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SearchEither I am getting old and don't understand anything about the internet, but I never remember spam to contain msgs like this:
"I'm seeking new challenges
and my job will likely be up in the environment at the end of May," he explained.
With no links or advertisements in them, whats the point?
Can anyone explain to me why these bots do this?
Board index ‹ Community ‹ General Discussion ‹ Understanding spam
January 13th, 2013, 11:03 pm
January 14th, 2013, 12:11 am
January 14th, 2013, 10:22 pm
How about to add rel=nofollow to all links in posts or even show them as text only just to fight off some spam bots?
One who post links to boost PR usually check if links posted right and if they find that nofollow was added these bots exclude such forums from spam lists.
Anyway, i seen a lot of spam here lately. You need some harsh moves - ban whole IP subnet of spammer in example or tinker registration form with some nonstandard fields.
This forum is not first one attacked with spammers but it really poorly secured against it.
January 14th, 2013, 11:18 pm
January 22nd, 2013, 8:55 am
January 22nd, 2013, 9:57 am
January 22nd, 2013, 11:41 am
I think I'd rather manually delete spam than have to type in phrases for my posts.
January 23rd, 2013, 11:43 am
I think I'd rather manually delete spam than have to type in phrases for my posts.
I meant to use it for registration. It can cut off some most dumb bots.
January 23rd, 2013, 12:41 pm
I think I'd rather manually delete spam than have to type in phrases for my posts.
I meant to use it for registration. It can cut off some most dumb bots.
I see what you mean. That would definitely dissuade some of these spammers. I wonder if the forum element supports that coding?
January 23rd, 2013, 1:55 pm
February 2nd, 2013, 9:51 pm
Seen a bit of this lately (and banned on extreme cases) - however, i don't have the ability to delete them from the user index:
Alternatively, the spam links are posted in the user's signature, in which case the spambot will never post. The link sits quietly in the signature field, where it is more likely to be harvested by search engine spiders than discovered by forum administrators and moderators.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_spam
Also, apparently a lot of bots can circumvent captcha with OCR - NPR did an article recently about companies evolving to digital images as text readers have become too advanced.
Understanding spam
12 posts
• Page 1 of 1
January 13th, 2013, 11:03 pm
I did SEO at the now defunct web-house Crexendo. Some of our clients were big businesses that I can't name. BTW, my non-compete clause is over so I can SEO again 
So, it is called "reverse-SEO" and it works like this:
Sometimes sites will pay money for other sites to be buried in the search results (usually competitors or bad reviews). Occasionally, tactics such as unrelated posts will be deployed which when crawled by the bots can negatively affect your site (if not relevant).
Not through us, but Toyota paid $500 million dollars (according to an SEO expert on NPR) to have all sites that posted negative reviews to be buried past page 1 of Google search results.
That is my best guess, although it is usually used for one's own site as a sort of 'damage control' rather than sabotage of competitors.
So, it is called "reverse-SEO" and it works like this:
Sometimes sites will pay money for other sites to be buried in the search results (usually competitors or bad reviews). Occasionally, tactics such as unrelated posts will be deployed which when crawled by the bots can negatively affect your site (if not relevant).
Not through us, but Toyota paid $500 million dollars (according to an SEO expert on NPR) to have all sites that posted negative reviews to be buried past page 1 of Google search results.
That is my best guess, although it is usually used for one's own site as a sort of 'damage control' rather than sabotage of competitors.
January 14th, 2013, 12:11 am
Interesting, never heard of that before. Definitely makes sense. Damned spam bots.
January 14th, 2013, 10:22 pm
dliebner wrote:
Interesting, never heard of that before. Definitely makes sense. Damned spam bots.
How about to add rel=nofollow to all links in posts or even show them as text only just to fight off some spam bots?
One who post links to boost PR usually check if links posted right and if they find that nofollow was added these bots exclude such forums from spam lists.
Anyway, i seen a lot of spam here lately. You need some harsh moves - ban whole IP subnet of spammer in example or tinker registration form with some nonstandard fields.
This forum is not first one attacked with spammers but it really poorly secured against it.
January 14th, 2013, 11:18 pm
@Toyotame - good point, backlinks are the equivalent of leeches to a site's relevancy/credibility. It used to affect things more and has since been downgraded in most search algorithms, however, it still affects things negatively.
I use "leech" in the sense that it is good to have sites link to you, but hurts to link out to other sites (some exceptions).
I use "leech" in the sense that it is good to have sites link to you, but hurts to link out to other sites (some exceptions).
January 22nd, 2013, 8:55 am
This is ironic (There was spam just up there ^ when i posted this)
Last edited by Kiril on January 22nd, 2013, 10:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
January 22nd, 2013, 9:57 am
I think you really need to take some actions against spam. At least use this - https://developers.google.com/recaptcha ... hpbb?hl=ru
January 22nd, 2013, 11:41 am
Toyotame wrote:
I think you really need to take some actions against spam. At least use this - https://developers.google.com/recaptcha ... hpbb?hl=ru
I think I'd rather manually delete spam than have to type in phrases for my posts.
January 23rd, 2013, 11:43 am
PlayerReview wrote:
Toyotame wrote:
I think you really need to take some actions against spam. At least use this - https://developers.google.com/recaptcha ... hpbb?hl=ru
I think I'd rather manually delete spam than have to type in phrases for my posts.
I meant to use it for registration. It can cut off some most dumb bots.
January 23rd, 2013, 12:41 pm
Toyotame wrote:
PlayerReview wrote:
Toyotame wrote:
I think you really need to take some actions against spam. At least use this - https://developers.google.com/recaptcha ... hpbb?hl=ru
I think I'd rather manually delete spam than have to type in phrases for my posts.
I meant to use it for registration. It can cut off some most dumb bots.
I see what you mean. That would definitely dissuade some of these spammers. I wonder if the forum element supports that coding?
January 23rd, 2013, 1:55 pm
Yeah, it should. phpBB was generally not best choice as forum, if it was me to choose, i prefer SMF2 in example, but even on phpBB they can do some antispam measures and install addons.
February 2nd, 2013, 9:51 pm
dliebner wrote:
Interesting, never heard of that before. Definitely makes sense. Damned spam bots.
Seen a bit of this lately (and banned on extreme cases) - however, i don't have the ability to delete them from the user index:
Alternatively, the spam links are posted in the user's signature, in which case the spambot will never post. The link sits quietly in the signature field, where it is more likely to be harvested by search engine spiders than discovered by forum administrators and moderators.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_spam
Also, apparently a lot of bots can circumvent captcha with OCR - NPR did an article recently about companies evolving to digital images as text readers have become too advanced.
12 posts
• Page 1 of 1