Spam alert

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Ray | 01-09-2010 10:43

Hey guys,

Just to inform you to stay alert on a new type of agressive spam on the internet and also in the LSI forum. After decades of spamming by simply dumping a list of urls to other sites, spam seems to evolve. This new type is more subtile, it targets on one url only and glues this into human "story". It's added by real members (members behaving not differently then you and I) and if you don't watch closely, it looks pretty real.

[B]The format of this spam[/B]

The spam goes like :

Part 1: It starts with a personal line containing an introduction of why to buy the product as mentioned in part 2.

Part 2: It mentions the product by name with the url of dealstudio, hotdealstime, dotdeals or other similar sites. I'm not sure these are real online shops, so don't buy anything. To to bypass the LSI spam filter, also other urls are used which redirect you to the same site.

Part 3: Last part is a question to get your help (thoughts/opinion/ideas/etc).

[B]Examples of this spam[/B]

Urls (bold) have been removed in these examples.

Example 1:

[I]Hello, all folks, i was angry, i always play games on PC, my brother hate me, so ruin my LCD. Now i have to buy new one instead of the broken one. I have no enough money, so my friend choosed [B]this Asus[/B] one for me.I know a little about it ,What do you think about it ? Is it a good choice ?[/I]

Example 2:

[I]Hello, my boyfriend is fans of Back street boy.He like them very much, His birthday is coming, i want to choose a gift for him, but i have no idea in mind. What do you think about [B]this sunglasses[/B]? I think it is very cool,but i don't know it is the back street boys' style or not. So i want to know your review before i got it . Any other suggestions??[/I]

Example 3:

[I]Hello, all guys, my boyfriend is crazy about playing games, he is looking for a keyboard in recently. Do you have a good choice? My brother suggest us go for [B]this Logitech one[/B], he said it is very fantastic.he like it very much. What do you think about it ? is it really a high performance keyboard? woRTH to get it or nOT ??[/I]

Example 4:

[I]was wondering anyone of u have experience with [B]this electric guitar[/B]?i googled the product and attracted by its price. but i am not sure for its quality. what about its performance??[/I]

[B]What to do when you see spam[/B]

I am alergic to spam, and I want to see it gone from LSI. Thats simple

The majority of spam activity is already stopped by the system and doesn't make it to the site. And that what comes through doesn't live long on LSI, because there a team of very alert moderators who monitor the forum closely. If you step on a new spam topic which has not been removed by one of the moderators, report it (use the report-link next to the post) and the spam cruncher patrol comes in action right away.

Thanks,
Ray

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Dagor | 01-09-2010 10:47

That is not the only form of spam we have to deal with

lately there have been a few posts about for instance Michael Jackson .. a whole lot of text copied from somewhere else, but with commercial links interwoven in the text.

Ray | 01-09-2010 10:47

Removed members because of these spam practices : joy99, Birdoff, kate111

Joeyy | 01-09-2010 10:55

Haha, when I saw the title, I thought for a moment that Ray was going to post spam

Maycen | 01-09-2010 12:40

I'm not sure these are real online shops, so do buy anything.

Telling people to buy stuff from fake sites? Tsk.

Ray | 01-09-2010 13:47

oops, nice typo

NightHobbit | 01-09-2010 23:06

spambots are quite clever these days they can even get past those jumbled words.

Wright | 01-09-2010 23:55

Hey ray so is Kate111 baned from LSI just asking?

JDolla | 01-09-2010 23:56

yes.

Bucephalus | 01-09-2010 23:59

just fry spam and add some mustard. its delicious.

Cheater138 | 02-09-2010 14:56

Ray, is there a chance you could possibly add something like a "phishing" card? Something that would be 10 points so these people are immediately blocked so they can't just make another post right away.

Also, I noticed with one that I just closed that the member also posted the same thing in his user comments that are visible on his LSI profile. So that's something for other mods to look out for when they get a post like this.

Dagor | 02-09-2010 15:18

good idea!

Ray | 02-09-2010 19:45

Phishing is not exactly what we're dealing with here. But what you mean is an option to stop a spammer right away. What about simply increasing the points for spamming from 3 to 10? The 3 points definition for spamming came from another area, so perhaps this is a nice moment to redefine it.

Bucephalus | 02-09-2010 19:48

I say make the points higher for spamming. the only people ever carded for spam are people like kate111 and some other usernames that only use this site to promote their spam. Just make the first card worth a ton of points so they are banned for a really long time. theres no purpose to them even being here. they dont even wanna be here, they just wanna spam the place

JDolla | 02-09-2010 20:07

or make a distinction between the classic "posting alot of useless stuff" spam and "trying to hock your crap" commercial spam...

TheAnnoyance | 02-09-2010 20:21

I think upping the card to 10 points would be a good idea, the only time the spam card is used now is for posts like those.

Ray | 02-09-2010 20:24

Ah, yes good point. I guess Sarah was referring to the same. What card names could be used to make the distinction between the two?

JDolla | 02-09-2010 20:30

call the commercial one spam and the other flood or something to that tune

Ray | 02-09-2010 20:34

We already have "post flood", so it will be "topic flood". Or can "post flood" be generalized to simply "flood"?

TheAnnoyance | 02-09-2010 20:35

There's already a post flood card though, I think Sarah's idea of a "Phishing" card worth 10 points would suit it.
"Spam" card for general posting a lot of crap, "Phishing" card for the other kind, posting stuff with links trying to sell stuff etc.

Bucephalus | 02-09-2010 21:39

Pretty much what James said, although i don't think 'phishing' is the term we are looking for

Schatzi | 03-09-2010 01:28

I don't think spam should be upped forever though because it does get used. Like when new members have been told to stop making threads that already exist or double threads but they continue to do so. I don't think deserves to be 10 points. I think there should be a special card for it.

JDolla | 03-09-2010 01:58

score one for jeremy

Cheater138 | 03-09-2010 13:25

Yea, I said phishing because there is already a spam card that is sometimes used for people just being dumb and spamming a bunch of junk or smileys or something.

Maybe steal jeremy's idea and make a "commercial spam" card and keep the regular spam card as it is.

Ray | 03-09-2010 21:36

"Advertising" sounds like the perfect word. That makes :

spam (3 points) for double threads
advertising (10 points) for promoting/linking products on other sites

objections or better ideas?

If not, I'll update the the list of penalties.

TheAnnoyance | 03-09-2010 23:09

Sounds good to me.

guest

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