This week ? Spammers and scammers everywhere on this site ?
I worked 12 1/2 hours today. The last thing I did before I went out was to ban spammers and remove spam. Pardon me for eating dinner before I came here to ban 6 more, and remove ten spam posts. For the last month or so, I've been checking the profiles of every new member, and proactively banning any that fit the "spammer" profile. I haven't kept count, but I'm sure there are upwards of 50 that never even got to post. Since the beginning of the year, we've been putting all the "Live S treaming", and more recently "Review" spam in one thread. As of this moment, there are 417 posts in there, and I'm pretty sure there are none anywhere else on the forums. And I posted this the other day, in reply to a similar complaint from a member--If you mouse over the thread title, you can see the first few lines of the thread contents. If it's spam, why would any of you bother reading it? The staff is all volunteer, and more dedicated than you can imagine. If you want somebody to be here 24/7 to "mind the henhouse", maybe you should take up a collection...
Like you said it's quite easy to tell if it's spam. Thank you digger and all the other admins for the work that it takes to keep this an extremely interesting and helpful forum. It is greatly appreciated.
As Digger stated we mods all have jobs, families, companies to run and a personal life outside of HEF. Regularly I open my email to see "Reported post" emails (thank you members who report it as it really helps us pinpoint where it is quickly and remove it ) only to see that another Mod has already removed the spam. If it's not been removed, I catch it along with regular ol' spam, which all go into the bowels of HEF. The ********* video spammers are hitting HEF hard and we're doing what we can to remove them. To insinuate no one is watching the henhouse of HEF is far from the reality. If anyone sees the obvious spam post please hit report post so we can find them quickly and remove them. Your help is appreciated.
You guys are appreciated from this end!! A welding site I frequent has been getting spammers and a couple of them in some foreign language I'm pretty sure most of the world can't read. As said all members can help the mods by clicking on the little triangle on the bottom left of the thread. Mike
Same here, I spend a good bit of time booting these $treaming spammers. Not complaining about it, it's just the reality of the moment. And for the moment they're a step ahead of us, we have to be in react mode. Steve is working on a solution, until then we just have to keep booting them.
It's very difficult to come up with a solution that will deter the spammers yet make it simple for new members to register. We have human verification methods in place that prevent spambots from running rampant but when an actual human is posting the spam it becomes difficult. Any steps we would take to make things harder for them would effect the general membership as well. We are being targeted because of our success, there's a tremendous amount of traffic here. I'm extremely grateful to the time and effort your Moderators put in attempting to keep HEF clean. It's very disturbing and disheartening to me to see posts disparaging their efforts.
Yair . . . This is the tidiest best run site of the many I visit and the folks who run it should be congratulated for their efforts . . . thanks fellers. Cheers'
second that mark
Thanks, guys. The kind words are really appreciated. As I said above, I now constantly look at the Member List, in descending order of join date. In so doing, I not only see the spammers and potential spammers, but I get a look at just how frequently people are joining to find help in a hurry--help that our community more often than not provides them. I know exactly where in the Admin Control Panel to go to make it so that any other spam post will never see the light of day. We could set it so that all posts by new members go into a moderation queue, and only after said post is approved by one of the staff would it appear on the Forums. That would mean though, that any legitimate new member that posts with a problem in need of immediate attention would have to wait for their post to be seen as well. I'd consider that to be conceding defeat, and for that reason, it's not something that I've ever even suggested that we do. On edit: And again, I'll suggest that nobody even bother viewing a spam thread. You guys can recognize the profile as well. It's almost always a username that makes no sense in the English language, almost as if a monkey were banging away at the keyboard. And the thread titles while interesting sentence fragments, have nothing to do with heavy equipment. There are other clues we can see from the Control Panel. If there's any satisfaction to be found in this whole process, it's in banning one that's "Activating registration", or "Creating thread in..." whichever forum. But if I have to move a spam thread, I want to see that it has ZERO replies and ZERO views. That way I can at least feel that these idiots are wasting their own time as well as ours.
fellows, There was no insinuation that were not doing a good job. That saying has been around probably longer than some of you. I do appreciate this forum as I have benefitted from it more than once. To insinuate that I was being rude or demeaning to you mods is just as insulting. I will silently "report" from here on in. Thanks again Ron
Call me naive if you like, but what do spammers hope to achieve with all this.......spamming? Recently we have noticed a big surge in the number of hoax emails informing us of unclaimed fortunes etc. Surely everyone is aware of this garbage by now, making it a pointless exercise.
And in the "watching the henhouse" spirit of this thread... I got a PM from a guy. His username is Moogafluxgoobnging. He's an IT guy, apparently, from Bangladesh. He's offered to work as a Moderator. Says he knows a lot about forum spam... Wadda ya think?
Have him submit his resume to the White House address.
I say go for it. Send him your bank account # and get with it!
I say sponsor him on a work visa and put him up in your spare bedroom for 6 months, then we'll know if he's worthy.:tong
Queenslander that's what has me puzzled. Somehow the spammers are making money on the live ********* but I haven't clicked nor watched it to see what it could be. Could be malware, phishing or just bootleg advertising.:beatsme Whatever it is it's enough money to keep them coming back again and again.
I third that. Pardon my asking, but what is the purpose of these spammers?
As a retired computer systems manager (& civil engineer), I know & appreciate what you Admins on HEF are up against Re: the spammers. This forum is INVALUABLE to all us heavy equipment fans...I'm sure we all appreciate your efforts, so keep up the good fight...don't weaken!!
Agree with what Stumpy said. Thank you. d.d.
I like the idea of sending him YOUR bank account #'s.. THAT WAY>> you could fly us around and we could help out personally with some of these broken machine issues.. get to meet some members, have a good meal or 2, see the country.. on and on.. and not be stuck typing.. :drinkup
I was gonna make a joke about this, but reality beat me to the punch.
I usually just hover my curser over the thread name if it looks funky and it pops up in the small window the contents of the thread, and if its a live $treaming thing I don't even bother looking at it, most often then not the name of the thread gives it away that is spam. I haven't ever clicked on one of the links in those threads and would advise the rest of you not to do it as well, never know what could happen.
The Clinton family basement needs a good IT guy from what I hear, also the DNC is looking. Is there a way that spam posts can be removed (or moved to another folder for moderator review) automatically on one member's report. It doesn't seem that hard to set the standards, any member with less than one month, and five posts gets quarantined automatically when reported by any member of more than a year?
There's no way to automate that Delmer, sorry
This is the best forum for equipment on the web and the moderators do a real fine job. I know not to many people visit the HTF site but the spam sandwich is getting pretty thick on HTF. Thank you. Truck Shop
Ok, I have to admit that I did laugh out loud at your IT guys post. I love the fact that we are all on here before or after the work day. It is funny though, the house is quiet. Wife and boy are asleep and I'm laughing like an idiot from some of our post. Keep up the good work. It is much appreciated. Maybe I should proof read more as I am a supervisor now.:Banghead
Just an idea that you may be using already… On another forum I frequent, whole blocks of IP addresses have been blocked. I gather that the numbers relate to geographical location. There may be a way for a legitimate person from those areas to write the admin… IDK. But if the spammers here are in the US ( or other English speaking country) it would be more difficult.
We have entertained that idea but as you said it would also block legitimate users from those locations. With the advent of proxy servers, banning IP addresses has been rendered somewhat useless.
Give the mods a break, spammers are nothing if not relentless.
Thank you Mods. I spend most of my time on Newagtalk they were recently down because of a hack. They are funded by donations (yes I put in more than a case of beer $ for the years I've enjoyed that place.) The hack got everyone's log in info. Most likely to try and probe any and all other accounts linked to an email with the same password. Also with the right software the maiden name and first pet questions can get found from people posting in a forum. That info is worth more than your SS#. Eventually if allowed they can destroy a site. The old combine forum is a wasteland. Spamming works because victims self identify. Only the pay off guy step up and reply.
I also go on new Ag talk and I'm kinda computer illiterate on some of this stuff but they make you type in a number code to login is that too keep some of the scammers off or what? Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
That is called captcha and is supposed to capture automated posters. It is ineffective against genuine human posters.
Thanks for the info! Thanks for all the time to all involved for an awesome forum. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
I'm not so sure i like his screen name. ....Thought i was in charge of all new screen names
How's Chaffee doing? Family graveyard is near there. ...the last Big Dig. 200 plus years on Genesee Rd Ps i like Genesee beer!
Chaffee has had some excitement just up from cemetery. The intersection of Rt16and Genesse has had a series of serious accidents. The town has finally come to peace with having a landfill and gravel mines......or at least I'm not hearing as much noise. Maybe Earl's closing and the decrease in CAVE (Citizens Against Virtually Everything, NIMBY on steroids) aren't a coincidence?