MSPeconomist

I agree that FT members are unlikely to call the phone numbers or otherwise be immediately harmed (unless they want to risk this--maybe there are FT members who want to pay for phone sex or something similar and if so, that's their business), but by this criterion (immediate harm to individual FT members, or at least those who don't want to be harmed in this way), much of the spam could just be ignored and stay on FT.

Just so there's no misunderstanding, I'm not advocating or suggesting in any way that the spam be left intact on FT. I recognize that dealing with it is an important and especially time consuming task that must seem terribly unrewarding at times. I also realize that FT can never be "100% spam free", nor would that be a reasonable goal (because, for instance, it would be too time consuming, too frustrating, and too likely to divert attention from more important issues).

My concern when I see a spam attack focuses more on the impression that it could give to someone visiting FT for the first time. People say that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. If a (potential) newbie glances at a forum list of threads where close to half of the titles consist of this garbage, I suspect that the person would be much less likely to join or in fact ever return to FT. So in the long run I think it matters for FT, perhaps especially in the Info Desk forum which tends (by design) to attract newbies when they first land on FT.

BTW, I never before explored the View Forum Leaders link. In the past, whenever I wanted to check the list of current moderators, etc., I always tried to search for a couple threads that I know contained the magic link to the list: IIRC there was an old post by Randy in ORP and then a more recent one (here? in Community Buzz? TBT?) responding to the request for this.

Also BTW, it would be convenient if Ambassadors were added to the list.

nux

It is likely the same one I described in post #46: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23748117-post46.html

At the end of the post is a 1x1 pixel image. Due to my proxy it always pops up as a broken img link, but otherwise you would not spot it. If you press the 'Quote' button on their post you will see it.

They always post 6 times (unless they're stopped), so they're not just building post count. The first post is edited to add the [-IMG] tags with the image URL. I would guess perhaps FT (or one of the other boards they also spam) does not allow posting images in their first post.

Perhaps if possible FT should not allow new users to post an image for 24 hours from joining.

I don't know what their motive is either.

EDIT: They're back again with the same link.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/bsqnellsxde.html

lin821

I guess they won't give up until they exhaust all the URL shortening services online. How many url shortening service sites are there?

Today they tried a different url shortening site (http://tw.gs/) but the "end destination" (financed e.com/ images/61.gif) remains the same. So, my question for the programmers, is it technically possible to "decode" the 2-layer mockup hyperlinks so our system can outsmart the spammers and block whatever links they make up?

lin821

So spammers do have weekends as well. He's back from his weekend break: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/bxqlsigelsq.html

(I don't know what site/link he's using this time since I just spot him before his jpg edit but pretty sure it's him since he simply used "borrowed" lines from previous posts, such as this one & this one about Travelex.)

JDiver

Just a reminder that discussing a spammer in this thread (in an unmoderated forum, even) alone is insufficient - it doesn't bring the spammer to the attention of the moderators; someone still should use the "Alert a moderator to this post" radio button so the spammer and product can be evicted.

JDiver
Senior Moderator

lin821

Don't know about others but both nux and I did and do:

IBobi

I can tell you that the two things MOST helpful for what I can do on my end are:

1. List the usernames of the spam accounts
2. List the links that the spam accounts are posting/editing into their posts

nux

1. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...fovicksvk.html
2. http://...........

lin821

Sigh. So today he's using a Korean url shortening service site, http://2u.lc/, for his daily "attack" routine.

If IB is only blacklisting one link at a time, I guess his 2-layer spam strategy can go on and on and on and on for quite sometime.

lin821

Back again, using a different url shortening site, http://is.gd/. I noticed him when he first registered yesterday but he waited for about a day before he made his "official"spam attack :

1. profile link: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/gjfmvallan.html
2. jpg link: http://.............
3. http://elifeinsurance web.com/11f.jpg (this is the link identified via is.gd spam report)

I also noticed their spam policy on is.gd:
I don't know how successful they are doing this, but if they can implement this "redirection prevention measure" on spam abuse, can FT achieve something similar?

lin821

Profile link: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/grdxribeiro.html

jpg link: http://goo.gl/...... (mockup link for http://financed e.com/images/61.gif). He's abusing Google this time around. Sigh!

JDiver

The clown is a regular "Five O'Clock Charlie", as persistent as a hungry tsetse fly. I wish there was a way to swat him, but it's hard to see how. My motto for these things is "Illegitimi non carborundum."

lin821

Back in another name:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...lemariecj.html

Same google link: http://goo.gl/...... (I guess admin hasn't found time to blacklist that google link from the weekend yet. I also reported this spam to Google. We'll see how Google handles this.)

IBobi

Is that a M*A*S*H reference?

Banned the new url and 2 IP addresses.

nux

Back again: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/jscgillissw.html
URL is: http://...............