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    Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts

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    • M
      mer
      last edited by

      Saw this earlier, but honestly it's not unique to these forums.
      @jwt as consumers of the forum, what can we do to help when we see obvious bot/spam stuff?

      I've personally found that users doing what they can even if it's "report post" is orders of magnitude more helpful than simply "noting" the problem.

      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GertjanG
        Gertjan @johnpoz
        last edited by Gertjan

        @johnpoz said in Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts:

        Not even sure how such nonsense would increase any sort of seo score??

        Maybe it's just the fallout of the new entry exam of Harvard science university : "write a script that post as much forum post possible on the top 500 forum in the world without being caught" ?
        Oh .. wait, there is another one : entry exam of an0nym0us ? ^^

        edit :

        They are having a hard time also :

        e53362ba-1336-4869-ad27-26cb3f97abc0-image.png

        😊 👍 👏

        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
        Edit : and where are the logs ??

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • johnpozJ
          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @mer
          last edited by

          @mer yeah reporting can help.. But those help more when they are weird ones where its like is this spam or not that sneak through.. Currently if they get through they are flooding, and they are not adding their spam to existing threads they are creating new ones that are much easier to spot..

          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
          SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • M
            mer @johnpoz
            last edited by

            @johnpoz and of course there are a bunch of new QuickBooks spam things that just popped up now

            johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @mer
              last edited by

              @mer the amount of spam the last few days has been insane.. I have never seen it like this before..

              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

              J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • J
                jwt Netgate @johnpoz
                last edited by

                @johnpoz @mer @Gertjan we continue to work on it. thanks for your support.

                johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @jwt
                  last edited by

                  @jwt yeah quite aware - these nutjobs have have to ruin a good thing for everyone.. I am trying my best to keep the forums clean, but every few minutes more pop in.. It is insane.. But it looks to be a real concentrated effort if you google the phone numbers they are posting.. They are like the top 100 results returned on google - just flooding anywhere they can post.. Forums everywhere are getting hit and hard.

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                  P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                  • E
                    elvisimprsntr
                    last edited by elvisimprsntr

                    One application I use for ODB-II diagnostics on my Ford vehicles (https://forscan.org) requires a forum invitation code, which you can only get when you pay for their application.

                    Screenshot 2024-11-19 at 1.45.34 PM.png

                    Now that you have to register to download the installer (CE or +), perhaps the forum invitation code can be part of the registration process.

                    P.S. script kiddies are at it again already.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • P
                      Patch @johnpoz
                      last edited by

                      @johnpoz said in Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts:

                      yeah I can see the IPs - and lots of vpns on the ones I checked.. But not just 1 vpn, ie saw many of the major vpn players

                      @johnpoz said in Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts:

                      on many a forum posts from all over the place in the last few days..

                      I mean a lot of different forums.. So clearly its not targeted at just pfsense forums.

                      @Pippin said in Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts:

                      OpenVPN forum has been hit also, close to 30000 posts the last few days.

                      That suggests the source of the spam has significant resources and has build the capacity to attack over a considerable time.

                      @Patch said in Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts:

                      I don't understand where the profit is in doing this. The motivations I can think of are

                      1. forum filter companies justifying their value
                      2. denial of service attack by a product or country or political competitor.
                      
                      3. advertising for service spamming.
                      
                      4. the thrill of achieving a successful attack.
                      
                      5. A bot error
                      
                      6. An angry ex-customer
                      

                      Which suggest 2. is the most likely. Perhaps a response to Russia/Ukraine or Israel/Iran or American politics

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • E
                        elvisimprsntr
                        last edited by elvisimprsntr

                        Script kiddies are at it again. Can their mother please shout down the stairs to the basement to tell the trolls to knock it off?

                        We are loosing the Whac-a-Mole game. Mark Rober seems to be good at inventing ways to defeat carnival arcade games.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • P
                          Popolou @johnpoz
                          last edited by

                          @johnpoz Perhaps rotate the anti-spam question on new user registration. I wouldn't be surprised if they simply added that answer to any bot script. I'm presuming they aren't bypassing this somehow...

                          johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • johnpozJ
                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Popolou
                            last edited by

                            @Popolou I have no control over any of that, just a mod.. Need to do something different, the amount getting through is insane

                            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • M
                              mer
                              last edited by

                              I don't know if it helps but today I learned that one can only report 10 spam profiles per day :)

                              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • johnpozJ
                                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @mer
                                last edited by

                                @mer while reporting is good.. It can also turn into a form of spam for the mods and admins. If its a blatant spam post, ie its own topic etc.. and especially if there are bunch it more than likely doesn't warrant reporting.

                                What is good to report is those ones buried in another thread that don't standout as spam from a quick glance.. We are all aware of these spam floods coming in and you can't but help but know that they are spam.. Reports are prob best on those ones that they came back latter and added spam links in them and the like.. Even ones on old threads, etc. buried deep in the thread that nobody noticed when they were posted, etc.

                                Thanks!!

                                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                                S stephenw10S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                • S
                                  slu @johnpoz
                                  last edited by

                                  @johnpoz said in Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts:

                                  while reporting is good.. It can also turn into a form of spam for the mods and admins.

                                  Good point, sorry. 😬

                                  pfSense Gold subscription

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @johnpoz
                                    last edited by

                                    @johnpoz said in Fake Accounts and SPAM Posts:

                                    Reports are prob best on those ones that they came back latter and added spam links in them and the like.. Even ones on old threads, etc. buried deep in the thread that nobody noticed when they were posted, etc.

                                    Yup that ^. Those are the hardest to pick up otherwise.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • Bob.DigB
                                      Bob.Dig LAYER 8
                                      last edited by Bob.Dig

                                      For weeks now I see messages like your IP has been banned, but if I reload the page, it still works. I changed from using a privacy-VPN to my ISP but I even get more messages like this. Now I have to ask, what should I do about it. It is a mild annoyance, reloading fixes it. But what else could I do. Should I enable third-party-scripts? Or is it just how it is, after all those spam-posts.
                                      I get it, stopping those must have priority. But I m also curious, why not using a privacy-VPN makes even more (light) problems for me.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        Hmm, are you using a fixed IP?

                                        There are a bunch of things in the blacklists but I don't think we added any after the spam flood. Most of what is there are used by VPN providers because, unfortunately, that's what spammers use.

                                        But I wouldn't have expected your usual ISP to be listed.

                                        Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • Bob.DigB
                                          Bob.Dig LAYER 8 @stephenw10
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10 My impression is and I have not talked about that with anyone else yet, that whatever I do, I get those messages. And reloading helps every time so it might not be an actual blacklist but something else with my Browser, what triggers this...

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            Hmm, do you have load-balanced WANs perhaps?

                                            Bob.DigB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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