Forum Spammers - increasing, and more devious!

[Phil]

To all our regular members, just a quickie to let you know that we have recently seen a big uptick in forum spammers
In particular a new modus operandi whereby somebody posts a sensible post, ourselves or a member responds, then the OP returns and adds a dangerous link
Fortunately, the forum software has coped well with this and quarantined these Posts once they have been edited.
The perpetrators are immediately banned!

The content of these posts has been very credible.
Sensible questions.
Relevant to this forum.
We wonder whether they have been copy & pasting queries from other similar forums.

I just wanted to note this for all to see, as I feel that there have now been a significant number of new threads that you may have seen created that then mysteriously got deleted subsequently.

If you spot anything of concern, please don't hesitate to alert us, you can report here in the forum, or you are always welcome to email us at info[at]use-ip.co.uk

Thanks

 

[Phil]

Update on this issue, just a portion of an internal memo shared this morning:

Just FYI, I am going back through forum Posts this week.

Looking for trouble.

There is a slight pattern:

• OP joins.
• Posts something (which typically looks very credible to our topic).
• Leaves within an hour or so (sometimes just 5mins, sometimes 2hrs).
• Is then, as yet, never seen again (days later).
• Despite us or A N Other responding.
• It’s as if they never receive a notification (probably because of spammy or made-up Gmail email addresses that they have used).
• They have no actual interest in the answer.

So, I think, our first line of defence should still be just a quick answer only, in the first instance - to any new member / first post OP.

If they show no further interest, we have wasted no time, and it won't be any loss if we subsequently have to delete (ban) them and their thread.

If they later do bad, then either the software will put the thread into moderation (it has done so each time so far), or we or A N Other will spot it - we will then take appropriate action.


Obviously, there are further checks & measures in place which it's not prudent to share.

I am very keen that none of our existing members have their goodwill tested by these petty spammers, who go to all these lengths to either get a backlink from this credible website to their own site (in the mistaken belief that it'll do them some Google-good or send them some traffic), or worst case a harmful link.

Thanks All.

 

[gp116126]

Hello Use IP Team

Thanks for sharing this as I woudl not have known but do take care when clicking links. Well done to all of you for your due diligence and I hope the forum isn't too much affected as its brilliant.

Kind Regards