# Chinese invasions...



## theo (Mar 1, 2017)

I am admittedly a bit of computer dunce and may not even understand the answers, but I will ask the questions anyhow. Recently (including today, right now) there have been dozens of spam posts all appearing together overnight on the TUG BBS with mostly Chinese characters, but with *some* English usually included somewhere in the thread title. My questions:

What is it about the new XenForo software that attracts / allows / facilitates these "Chinese invasions"?  Certainly easy enough to ignore and report, and quite promptly and effectively dealt with by the ever-capable TUG Gurus, but...

How or why would such a spamming effort even be undertaken --- in Chinese --- in the first place? Why bother to spam in a foreign language which is completely indecipherable to almost everyone seeing that spam? What am I missing here?


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## presley (Mar 1, 2017)

It's likely happening by bots. They are just hoping that spam posting will eventually hit someone. They are not targeting Tug. They are targeting every forum that allows them to post. The most frustrated thing about these bots is that once they find a place that posting works (don't have to be official member to post, etc), suddenly many more join in the fun.

Normally, I can easily pass over those posts, but there are so many today that it's too much work for me to look for real threads.


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## pedro47 (Mar 1, 2017)

I am not going to use this site until this is fixed


presley said:


> It's likely happening by bots. They are just hoping that spam posting will eventually hit someone. They are not targeting Tug. They are targeting every forum that allows them to post. The most frustrated thing about these bots is that once they find a place that posting works (don't have to be official member to post, etc), suddenly many more join in the fun.
> 
> Normally, I can easily pass over those posts, but there are so many today that it's too much work for me to look for real threads.



This needs to be reported to the federal government.
I am not going to open or use this web site for the next 72 hours. So I am signing off until the next 72 hours. Good night!


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## ace2000 (Mar 1, 2017)

Hey, what happened to those posts???  I was interested in one of them...  any chance we could retrieve the one regarding the University of Nigeria???


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## TUGBrian (Mar 1, 2017)

if you click the report link, an admin or moderator will address the issue as soon as possible.


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## TUGBrian (Mar 1, 2017)

just implemented a few spambot security questions to the registration process, see if that curbs the nightly chinese invasion.

also flagged a few chinese characters in our spam phrase section, so hopefully it will catch and prevent posts from making it to the forum even if they do get registered.


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## SueDonJ (Mar 1, 2017)

TUGBrian said:


> if you click the report link, an admin or moderator will address the issue as soon as possible.



Also, a reminder that it makes the admin/moderators jobs easier if you ONLY send a report and don't ALSO respond in the thread.  Thanks!


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## dioxide45 (Mar 1, 2017)

pedro47 said:


> I am not going to use this site until this is fixed
> 
> 
> This needs to be reported to the federal government.
> I am not going to open or use this web site for the next 72 hours. So I am signing off until the next 72 hours. Go night!


I seriously hope you are kidding? Who at the federal government do you expect to really do anything about this? Hilarious!


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## pedro47 (Mar 1, 2017)

dioxide45 said:


> I seriously hope you are kidding? Who at the federal government do you expect to really do anything about this? Hilarious!



I have faith in Brain and Makai Guy that they were going to solve this problem.


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## DeniseM (Mar 1, 2017)

Pedro - What are your concerns?

Also, it appears that you posted this at about 9 am Eastern?
pedro47, Today at 5:58 AM (Pacific)

And then wrote "Go night" - "Good night" - I am assuming?

What am I missing here?


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## Passepartout (Mar 1, 2017)

[I know, I know, but not even political jokes, please.]


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## pedro47 (Mar 1, 2017)

DeniseM, Brain has fixed the problem and all is well


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## TUGBrian (Mar 1, 2017)

haha...i hope ive fixed it at least...we will find out if the next few mornings are chinese hacker free!


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## DeniseM (Mar 1, 2017)

> DeniseM, Brain has fixed the problem and all is well



I just wanted to assure you that looking at the titles of spam posts puts you at no risk.  

To my knowledge, there is no one in the Federal government that we can report spam to.


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## pedro47 (Mar 2, 2017)

There are two (2) Chinese spams  on the board this morning.


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## dioxide45 (Mar 2, 2017)

TUGBrian said:


> just implemented a few spambot security questions to the registration process, see if that curbs the nightly chinese invasion.
> 
> also flagged a few chinese characters in our spam phrase section, so hopefully it will catch and prevent posts from making it to the forum even if they do get registered.


Here are some more characters for the spam filter.

微信/Q405664 716办.理.毕.業.証.成.績.单.學*+真实认*証100%可查


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## Makai Guy (Mar 2, 2017)

pedro47 said:


> There are two (2) Chinese spams  on the board this morning.


Posting here is a waste of time - both yours and ours.   By the time anyone on the staff sees a post here they will already have taken care of the posts that have been reported by the preferred method, i.e. clicking on the _report_ link on the bottom of the problem post.


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## SueDonJ (Mar 2, 2017)

pedro47 said:


> There are two (2) Chinese spams  on the board this morning.



If Brian's initial spam filters hadn't worked you would have seen 15+, so things are improving.


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## BellaWyn (Mar 2, 2017)

Notice this happens more late at night.  Is thats when the bots come out in full force?  Have been reticent to send a Report when I see them presuming Mods are less active (people gotta sleep yo!).

Note that, for me personally, I seem to have a learning curve related to the use of the Report feature.  Gratefully, a very kind Mod is schooling me, which I very much appreciate.


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## vacationhopeful (Mar 2, 2017)

China is on the other side of the world ... our midnight is there HIGH NOON ....more or less.


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## TUGBrian (Mar 2, 2017)

added a few more of the common chinese letters above to the spam filter, thank you!


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## taffy19 (Mar 2, 2017)

I woke up during the night and noticed a few other SPAM messages besides the Chinese ones so reported them.  The only problem is that you have to read the message to be able to report it or is there another way?


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## TUGBrian (Mar 2, 2017)

there really is no risk to just opening a thread, provided you dont click on any links within it etc.


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## Makai Guy (Mar 2, 2017)

BellaWyn said:


> Have been reticent to send a Report when I see them presuming Mods are less active (people gotta sleep yo!).


Mods get a Reports link when they log in which takes them to a list of reported posts that have not yet been resolved.  So all those posts reported in the wee small hours do get reviewed by the first mod that logs in with the new day.  Go ahead and report them -- it's not like it'll set off an alarm by our bedsides or anything.


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