Spambots and You

[bicostp]

<b>Spambots and You</b>

<b>We have come up with a workaround for the spambot problem!</b>
Spongebuell came up with a phpbb hack that adds another input field to the signup page. (It asks what 2+2 is.) So far, it appears to be working.

<s>The only problem is that it asks for 2+2 when you change your profile settings, and the box can easily be missed. (It's under the "change your password" boxes.) Just remember to answer the question and you can edit your profile normally.</s> Problem fixed, now automatically enters 4 on profile edit


<b>What are Spambots?</b>
Spambots are scripts or programs people run that join forums and post links to ad sites.

Several of you post in these spam threads with statements such as "omg spam u spammer why u spam us gtfo spammer!!1!1". This is like talking to a wall.

<b>How to Tell if a Post is Made by a Spambot</b>

• 1. The links in the post go to the same URL as the website button
  2. They post a long list of links and nothing else
  3. They have a user name such as "freeviagra4u"
  4. Many of the links are for adult content, prescription drugs, loans, mortages, pre-approved credit cards, online dating, Russian mail-order brides, or all of the above.
  5. The thread titles are things such as "free credit card 4 u! pre-approved!" or "i woman serch for friend".

Of course, they may not all be so obvious, but it's still pretty easy to tell if a thread was created by a human or a machine.

<b>What to do if you See a Spambot Thread / Post</b>
Don't do anything. Don't read it, don't post in it, and of course <u>DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS IN THE POSTS!</u>

Please do not report it to the mods and admins, since we remove them pretty quickly. Just leave the thread alone.

<b>What can We do to Stop Spambots?</b>
There isn't much we can do about spambots besides ignore them and get on with our lives.

<b>This was all Very Obvious. Why did you Make This?</b>
Simple. I made this sticky because some people still post in spambot threads, which just adds to the amunt of spam here. (Plus I've wanted to make this for quite a while.)

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in this thread, or send me a message through email. (No PMs, please. )

-bic

[SpongeBuell]

<u>DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS IN THE POSTS!</u>

Just thought I'd clarify the reason for this... when you go to a website, they have ways to figure out where their traffic is coming from. If they see that a significant number of people are coming from Benheck.com, guess who they begin to target more?

[NES_fanatic]

Is it really that much of a problem? I mean, I remember when I was new and posted a reply because I didn't know a long time ago, but I never do it now and didn't touch the one that came by this morning.

If there are people here who can't tell when it's just a program advertising stuff, they need help.

[Meh]

Basically, there are bigger sites that get less. Two reasons.

1) Big sites go through measures to prevent them.

2) As Bicostp said, a large portion of the "intelligent" users here, click them

[Klefmung]

also, many spambots post spyware and what not

[usbcd36]

I suppose PM-ing a mod isn't the best thing to do either, since your inboxes would get flooded (50 people, all saying "I found this spambot here, and…"), but I know other forums that have "report" buttons.

[bicostp]

I think phpbb 3 has a report feature, but we definitely won't update to it for at least a while after the first stable release.

[ganonbanned]

Is it really that much of a problem? I mean, I remember when I was new and posted a reply because I didn't know a long time ago, but I never do it now and didn't touch the one that came by this morning.

If there are people here who can't tell when it's just a program advertising stuff, they need help.

Yes, he made this post because there was just a spam bot yesterday, and someone posted in the topic.

<u>DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS IN THE POSTS!</u>

Just thought I'd clarify the reason for this... when you go to a website, they have ways to figure out where their traffic is coming from. If they see that a significant number of people are coming from Benheck.com, guess who they begin to target more?

I dont think sure, how many people from benheck are getting viagra?

[Sparkfist]

Guys lets simplify things and explain them a little better.

You see a spam-bot thread, ignore it. Posting in them is also spam, infact it's a rule on to post in spam-bot threads.

Mods and Admins are here often, sometimes as often as one every hour, we will get it quickly as bicostp said. So PMing/emailing/contacting use is really a waste of time, we'll get to it when we do and then it will be gone.

Also gannonbanned I don't if you're trying to be funny or sarcastic, but the point is if the bots and sites know that people hear have visitied thier site via the link they're send more bots or the bot that is here could post more threads.

As for the issue of trying to stop them. We get about 1 spambot every 1-3 days. We have messures in place with the current version of phpBB to try and stop them, they don't always work but it's at least bottle necking the problem.

I'd like it if members on the message board follow these guide lines to help us keep this problem under control.

[ganonbanned]

I have a question about spam bots: If there not people, how do they know which is the general forum?

[SpongeBuell]

I'm pretty sure they look at the forum with the most topics/replies... you can see that stuff on the forum index

[Meh]

Just simple scripts, well maybe not that simple, but you get the point. The real female of the dog species are the ones that post everywhere.

[Sparkfist]

Look, we're keeping the problem under control. We just want you guys to ignore the spam threads.

As for you're comment Meh, Gannon is working on a script to auto-delete spam threads once they show up. It's not done, and really we don't know when it will. Until then really don't worry about it.

The Apocalype is not coming, just something as bad as a traffic jam. That's how bad this little inconvenance is.

[Meh]

I just ignore them

[MaDnEsS]

people who need to read this to figure out its a spambot, they are the stupid ones