spam attacks

[amazinblue82]

third one in three weeks.

member joins and same day (within an hour) was hitting my (maybe other people) 'wanted' ad with a BS PM message calling out a person's name they say has the part I want, gives a phone number to text the lady they named, says person's husband passed away but was a member here, and that he's purchased from the widow with "great results".

different name/location of member, but exatly same message text. I ignored at reported message to mods.

Perhaps you could restrict new members from commercial transactions for a short period, or a longer period as its not likely you can determine who will be a spammer from the moment they join.

thanks

 

[Big_John]

Yea, I got one too... and reported it and they're gone.

Same deal...

 

[Samplingman]

Other forums I belong to restrict any kind of sales or offers until they have 10+ posts. I see a lot of 1 post sales ads here, I just keep on scrolling.

 

[azblackhemi]

I've had a couple of them too. Hit the report button and poof! Gone!

 

[amazinblue82]

10 years here and this just started happening.

I have been looking for parts, only a couple times year over that whole time and then wham! all of sudden I was "popular" with the spoofers.. go figure.

you're all correct. hit report key and mods clean 'em up likety-split.

like @Samplingman said, vote for a time restriction before new folks can transact here, if possible.

@Joeychgo @Toolmanmike

 

[Joeychgo]

Other forums I belong to restrict any kind of sales or offers until they have 10+ posts. I see a lot of 1 post sales ads here, I just keep on scrolling.

Other forums are nowhere as busy as ours is (not including the A & B forums). We do quite a bit to limit things from happening.

1 post sales often are from those who simply have extra parts, or are selling parts from someone who past away. Not scammers.

vote for a time restriction before new folks can transact here, if possible.

Not as easy nor effective as you might think...

 

[amazinblue82]

Other forums are nowhere as busy as ours is (not including the A & B forums). We do quite a bit to limit things from happening.

1 post sales often are from those who simply have extra parts, or are selling parts from someone who past away. Not scammers.



Not as easy nor effective as you might think...

you guys will obviously do what you think is best/appropriate in your industry.

meantime, for me, i'll use due care online as anyone should anyway, and use whatever tool(s) you all put in place to call your attention to any funny-looking stuff.

thanks.

 

[MoPar~Man]

Might want to IP-block new forum registrants based on lists like this one:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ktsaou/blocklist-ipsets/master/botscout_30d.ipset

 

[Toolmanmike]

I can't stress enough the importance of reporting suspicious behavior. There is a report button at the bottom of every post including personal messages. We (the staff) get a notification and we deal with the scammers quickly as soon as we read the report. All traces of the scammer are removed from the site including other member names with the same IP address. Hit that "Report" button is all you need to do.

 

[Joeychgo]

you guys will obviously do what you think is best/appropriate in your industry.

meantime, for me, i'll use due care online as anyone should anyway, and use whatever tool(s) you all put in place to call your attention to any funny-looking stuff.

thanks.

its a balancing act in many ways. I want to make sure as many parts are available as possible and I want people to be able to buy parts our members sell as well.

Might want to IP-block new forum registrants based on lists like this one:

http://[URL]https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ktsaou/blocklist-ipsets/master/botscout_30d.ipset

[/URL]

I have a number of blocked IPS from known spammers that have come here. I checked 10 at random -- None appear on that list.

 

[71Polara383]

Someone replied to my certified 69/70 speedometer post with a pm. I knew it was BS because no one has that part for me!

 

[MoPar~Man]

There are networks now of millions of residential IP's (like comcast and verizon) that are being used as "call-back proxies" that are being rented out as VPN's and used to access websites and either scrape them or sign up to do forum spam. The people who's IP's these are don't know that a device on their home network is acting as a VPN relay for these actors (likely most are in India). The apps that allow this to happen are usually so-called legit VPN's that people buy into for privacy reasons (ie NordVPN and others) or hacked TV media boxes or hacked routers.

So no, you can't just start blocking residential IP's from legit carriers like Verizon, Comcast, Rogers, Bell, etc, but something that gives them away is the broswer User-Agent they're using. Like curl, headless chrome, python, etc.

 

[amazinblue82]

The people who's IP's these are don't know that a device on their home network is acting as a VPN relay for these actors (likely most are in India). The apps that allow this to happen are usually so-called legit VPN's that people buy into for privacy reasons (ie NordVPN and others) or hacked TV media boxes or hacked router.

@MoPar~Man .. sorry to bother you.

this info is news to me. do you have an authoritative reference where i can read about this and get smarter?

not questioning your input at all. i need to get up to speed it seems.

i have been using (among other techniques) a brand-name, "legit" VPN for a few years and this never came up in my reading, or since this isn't my expertise, I may have seen it but didn't get it.

thanks if you get a chance.

 

[Joeychgo]

i have been using (among other techniques) a brand-name, "legit" VPN for a few years and this never came up in my reading, or since this isn't my expertise, I may have seen it but didn't get it.

For what it's worth, You've used about 75 different IP addresses to log into the site.

@MoPar~Man is right. Almost all of the spammers come from VPNs - who have thousands and thousands of IPs they switch to randomly. I cant' block just some of the VPNs, I would have to block them all which would make it so YOU and other members that use VPNs couldn't access as well. I review new members as best I can and try to weed out spammers asap but here and there they get by me.

 

[Big_John]

It seems to me that there are an awful lot of warning signs that come with a spammer and if you can't recognize them, you aren't paying attention. Some are covered in the header for the wanted section for example... and others are just common sense.

 

[MoPar~Man]

@MoPar~Man .. sorry to bother you.
this info is news to me. do you have an authoritative reference where i can read about this and get smarter?

Been a bit busy, stay tuned, I'll post some detail you're looking for soon.