Spammers on Forumosa

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#1

Original Title: Is there no way to stop the FIND SEX spammer?

This person isn’t doing it by automation is he? Isn’t he manually sitting down and creating one post after another? I assume the admins here block his computer each time he does it, right? So he’s apparently using a different computer each time, probably in an internet cafe. Is that right?

Obviously he’s got a very small dick and is a worthless loser. And I assume no one is dumb enough to click on his links.

But isn’t there some way to stop the little worm?

Better yet, is he violating some law? Is there some way he could be traced and turned over to the authorities? Or sued?

#2

Is there at least a way to filter certain posters so we don’t have to see this crap?

#3

Wow, this guy must be busy: google.com/search?q=phpbb+findsexrea :wink:

It’s a SPAM script for PHPBB forums where it can post without having to log in. Either that or somebody’s paying an army of cheap office workers to do it. A captcha mod would probably stop it.

#4

So now he’s selling drugs on forumosa (or at least using that as the bait for his fraud) – online pharmacy spam.

Is it impossible to block them because they’re coming from a dynamic IP address?

#5

They could set it so that only registered users can post (spam bots are usually too stupid to register), but I guess there is a reason why those forums are set to allow anonymous postings.

#6

Simply use a CAPTCHA when unregistered users want to post.

#7

Who is this idiot jumping from thread to thread posting video links? Can anything be done to stop him? Is it a former forumosan with a grudge?

#8

It’s generally more helpful if you give us the poster’s exact name, or at least a link to one of the posts. :wink:

#9

[quote=“Quarters”]Who is this idiot jumping from thread to thread posting video links? Can anything be done to stop him? Is it a former forumosan with a grudge?[/quote]There have actually been quite a few such accounts. You have to be quick to see them, though, as admins are usually very swift at deleting the accounts.

They’re not former Forumosans. They are “professional” spammers who do this kind of thing on quite a few sites.

#10

[color=green]Note: This post was posted in the Technology forum. I started a thread called :“Spreading viruses online; why?” and it was merged with this thread in feedback. [/color]

Check out this post. (only available until admin temps it, or deletes it.)

forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … 196#682196

I’ve seen the link, haven’t clicked on it, but Dangermouse says it (the link posted in that thread)will install a virus on your computer. Why do people do that? Is there another reason aside from being malicious? Genuine question; I’m computer stupid.

It’s from a new poster named Erjalen3. The link is to a supposed sex-blog.

#11

Nowadays most of the malware is written for personal financial gain whereas in the past people wrote malware just to show off their computer skills.

By having a virus infecting your system they can gain control over your computer and use it to:

  • Infect more computers.
  • Collect personal information like account names, passwords, social security number. And with that raid your bank account or use it for social engineering.
  • Send spam (this is one of the reasons why spam is like killing weed, banning one IP doesn’t hurt the spammer a bit).
  • DDoS(Distributed Denial of Service) attack a server. Sending a lot request from a lot of different sources to a specific server can cause it to overload and crash, resulting in (significant) financial loss especially if the targeted server is hosting an online shop which is the company’s primary source of income.

Computer security is all about user awareness and a bit of common sense (which obviously a lot of people are lacking these days :p)

#12

Seems like we’ve been having a lot of problems with that on 'mosa lately. Is there any way we could cut it down? One way eslcafe.com has dealt with it in their forums is to require people setting up accounts to write a brief explanation of why they want to join the site, and then grant approval after that. They aren’t stringent at all, but the extra hurdle sure slows down the spammers. They go other places - like here!

#13

Making sign up procedure more difficult will help against automated spammers but won’t stop people like Erjalen3 I think. Another method would be by not allowing new members to post links or at least not make them clickable until, either the user reached a x amount of posts or is registered for a minimum amount of time. (It should be possible for the forum software to parse a post, made by new users, for links and remove them. Like posts now already are being parsed so that smiley’s and url’s are properly shown)

#14

It doesn’t matter what kind of technology is invented, half of humanity will use it for evil purposes. Viruses are just a reflection of the spiritual state of humanity.

#15

I told one of the admins on the last HH they should start excepting only manually new members, it’s not that 'mosa has like 100’s a day … today there are several threads spammed from the ‘vibrator’ account …

Anyways, cliking on a link is not advisable, it will open a page, empty or not containing code that installs malware like keyloggers and stuff, backdoors … so never open these pages … and look out for new usernames … I can mostly see in a second if it’s a new one and than check if there are more threads with the same name within the same time frame.

The admins told me they are bots, automated to infiltrate the forum.

I know that there some new countermeasures available to prevent illicit subscribtion but i don’t know if they can be installed on 'mosa.

Anyways, 'mosa is not the only website that has problems … just this morning I got spam from a hijacked Belgian government computer, I sent an e-mail to the ‘official’ site’s webmaster to inform him about the abuse.

#16

Guitar reranch (www.reranch.com) recently had tons of spammer advertising porn or drugs or whatever. Now they require all users to fill in the location or else they get deleted. It might help against automated bots. Also alot of site has those weird characters that you have to enter yourself…

I dont know what to do against a DOS… espeically if it is distributed.

#17

[quote=“rahimiiii”]Also alot of site has those weird characters that you have to enter yourself…[/quote]So does Forumosa, doesn’t it ? And email verification. Gus, Malc ? How are they getting in ?

#18

Malc or was it Maoman told me they did, but the bots still got in … I know of sites that use the same system but ask for the color of one of the characters instead of the character itself … but a manual follow up would be better I guess …

#19

[quote=“joesax”]There have actually been quite a few such accounts. You have to be quick to see them, though, as admins are usually very swift at deleting the accounts.

They’re not former Forumosans. They are “professional” spammers who do this kind of thing on quite a few sites.[/quote]

Lately it seems the spammers have been getting faster creating new accounts than the admins are at deleting them. On one of the other threads there’s been some discussion about what else could be done, but here seems like a more appropriate place for it. Are the admins considering any changes?

#20

[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”][quote=“rahimiiii”]Also alot of site has those weird characters that you have to enter yourself…[/quote]So does Forumosa, doesn’t it ? And email verification. Gus, Malc ? How are they getting in ?[/quote][quote=“belgian pie”]Malc or was it Maoman told me they did, but the bots still got in … I know of sites that use the same system but ask for the color of one of the characters instead of the character itself … but a manual follow up would be better I guess …[/quote]I was wondering about this, too. Maybe the spammers sign up manually, then enter the account details into a bot program and leave that to do the rest. After all, we’re not getting huge numbers of spam accounts. Enough to be annoying, but I think not as many as there would be if the spambots were fully automated. That’s my guess, anyway.