What is up with these strange posts?

[dioxide45]

I have seen these (and reported them), where it is a same day registered guest that posts useless information like "Support", "Thanks for the Post", etc. When you click on their name to view all posts made by them, their posts actually appear to have a spam link in them, but you can't actually see the link when viewing the post in a thread in the forum.

 

[SueDonJ]

I wondered the same thing, how the spam part of it actually works if you can't see the link. The whole thing is odd.

Although, the other day that china furniture one was polite, I thought, for a spammer. Too bad we couldn't get to know him/her a little better. :rofl:

 

[Makai Guy]

I've always suspected the intent is for the link to be noticed by the search engine spyders that constantly roam sites like ours. The more sites that are found linking back to a page, the higher ranking some of the search engines will give it. That's why it is important to report those posts as soon as possible, in the hope we can get them deleted before they are discovered by the search engines.

 

[BoaterMike]

I've always suspected the intent is for the link to be noticed by the search engine spyders that constantly roam sites like ours. The more sites that are found linking back to a page, the higher ranking some of the search engines will give it.

Bingo! Thanks for staying on top of it, and the quick action. I've reported a few myself lately and they are removed promptly.

 

[pedro47]

I've always suspected the intent is for the link to be noticed by the search engine spyders that constantly roam sites like ours. The more sites that are found linking back to a page, the higher ranking some of the search engines will give it. That's why it is important to report those posts as soon as possible, in the hope we can get them deleted before they are discovered by the search engines.

Thanks for protecting this web site !!!!!

Do you have any advice or suggections for protecting our home PC for Monday against that malware attack ?

 

[Makai Guy]

Do you have any advice or suggections for protecting our home PC for Monday against that malware attack ?

What is planned for Monday July 9 is not a malware attack, but a fix for a malware attack. If you are infected with this particular malware, your system will have been set to use a DNS server run by the bad guys. These rogue DNS servers are being shut down on Monday. Without a DNS server, you will be unable to go anywhere on the internet unless you already know your destination's IP number.

To find out if you are infected, go here: http://www.dns-ok.us/
If you find out that you are infected, go here: http://www.dcwg.org/fix

If not in the US, those pages list alternate links for other countries.

You should do all this BEFORE Monday.

 

[BoaterMike]

Thanks for protecting this web site !!!!!

Do you have any advice or suggections for protecting our home PC for Monday against that malware attack ?

Do a google search for dns changer. There is a site where you can check if you are vulnerable and instructions on how to remove. Or, follow one of the pc site instructions like pcmag article
Mike

 

[beanie]

www.dns-ok.us

 

[pedro47]

Thanks !! I check my pc. The color was green and I am ok !!

 

[laurac260]

What is planned for Monday July 9 is not a malware attack, but a fix for a malware attack. If you are infected with this particular malware, your system will have been set to use a DNS server run by the bad guys. These rogue DNS servers are being shut down on Monday. Without a DNS server, you will be unable to go anywhere on the internet unless you already know your destination's IP number.

To find out if you are infected, go here: http://www.dns-ok.us/
If you find out that you are infected, go here: http://www.dcwg.org/fix

If not in the US, those pages list alternate links for other countries.

You should do all this BEFORE Monday.

I'm not usually a "conspiracy theorist", but I'm also not usually an alarmist either. Either way, I think this whole "malware" stuff, and what the Feds did to "protect" computers is kind of odd, to say the least. 570,000 computers in the whole world??? And it makes the national news? Seriously? There are so many human rights/interest stories that the US (and many others) turn their back on and ignore DAILY, and we're supposed to believe this story about the FBI rushing in to save computers and internet service for 570,000 of
7 billion people?? I'd have a better chance of stepping out in my cul-de-sac and getting hit by a car, being driven by a middle aged man, wearing a clown costume (either me or the driver wearing the costume).

 

[SueDonJ]

I'm not usually a "conspiracy theorist", but I'm also not usually an alarmist either. Either way, I think this whole "malware" stuff, and what the Feds did to "protect" computers is kind of odd, to say the least. 570,000 computers in the whole world??? And it makes the national news? Seriously? There are so many human rights/interest stories that the US (and many others) turn their back on and ignore DAILY, and we're supposed to believe this story about the FBI rushing in to save computers and internet service for 570,000 of
7 billion people?? I'd have a better chance of stepping out in my cul-de-sac and getting hit by a car, being driven by a middle aged man, wearing a clown costume (either me or the driver wearing the costume).

Well I hope you don't get hit by a car no matter what you or the driver are wearing!

I think the feds should get involved when there are widespread problems with any of our communication systems, and it seems like they've done a good job with this one by decreasing the number of folks who may have potential issues come Monday. Sure, not being able to post on TUG about relatively minor issues wouldn't mean the end of the world, but there is a lot of stuff that goes through computer communication that, if it's "attacked," could affect folks' daily lives in a big way.

I guess I just don't have a problem with the feds prioritizing this issue along with all the others they handle on a routine basis. And we could all point to some particular issue that we individually think they should prioritize more than this one, but does that mean we don't want them to work on anything but what we think is important?

 

[dioxide45]

I've always suspected the intent is for the link to be noticed by the search engine spyders that constantly roam sites like ours. The more sites that are found linking back to a page, the higher ranking some of the search engines will give it. That's why it is important to report those posts as soon as possible, in the hope we can get them deleted before they are discovered by the search engines.

This is also what I have suspected. What I find strange about the latest round of these posts is that in the actual post, you can only see plain text, like "Support". There are no links in the posts, not images. I have tried hovering my pointer over different areas of the post to see if there is perhaps white text that you can't see that has a link attached. Can't see any links at all. However when you click on the users name to view all posts by a user, the links are easy to see and they are all the same. Why can I see them in the view of "View All Posts" but not in the actual post in the thread?

 

[Passepartout]

I've always suspected the intent is for the link to be noticed by the search engine spyders that constantly roam sites like ours. The more sites that are found linking back to a page, the higher ranking some of the search engines will give it. That's why it is important to report those posts as soon as possible, in the hope we can get them deleted before they are discovered by the search engines.

I sometimes have a touch of insomnia and check TUG. Frequently I find the above referenced type posts. I feel a little guilty about clicking on the little red triangle 'trouble post' symbol because I know it triggers a blanket email to the moderators. But not too guilty. I do it anyway.

Thanks to all the moderators who delete these things and for all the hours they spend to make TUG as great a place as it is.

If I might make a small suggestion, it would be to disallow posting by new 'Guests' for some time (12 or 24 hours) after registering on TUG. It would cut waaay back on troublesome posts. Unfortunately, newbies asking how to rescind on their last day would have to search the stickies.

Jim

 

[amycurl]

I, too, have sometimes felt guilty reporting spammer threads because of the blanket e-mail that goes out to mods, and, more importantly, not knowing if someone else has already reported it. Is there anyway for the icon not to appear once someone has reported a thread? Really, I guess I'm just talking about the time between a post being reported and it being deleted. (Sometimes, I wake up way early and can't get back to sleep, and like Passepartout, check TUG. This is the time that I usual see spam threads.)

 

[dioxide45]

I, too, have sometimes felt guilty reporting spammer threads because of the blanket e-mail that goes out to mods, and, more importantly, not knowing if someone else has already reported it. Is there anyway for the icon not to appear once someone has reported a thread? Really, I guess I'm just talking about the time between a post being reported and it being deleted. (Sometimes, I wake up way early and can't get back to sleep, and like Passepartout, check TUG. This is the time that I usual see spam threads.)

The problem with this is that those of us out there who have regular posts would get rather upset if they saw no little red triangle with their post. They would wonder who and why it was reported.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I, too, have sometimes felt guilty reporting spammer threads because of the blanket e-mail that goes out to mods, and, more importantly, not knowing if someone else has already reported it. Is there anyway for the icon not to appear once someone has reported a thread? Really, I guess I'm just talking about the time between a post being reported and it being deleted. (Sometimes, I wake up way early and can't get back to sleep, and like Passepartout, check TUG. This is the time that I usual see spam threads.)

I wouldn't worry about the blanket e-mail. That's just doing what it's designed to do, which is to enable the first available mod to take action.

What I don't recommend you do is to report each and every post made by a spammer. Just report the person once as a spammer. The mods have a one click ban and clean option - clicking that terminates the persons registration and scrubs the board of all their messages. So reporting every post by a spammer is not needed and does clog up moderator inboxes.

 

[learnalot]

I wouldn't worry about the blanket e-mail. That's just doing what it's designed to do, which is to enable the first available mod to take action.

What I don't recommend you do is to report each and every post made by a spammer. Just report the person once as a spammer. The mods have a one click ban and clean option - clicking that terminates the persons registration and scrubs the board of all their messages. So reporting every post by a spammer is not needed and does clog up moderator inboxes.

Thanks, Steve. That is the way I have done it.