If a spammer fails to spam, is he really a spammer?

**Soliloquy** · 08-11-2008, 09:30 PM

I've gotten a bunch of new sign-ups on one particular forum these past few days, but none of them have posted yyet. Some I suspect are spammers because they have China-based email addresses, some have gmail addresses but the names seem a bit overly random. But none have posted or even filled in the homepage field in their profile. Think I should do a pre-emptive strike, or would that be overreacting?

**Caddyman** · 08-12-2008, 03:07 AM

i like to watch, and play with, spammers sometimes. just to see what they do, see if i can find a new way they are spamming and what not.

**Soliloquy** · 08-12-2008, 07:28 AM

What do you mean by play with them? What sort of spammer tortures have you devised?

**Caddyman** · 08-13-2008, 03:01 AM

well not so much play with them, but just watch them to see what they do. Spammers are getting quite creative it seems so it's good to adapt and learn how they do the things they do. Luckily with the combination of defense measure that are out there most admins rarely have to deal with them.

**Soliloquy** · 08-13-2008, 01:19 PM

Well I'm pretty much leaving them alone for now, though I did forbid new sign-ups with that email address from China, so we'll see what they do...

Rusty · 08-26-2008, 04:57 PM

I never do anything to them until they actually spam.

**losteddes** · 09-05-2008, 12:32 AM

I have an ideea

... just go on your forum control panel ... create a new group ( and put them for example 5000 words required for posts or high number of words + no links ( no hyperlinks ) ... edit also theyr signatures / theyr quota for pm mesages and all features wich you normaly give to peoples when they register .... limit those users wich you suspect at maximum ... eventualy you can allow them to see only some part of the forums ( you can create one special forum who's seen only by them ) ...

**Caddyman** · 09-05-2008, 02:49 AM

why would you do all that work for a spammer? seems like i would just ban them myself...

**Soliloquy** · 09-05-2008, 09:17 AM

Like that spammer I had who actually posted relevant content, just with lots of links to their site... that treatment would be good

today I've got my eye on a couple of new signups who haven't spammed yet, have different ip addresses, but have curiously similar typing styles. Just waiting for the sock puppets to start talking to each other

**Caddyman** · 09-05-2008, 04:07 PM

i hate the kind of spam probably the worst. some person with broken english signs up and asks a totally off topic question then you wait a few days and OOO someone has the perfect answer

"get outttaaa herreee"

**Soliloquy** · 09-05-2008, 07:30 PM

I think I'm going to see that on one of my forums in the next few days, I'm just getting that vibe from the posts of some of the recent sign-ups.

**Caddyman** · 09-06-2008, 03:29 AM

yeah the setup post, you almost feel like deleting it right then and there and think, welllll, maybe its not spam, then i would feel bad.

**Soliloquy** · 09-06-2008, 07:35 AM

Yep I was right, today there were three reasonably relevant posts with a ton of links in the "sig" (they didn't actually use the signature, just appended to the post)... I kept the post and deleted all but one of the links.

**Caddyman** · 09-06-2008, 08:59 AM

yeah it funny, i posted my new site for a review the other day at vb.org and i just copy and pasted my post from my other sites and it said "sign up now" and Marco edited it out...silly...

**ArnyVee** · 09-06-2008, 09:46 AM

I remember reading about a hack that would do things to anyone you assigned to that particular usergroup. And, it would annoy the crap out folks. The name of the mod escapes me though.

**Soliloquy** · 09-06-2008, 12:42 PM

You must be thinking of the miserable users mod, Arny.

**Caddyman** · 09-06-2008, 03:33 PM

yes sir, miserable user

Miserable Users - vBulletin.org Forum

When classed as miserable, a member suffers ;

1. Slow response (time delay) on every page (20 to 60 seconds default).
2. A chance they will get the "server busy" message (50% by default).
3. A chance that no search facilities will be available (75% by default).
4. A chance they will get redirected to another preset page (25% & homepage by default).
5. A chance they will simply get a blank page (25% by default).
6. Post flood limit increased by a defined factor (10 times by default).
7. If they get past all this okay, then they will be served up their proper page.

**Soliloquy** · 09-06-2008, 08:56 PM

Now I don't mind if someone puts in one link to their site (as long as the site isn't somehow objectionable), I think of it as reasonable payback for their participation...

**Caddyman** · 09-07-2008, 04:36 AM

true a lot of my members have links in their sigs to like their blogs or political sites and stuff, but i cant allow biz websites unless they are advertisers.

**Soliloquy** · 09-07-2008, 05:56 AM

That must be difficult to enforce... do you go through the member list regularly and see if they changed their homepage?

**Caddyman** · 09-07-2008, 05:11 PM

no i kind of know everyone who is on and i know who to watch for trying to spam under the radar so to speak so its not too bad

**Soliloquy** · 09-15-2008, 08:16 AM

Well, three of the accounts I've had my eye on finally surfaced to deposit their noxious spam... it seems they have learned to wait 30 days, apparently in response to the One Touch Ban and Clean mod.