me for meaningless activity, I think I'd consider it tantamount to fraud.


Personal record: 3 seconds

And I found a spammer who posted some english lyrics with the webside name embedded in the text.


This guy has some false hope.


Steve Geddes wrote:
Does anyone know how their business model works?

Yes.

Quote:


They're still merrily spamming away, despite it being (presumably) obvious that there's negligible benefit to them.

It's not at all obvious.

They're not targeting people on this forum, they're targeting the Google spiders; the actual operatives were given this location as a target because no one's checked recently to see if Google spiders actually index this site.

I'm also willing to place a small wager that there are other search engine spiders that simply ignore that flag, and those search engines will still see and process all the links.


I understand why they post these things.

I mean I wonder how they're still spamming even when their posts are being taken down immediately. They could go somewhere else and get much more bang for their buck.


Orfamay Quest wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
Does anyone know how their business model works?

Yes.

So how does it? Do they advertise somewhere? How much does it cost?


Steve Geddes wrote:
Orfamay Quest wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
Does anyone know how their business model works?

Yes.

So how does it? Do they advertise somewhere? How much does it cost?

Most of it is word-of-mouth, because they would in practice be advertising a violating-people's-terms-of-service service, which would open them up for liability from the target company. This one is also using a botnet, so it's highly illegal for other reasons.

Doesn't make the business not profitable, but it does mean that you have to know someone who knows someone. In that regard, it's not unlike dealing cocaine. You probably don't know where your connection gets his stuff or who he knows,... and the higherups like it that way. If you nark on your connection, then he gets shut down, but the big operation continues.


Steve Geddes wrote:


I mean I wonder how they're still spamming even when their posts are being taken down immediately. They could go somewhere else and get much more bang for their buck.

The "research arm" of the business, the one that picks which sites to flood, is different than the "operations arm." Either research hasn't yet twigged that this site is no longer as vulnerable as it was two years ago, or it just doesn't care. The costs per post are low enough that a certain amount of wastage and lossage are budgeted in.


Orfamay Quest wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
Orfamay Quest wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
Does anyone know how their business model works?

Yes.

So how does it? Do they advertise somewhere? How much does it cost?

Most of it is word-of-mouth, because they would in practice be advertising a violating-people's-terms-of-service service, which would open them up for liability from the target company. This one is also using a botnet, so it's highly illegal for other reasons.

Doesn't make the business not profitable, but it does mean that you have to know someone who knows someone. In that regard, it's not unlike dealing cocaine. You probably don't know where your connection gets his stuff or who he knows,... and the higherups like it that way. If you nark on your connection, then he gets shut down, but the big operation continues.

Cheers. I guess dealing that way means you give up on accountability, so you'all never know you're paying for meaningless activity.


Steve Geddes wrote:
Orfamay Quest wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
Orfamay Quest wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:
Does anyone know how their business model works?

Yes.

So how does it? Do they advertise somewhere? How much does it cost?

Most of it is word-of-mouth, because they would in practice be advertising a violating-people's-terms-of-service service, which would open them up for liability from the target company. This one is also using a botnet, so it's highly illegal for other reasons.

Doesn't make the business not profitable, but it does mean that you have to know someone who knows someone. In that regard, it's not unlike dealing cocaine. You probably don't know where your connection gets his stuff or who he knows,... and the higherups like it that way. If you nark on your connection, then he gets shut down, but the big operation continues.

Cheers. I guess dealing that way means you give up on accountability, so you'all never know you're paying for meaningless activity.

Well, you're paying for increased sales. No sales increase means you stop paying.

But, yes, you really might not want to know just how the increased sales are coming about.


I doubt whoever is paying cares - I think they'd be much more concerned about spending money for posts which last two minutes rather than better targeted posts which last two days.

There was a four hour period earlier where three (I think) people were making two posts each, then creating new accounts as those were deleted. The cycle was around two or three minutes - I guess that's six extra posts for Google to count - but it could have been hundreds if they were on less heavily policed sites.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

What surprises me most is that there seems to be no way to go after these people legally. I'm sure the fact that they are (apparently) in a different country doesn't help, but still ...

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