# Wow, what is up with spam Bot posting in the last 24 hrs



## Sandy VDH (Jun 4, 2017)

I woke up this morning to discover nearly 9 screen of new postings that are all spammer posting by Bots.  

That is the largest posting of crap I have ever seen. 

Wow, crazy


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## frankf3 (Jun 4, 2017)

Been a while since I've seen this, but I've reported heavy amounts of spam posts (using the report button) a few times before.

I'm not sure how easily this could be done on the TUG software, but the best way I've seen forum owners / mods dissuade spammers is to put all new sign ups on moderation.   After a legitimate new user posts 3 to 5 times, the mods/admin can take the id off moderation.   Spammers don't want to deal with that and they just "go away".


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## dioxide45 (Jun 4, 2017)

And, I don't even see where the spam is. They don't really eve describe what it is they are trying to sell. There are no visible links and only what may appear to be a phone number.


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## frankf3 (Jun 4, 2017)

No, I don't see anything other than the phone number either.   Bizarre!

When I first responded to Sandy's OP, I didn't realize how many spam post there were!  This is going to keep someone busy for a while...


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## Sandy VDH (Jun 4, 2017)

I scrolled through 9 pages of new posting that were nearly ALL garbage spam posts.  Moderators where busy the last 24 hours with this.  This was the biggest cluster of bot postings I have seen in a while.


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## rapmarks (Jun 4, 2017)

I saw them early this morning, and can't figure out how to notify moderators.  I am using Tapatalk on ipad


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## dioxide45 (Jun 4, 2017)

Looks like the mods got it cleaned up quickly


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## paxsarah (Jun 4, 2017)

Sandy VDH said:


> I scrolled through 9 pages of new posting that were nearly ALL garbage spam posts.  Moderators where busy the last 24 hours with this.  This was the biggest cluster of bot postings I have seen in a while.



I never scroll through all 9 pages. I report one post for each user, then ignore that user. There were probably 6-8 users this morning I ignored.Then TUG looks normal to me while the mods straighten everything out.


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## Passepartout (Jun 4, 2017)

KUDOs to the hard working Mods for cleaning these up and banning the posters pronto when they are reported. I've reported spam attacks each day for 3 nights. I don't know if the mods appreciate getting an email about them at 3-4-or 5 a.m., but I report 'em anyway.

Jim


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## dioxide45 (Jun 4, 2017)

Passepartout said:


> KUDOs to the hard working Mods for cleaning these up and banning the posters pronto when they are reported. I've reported spam attacks each day for 3 nights. I don't know if the mods appreciate getting an email about them at 3-4-or 5 a.m., but I report 'em anyway.
> 
> Jim


They probably wouldn't see it until they wake up in the morning, unless they perhaps have an alarm that goes off each time they get an email from TUG reporting spam. Which I suspect is doubtful.


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## Passepartout (Jun 4, 2017)

dioxide45 said:


> They probably wouldn't see it until they wake up in the morning, unless they perhaps have an alarm that goes off each time they get an email from TUG reporting spam. Which I suspect is doubtful.


Uh-huh. Can't you just hear it- the AOL-like voice arousing you from a sound sleep. . ."You've got SPAM!"


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## TUGBrian (Jun 4, 2017)

thankfully the forum has handy tools that let you mark a person as a spammer and immediately delete all their posts.

we had put in place tools to prevent the spam messages from making it to the forum in the first place, but it only detected posts with links in them.

appears the spammers are adapting.


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## taffy19 (Jun 4, 2017)

I hit the report button many times last night.  They were acknowledged but it didn't work for two spammers over and over again.  I noticed that they were online and gave each other a few likes.  Can we mark them as spammers too so they are banned?


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## Makai Guy (Jun 4, 2017)

Yes, instead of links, this batch had phone numbers, so they weren't caught by our spam testing.


rapmarks said:


> I saw them early this morning, and can't figure out how to notify moderators.


http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/sticky-how-to-call-staffs-attention-to-a-post.33143/


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## Makai Guy (Jun 4, 2017)

Passepartout said:


> I don't know if the mods appreciate getting an email about them at 3-4-or 5 a.m., but I report 'em anyway.


That's exactly what we want you to do.  When posts have been reported, this system doesn't send mods email, it places a red clickable alert at the top of the page for mods when they log in so they can go straight to the reported posts and deal with them.  And don't worry that you might be overloading the system with reports of the same post - only one entry is created for each reported post, and it indicates the number of times the particular post was reported.  When reporting obvious spam, a one word 'spam' description is all that's needed, no need to knock yourself out with longer descriptions.


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## WinniWoman (Jun 4, 2017)

rapmarks said:


> I saw them early this morning, and can't figure out how to notify moderators.  I am using Tapatalk on ipad
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


 

You just hit the report button on the bottom of the post.


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## taffy19 (Jun 4, 2017)

I read your instructions so realize now that the SPAM doesn't disappear.  I kept hitting the "new posts" icon and they no longer showed.  In reality they were still there but had been reported already.

I was wondering why a spammer would play this game if he could have spammed multiple other boards in that time.  It became a game for me to remove his posts right in front of him but that didn't happen.


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## Makai Guy (Jun 4, 2017)

frankf3 said:


> Been a while since I've seen this, but I've reported heavy amounts of spam posts (using the report button) a few times before.
> 
> I'm not sure how easily this could be done on the TUG software, but the best way I've seen forum owners / mods dissuade spammers is to put all new sign ups on moderation.   After a legitimate new user posts 3 to 5 times, the mods/admin can take the id off moderation.   Spammers don't want to deal with that and they just "go away".


Savvy human spammers easily get around this scheme by just entering a handful of posts saying "Glad I found this forum", "good information", etc., then post their spam. 

Requiring a mod to approve all posts from new users doesn't occur instantly and is very discouraging for folks who come here to get timely answers to their questions so this just doesn't fit with the philosophy of this board.  A delay in getting a query approved for public view could make all the difference in getting a needed reply in time to rescind an expensive purchase.


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## alwysonvac (Jun 4, 2017)

Makai Guy said:


> That's exactly what we want you to do.  When posts have been reported, this system doesn't send mods email, it places a red clickable alert at the top of the page for mods when they log in so they can go straight to the reported posts and deal with them.  And don't worry that you might be overloading the system with reports of the same post - *only one entry is created for each reported post, and it indicates the number of times the particular post was reported.*  When reporting obvious spam, a one word 'spam' description is all that's needed, no need to knock yourself out with longer descriptions.



Oh that makes sense and good to know. 
Since there were multiple usernames, I  listed all of the usernames on one report this morning.


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## dioxide45 (Jun 4, 2017)

iconnections said:


> I hit the report button many times last night.  They were acknowledged but it didn't work for two spammers over and over again.  I noticed that they were online and gave each other a few likes.  Can we mark them as spammers too so they are banned?


Probably not a good idea to allow regular users the ability to mark posts as spam that results in instantly banning a user. That could potentially be a lethal weapon.


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## pedro47 (Jun 4, 2017)

Excellent job. Kudos to our moderators


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## taffy19 (Jun 4, 2017)

dioxide45 said:


> Probably not a good idea to allow regular users the ability to mark posts as spam that results in instantly banning a user. That could potentially be a lethal weapon.


You may be right as some may do this if they do not like a regular post.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jun 4, 2017)

On another board where I was a mod, I would occasionally be on-line when a spammer was working.  There was a degree of satisfaction in generating the "banned" message for the spammer while the spammer was in mid-post.


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## Makai Guy (Jun 5, 2017)

alwysonvac said:


> Oh that makes sense and good to know.
> Since there were multiple usernames, I  listed all of the usernames on one report this morning.


Please issue a separate report for each spammer username.  The report includes direct links to the offending spammer and the reported post, making it quick and easy for the mod to deal with it.  Mentioning other usernames in the same report doesn't provide those links.


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## Makai Guy (Jun 5, 2017)

dioxide45 said:


> Probably not a good idea to allow regular users the ability to mark posts as spam that results in instantly banning a user. That could potentially be a lethal weapon.


Regular users can REPORT a post as spam, but it will take a mod to review the report and post and decide whether to act on the report.


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## CO skier (Jun 5, 2017)

iconnections said:


> You may be right as some may do this if they do not like a regular post.


The VIP megarenters in the Wyndham forum would undoubtedly report dissenting opinions as spam, or at least snarky.


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