SPAM

[Dustin McAmera]

For now, I made a new 'Activity stream' that doesn't show me the fora they seem to use most, and also switched to the No Sidebars theme.

[AlanKlein]

I;ve gotten pages and pages of Airline posts when clicking on New Posts, my usual procedure when I log on.  What's the best way for now of avoiding these spam messages?

[Dustin McAmera]

 

You could just click on 'Forums' at the top, and bookmark the page that takes you to. You still see a little of the spam, but not much.

This is what I have done:

Under  'Forums' in the top line, click on 'My Activity Streams', then 'Create New Stream' (green, at the bottom of the list). That opens a big box of options. I chose these:

'Show me': Content items only

'Read status': Content I haven't read

'Content type': Topics

Then at the right of 'Topics' there's a cog-wheel which you can click to set 'more options'; the only option is choosing which forums to include. Click on the forums you want to see. I have left out everything under General Photo Discussions because half the spam is going there. I have also left out Travel, in the Practice and Technique Discussion section; that's where the airline rubbish is going.

You need to type a name for the edited view you have created. Mine is just called Less Stuff; I don't plan on using it for long.

When you're ready, click Save changes. Then bookmark the view that gives you.

The system's not very good; once you have set one of these up, you can't edit it; only delete it or create another one.

These airline phoneline spammers will probably go away for today once there's a moderator online; but I think they'll keep coming back until there's some automated anti-spam action.

[Dustin McAmera]

4 minutes ago, Dustin McAmera said:

These airline phoneline spammers will probably go away

That was quick!😁

[William Michael]

 

4 minutes ago, Dustin McAmera said:

These airline phoneline spammers will probably go away for today once there's a moderator online; but I think they'll keep coming back until there's some automated anti-spam action.

This appears automated. I have seen it before, here and on other forums. It appears a "Blitz Attack" by consecutive new members joining.

I have removed approximately 60 new members comprising about 300 forum and gallery posts during the last hour, now I need to log off and go to work (i.e. my paid job)

I have sent a report to the Administrator.

William

 

[William Michael]

As you (Dustin) might note, the spam is still coming - the one you reported two minutes ago I have removed - as I mentioned, it appears automated, I fear there will be a lot of Spam when those in the USA wake on Friday morning.

WW

[Sandy Vongries]

I have been on it the last half hour & continue.  

[The Ghost Of Phils Society]

@Dustin McAmera it is indeed a room full of people mostly in India right now.  They also have software that creates 'members' on the fly with accompanying Gmail or other working email accounts.  The software looks for the confirmation email, then logs in and poops on our party.  There are similar operations in the Philippines, Malaysia, and anywhere else cheap labor can be found.

From a recollection of "black hat" tactics from a decade ago, I could hire a room of a hundred for $50 per 2500 registrations and postings. 

Effective this afternoon, we are deploying an extra level of protection:  Staff must approve all new member registrations.  A little less work, but a whole lot less spam.

[Sandy Vongries]

Fortunately we have some cheap labor as well!

[The Ghost Of Phils Society]

6 minutes ago, Sandy Vongries said:

Fortunately we have some cheap labor as well!

As is said, "more truth than poetry..."  😎

[Sanford]

Most of it seems to be gone by the time I tune in to p/n in the morning...so thanks!

[mikemorrellNL]

19 minutes ago, TGOPS said:

@Dustin McAmera it is indeed a room full of people mostly in India right now.  They also have software that creates 'members' on the fly with accompanying Gmail or other working email accounts.  The software looks for the confirmation email, then logs in and poops on our party.  There are similar operations in the Philippines, Malaysia, and anywhere else cheap labor can be found.

From a recollection of "black hat" tactics from a decade ago, I could hire a room of a hundred for $50 per 2500 registrations and postings. 

Effective this afternoon, we are deploying an extra level of protection:  Staff must approve all new member registrations.  A little less work, but a whole lot less spam.

Good to hear! In the Invision Community (Admin) Antispam guidelines, various levels of 'anti-spam' prevention measures are suggested. All are easily (with one click) configurable. I'm glad to hear that the 'Admins/Mods' are now more focused on measures to prevent spam rather than on 'cleaning up' spam that gets through our 'prevention measures'. 

Once again. I've offered to help out with Spam prevention and removal but as yet I've received no reply.

[mikemorrellNL]

Someone's up early!😀

When I logged in to PN 30-60 minutes ago, my 'unread content' was full of Spam. It's now all disappeared so my compliments and thanks to mods/admins who have cleaned all this 'spam' up so quickly!😁

I'm sure mods and admins are aware of this, but IMHO much of the so-called 'Spam' we have seen on PN is actually 'Scam'. In other words, not designed (or published) to advertise a legitimate product or service by a legitimate company but simply to lure people into calling a false phone number, sending an e-mail to or visiting a false website. All with the intention of (for example) allowing scammers to deduct ludicrously high phone charges and/or gain access to your personal information e-mail address, IP-address, ...) without your knowledge. Not to mention the risk of installing 'malware' on your computer/phone.

At least one of the phone numbers posted in my 'unread content 'spam' (now thankfully removed by mods/admins) was flagged as a 'known scam number' on scammer.info. I don't think for one moment think that any PN member would actually interact with any content in the 'spam' ads. I just want to note that even calling the advertised phone number or e-mailing the advertised e-mail address to complain (or visiting the published website) is risky. Chances are, whatever you motivation for contacting 'scammers' you run the risk of being 'scammed' without even knowing it.

OT: wherever you live, it's worthwhile visiting some 'reliable' anti-scam websites (police, government, etc.) to stay abreast of past and current 'scams'.

Even being reasonably 'tech savvy' and aware of many 'scam techniques', I did get scammed once a couple of years ago by a so-called 'help-desk' which perfectly emulated my prior (corporate) experience with remote help-desks. A year later, I was amazed at the sophistication of another scam attempt in which 'my daughter' (with her photo) texted me, saying that she had a 'new phone' and number on which the audio wasn't working properly. It took hours for 'her' to ask me for a loan which would help her pay some pressing bills. Something didn't quite ring true (my daughter wouldn't do this) and I didn't fall for it. On a police-run 'anti-spam' website, I later read that this was a common scam through which other parents had lost thousands of dollars. It's sad but 'scammers' are becoming ever more sophisticated. By comparison, the PN 'scams' look primitive, obvious and more a 'blunderbuss' attempt to lure victims rather than individually targeted attempts.

[mikemorrellNL]

Kudos to the admin/mod team! Absolutely no spam in my 'unread content' this morning (European time)! 

Mike

[Tony Parsons]

I very rarely reply to links in e-mails or on websites, even when I am sure of the identity of the sender - read too many tales of people being caught out by apparently legitimate links.

Trust Nobody - look in the mirror - trust nobody.