Condobloke
Well-Known Member
Their 'about' section usually contains a boatload of gambling url's, strippers, and all sorts of other 'services'
This one is a prime example...
This one is a prime example...
Spam...
- Thread starter KGIII
- Start date
@KGIII :-
Nah. I doubt that very much.
If there's one thing I have learnt over the last few years over at BC, it's this; spammers don't care where they "ply their trade". I don't know how they make their choices - whether there's some kind of reverse look-up tool 'for hire' on the dark web, or what it is - but they seem to assemble a list of fat, juicy targets.......and then they simply saturation bombard those sites until they're fed-up with it (or until they're no longer getting any feed-back from it).
Even for spammers, they're on "piece-work"; a coupla cents, or the equivalent, per item posted. They couldn't care WHERE they post, so long as they get paid.....and most of 'em seem to get recruited via adverts in the tech & computer magazines.....even through some of the remaining printed local rags. My guess is their "handlers" regularly send 'em lists of 'targets' to flood, and anything with a .org designator is counted as a "better" target.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. Scoring a .org designator is good from our point of view.....but it's also "good" from the spammer's point of view, too!
Mike.
Nah. I doubt that very much.
If there's one thing I have learnt over the last few years over at BC, it's this; spammers don't care where they "ply their trade". I don't know how they make their choices - whether there's some kind of reverse look-up tool 'for hire' on the dark web, or what it is - but they seem to assemble a list of fat, juicy targets.......and then they simply saturation bombard those sites until they're fed-up with it (or until they're no longer getting any feed-back from it).
Even for spammers, they're on "piece-work"; a coupla cents, or the equivalent, per item posted. They couldn't care WHERE they post, so long as they get paid.....and most of 'em seem to get recruited via adverts in the tech & computer magazines.....even through some of the remaining printed local rags. My guess is their "handlers" regularly send 'em lists of 'targets' to flood, and anything with a .org designator is counted as a "better" target.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. Scoring a .org designator is good from our point of view.....but it's also "good" from the spammer's point of view, too!
Mike.
OP
It died down for a while. I don't think we're manually being targetted, rather in some list of URLs that their forum-spamming software uses. That's what I mean when I say targetted. (Last I knew, you could even pirate said software.)
I can assure you that very few people are sitting there and manually submitting spam. It hasn't worked that way in decades. There are 'bulk posting' applications out there and the spammers pay for (or find for free) lists of URLs. They simply set up the spam comment, pick the servers with 'select all' (or similar), and push the go button.
They, of course, also use various open proxies and compromised connections - if they can afford it.
Observation tells me that some can't afford a proxy service. They often have shared URLs that tie to a likely country of origin. They're too cheap/poor to pay for a 'clean' IP address. Those are relatively cheap on the darknet. You can subscribe to a service that provides hundreds of thousands of them (compromised hardware, including things like routers) for a couple hundred bucks a month. You can 'buy' one for just a few US Dollars.
So, I assume we're on a bulk list that was probably sold at one point and is now downloaded for free by those willing to load up TOR and use an .onion search engine.
It's the most logical situation, especially given the evidence.
So, that's what I mean by targeted.
There's surely an updated list and we're probably not on it. The people who create said lists will test and see how valid their links are. Not even spammers want to pay for stuff that doesn't work.
And thanks for reporting them.
That applies to all Staff.
For example, one joined during the time David @KGIII was writing his last post, I nuked him when I came onboard.
As does, Rob and Jas.
We're like a tag wrestling team, and what Members see is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hopefully, we don't go down like the Titanic.
OP
Darned right. The queue was nice and empty this morning. I suspect that's because of Rob's actions.
I do have someone stopping by shortly, but it's not going to impact anything. I'm not here all day - I just regularly check in throughout the hours I have available.
Got about 6 this morning
We had a nice little lull - at least during the hours I'm on.
I wonder if we could send 'Customer Support' to the bitbucket. Is that a phrase that's going to normally be used on a Linux forum, other than by spammers? I suppose it may catch a few false positives - like people from people who mention they contacted their computer maker's customer support.
@KGIII :-
Oh, almost certainly the stuff's automated.....and has been for years.
The year I joined the staff at BC - the same year the pandemic really got into top gear, 2020 - the crap was coming in faster than a team of 10 of us could handle between us. It was being posted faster than we could delete & ban it, so my guess is that the account creation process is also to a large extent automated, too.
BC's guvnor, Lawrence Abrams ('Grinler' on the forums), as well as being a well-known figure in the infosec community is also a pretty fair script jockey in his own right, as well. He's whipped-up several scripts that, together with regular input from the spam deletion process and modifications to the IPBoard forum software, actually 'learn' stuff the more we throw at them.....to the point where, for the last couple of years, we've actually got our own site 'SpamBot' that intercepts and auto-bans a lot of stuff without the need for mod intervention.
Which has allowed us to get on with the 'normal' ongoing daily forum maintenance as & when required....
Mike.
Oh, almost certainly the stuff's automated.....and has been for years.
The year I joined the staff at BC - the same year the pandemic really got into top gear, 2020 - the crap was coming in faster than a team of 10 of us could handle between us. It was being posted faster than we could delete & ban it, so my guess is that the account creation process is also to a large extent automated, too.
BC's guvnor, Lawrence Abrams ('Grinler' on the forums), as well as being a well-known figure in the infosec community is also a pretty fair script jockey in his own right, as well. He's whipped-up several scripts that, together with regular input from the spam deletion process and modifications to the IPBoard forum software, actually 'learn' stuff the more we throw at them.....to the point where, for the last couple of years, we've actually got our own site 'SpamBot' that intercepts and auto-bans a lot of stuff without the need for mod intervention.
Which has allowed us to get on with the 'normal' ongoing daily forum maintenance as & when required....
Mike.
OP
(The above applies to the other mods. So, you could say we're united.)
But, I did want to take a minute to thank those who have been reporting spam - specifically the new user accounts that are spam.
You know who you are. Thanks! (So much Vietnamese gambling!)
I already reported are current unwanted visitor/spammer.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Gottem guys, ta
OP
There have been a bunch of those casino spammers lately.
Just click on their profile and then on "About" and you'll see them spamming away. They're for Vietnamese gambling sites, as a general rule.
So, thanks for reporting them.
Also, we have a major storm coming that could take out power. The satellite dish is still not properly fixed and doesn't work during storms anyhow. The mains power is already flickering. They're predicting quite a storm and comparing it to the Dec. 18th storm from last year.
It doesn't look like it'll be that extreme where I live (and we'll be just fine). Still, I could be without the internet for an unknown length of time. Like always, we'll be perfectly safe and I'll be back when I'm able.
I wish they'd fix the generator at the tower.
Just click on their profile and then on "About" and you'll see them spamming away. They're for Vietnamese gambling sites, as a general rule.
So, thanks for reporting them.
Also, we have a major storm coming that could take out power. The satellite dish is still not properly fixed and doesn't work during storms anyhow. The mains power is already flickering. They're predicting quite a storm and comparing it to the Dec. 18th storm from last year.
It doesn't look like it'll be that extreme where I live (and we'll be just fine). Still, I could be without the internet for an unknown length of time. Like always, we'll be perfectly safe and I'll be back when I'm able.
I wish they'd fix the generator at the tower.
theLegionWithin
New Member
North East? I heard that it's a "bomb cyclone" - we had one of those out here in the Seattle area last month - 70mph wind gusts - and it absolutely wrecked my fence + everyone was out of power for a while, some for a week or more. weather is crazy!
OP
Ayuh. Maine.
I'm absolutely astonished. In my area, the grid power never went off. It flickered a bit.
I don't rely on the grid for energy for my home. That's because the grid is too unreliable. The electric company is one of the worst (statistically speaking - and accounting for weather extremes) in the nation. The power goes out for just a few inches of snow or even moderate (for here) winds.
I got over 3 inches of rain. I wish it had been snow, but it didn't wipe out my existing snow and it's snowing now.
That said, there have been a bunch of spammers today.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Is this last night's storm that caused up to 2hrs delay on flights from NY
OP
Maybe. They had a milder event quite a while before it hit here.
We're only close on the map. It's about an 8 hour drive to NYC from my house - and they're quite a bit south of me, though (obviously) much closer in latitude to the southern parts of Maine.
