How to Recognise a Spambot

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JackSlack
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How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby JackSlack » 10 Oct 2013, 17:25

Kapol, in another thread, suggested a great set of tips for identifying spambots. I figure that listing them somewhere else makes a lot of sense. I'm going to slightly reformat the list, however, to make it a time based process.

Intro: Understand why you should never reply to a spambot.

Spambots, of course, thrive on views. They're designed for the most part to be seen. (This is not 100% true, as some are designed rather to simply change search engine behaviour. None the less, it's true enough.) If you reply to a thread, it grants it legitimacy and increases the number of people who will view it. So: Never reply to a spambot. But how do you spot one?

Step 1: Getting Suspicious

The following things are good reasons to be suspicious that a post may be a spam bot.

  • Can you pronounce the poster's handle? A lot of spambots randomly generate usernames, and choose unusual combinations to maximise the chance it hasn't already been taken. If the name seems generally unpronounceable, it's probably a spambot.
  • Low post-count. Generally, spambots aren't going to survive making a few hundred posts without blowing their cover, no matter how good they are at blending in. Also, their controllers want quick results. So, distrust low post-counts.
  • Is their thread topic devoid of punctuation? For some reason, spambots have real problems with punctuation. A thread entitled, "Worried about buying games on GOG.com" is a lot less likely to be a spambot than "worried about buying games on gog com" or even "worried about buying games on gog.com". This is far from 100%, but it's the first sign that raises my hackles.
  • Is it in the wrong forum? A thread about viruses in the game discussion forum? Seems odd, right? Nearly all the spam posts seem to be in General or Videogame Discussion, as they get the most traffic and ergo the most eyeballs. Again, not 100%, but worth watching out for.

Step 2: Verifying

Once your suspicions are raised, it's time to verify.

  • Has the poster flubbed the 'first video' field? The most reliable trick LRR.com has is the first video field. It seems to bewilder spambots. If you suspect a spambot, check this field in their profile. If it says something like "ddj" or "smurf", you have a spambot.
  • Check their (few) other posts. Remember above, how low post counts are harder to trust? Well, we all start at one post. Still, if it's a bot, it can't be as clever as a human being. If you see a post made by someone with less than five posts, quickly review them before replying. Do they seem unusually vague? Have they not posted in the 'introduce yourself' thread? If so, you may be dealing with a spambot.
  • Go with Google. Take a string of the text and google it. A lot of spambots pull all their text from Yahoo Answers or something similar. You may be able to verify them with nothing more than a quick Google.
  • Just be cautious. As Kapol says, "And if you're not sure, just don't post until you're confident it's not a spam bot. There doesn't need to be an answer right away." Very true.

Step 3: Correct response.

Hit the report button; the little "!" button in the lower right hand corner. And then leave the thread the hell alone.

Step 3b: Correct response to a Spam Wave.

Sometimes, rarely but sometimes, you will encounter Spammegadon. This irritating event is when spammers try a brute force effort to be noticed by just flooding a forum. It's not very effective (hence, the rarity) but it's irritating as hell and needs to be jumped on right away. As such, it's worth contacting one of the spam-mods by twitter.

Spam-Mods and their Twitters
Metcarfre: @Metcarfre
AlexanderDitto: @Proprietous

I hope this has been helpful. Any other tips?
Last edited by JackSlack on 01 Dec 2013, 20:13, edited 3 times in total.
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Narcuru
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Narcuru » 10 Oct 2013, 17:48

JackSlack wrote:Hit the report button. Leave it the hell alone.

I hope this has been helpful. Any other tips?


And in case you don't know where the report button is its the exclamation mark: "!" to the right of the quote button at the bottom right of the post.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby JackSlack » 10 Oct 2013, 18:25

Thanks, Narcuru! Updated my post to reflect that bit of info.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby AdmiralMemo » 10 Oct 2013, 19:11

WE CAN HAS STICKY?
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Metcarfre » 10 Oct 2013, 19:17

Also, the people who deal with spam, myself included, are pretty lazy/busy, so if you see some SpaMEGAdon levels of spam rolling in, hit us up on the tweets. @Metcarfre
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby JackSlack » 10 Oct 2013, 21:44

Metcarfre wrote:Also, the people who deal with spam, myself included, are pretty lazy/busy, so if you see some SpaMEGAdon levels of spam rolling in, hit us up on the tweets. @Metcarfre


Got it, Met. Who else? I think Alexander Ditto?
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby korvys » 10 Oct 2013, 23:09

Another minor sign: No avatar.

Now, we all typically start out without one, but someone who DOES have one, will almost certainly be a human.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Bebop Man » 10 Oct 2013, 23:16

They all always seem to be asking for advice, don't they? How to fix something or why does this happen and how does this work?
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Ptangmatik » 10 Oct 2013, 23:54

If the first video field is 'the truce' Then you've got a bot.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Hepheastus » 11 Oct 2013, 00:23

Yeah, although that one confused me when I first saw it
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Merrymaker_Mortalis » 11 Oct 2013, 00:49

One way to tell if someone's a spam bot is to report their post, and then see if someone else has already reported it.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby JackSlack » 11 Oct 2013, 01:04

Good points all, gang. I'll put 'em in soon.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Hepheastus » 11 Oct 2013, 02:08

Although I would be careful with condemning someone because they have already been reported, that report could be wrong. Still a good idea, just take it with a pinch of salt
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby plummeting_sloth » 11 Oct 2013, 06:53

Also look out for usernames that just seem like two random words nonsensically connected with a hyphen... spam-bots usually snag these from captcha databases. You know, like apple-bane, fast-green, plummetin... oh. oh dear
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby plummeting_sloth » 11 Oct 2013, 06:53

Also look out for usernames that just seem like two random words nonsensically connected with a hyphen... spam-bots usually snag these from captcha databases. You know, like apple-bane, fast-green, plummetin... oh. oh dear
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby plummeting_sloth » 11 Oct 2013, 06:53

well aren't I embarrassed
Last edited by plummeting_sloth on 11 Oct 2013, 07:25, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Ptangmatik » 11 Oct 2013, 07:02

Also look out for accounts that pad their post counts by reposting the same thing over and over again


:P
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Lord Hosk » 11 Oct 2013, 09:27

That has been happening a lot today, there have been like 10 different regular users with multiposts, its very strange.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Ptangmatik » 11 Oct 2013, 09:33

as far as I can figure it, it's some problem with the mobile phone site. Someone should probably point it out to Paul, thinking about it.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby empath » 11 Oct 2013, 09:37

I actually ended up doing that for the first time last week; I'd accidentally clicked "Submit" a second time while the page was processing, and voila - double-post.

This might happen more often through mobile access...for other reason implied as above.

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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Metcarfre » 11 Oct 2013, 11:20

JackSlack wrote:
Metcarfre wrote:Also, the people who deal with spam, myself included, are pretty lazy/busy, so if you see some SpaMEGAdon levels of spam rolling in, hit us up on the tweets. @Metcarfre


Got it, Met. Who else? I think Alexander Ditto?

Alex is @Proprietous. Also the crew of course.

Also, it should be noted we'll likely see a large wave of spam around Desert Bus. And I respond to SpaMEGAdons, but not Spammagedons.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Tufty » 11 Oct 2013, 13:16

I'm flattered that this is all as a result of my responding to a spambot (doh...) but in my defence you can't see avatars or post counts on the mobile site, and also I can be insanely naïve. Like really, crushingly stupid sometimes. I put all my XP into other skill sets.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby korvys » 12 Oct 2013, 05:59

So here's a new one: http://loadingreadyrun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=21747

A bot replying to another bot, in a way that almost makes sense in context. Also the new bot's first vid is "loading" which is more believable than "ddfj"
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby ex-Lurker » 12 Oct 2013, 06:06

After reading this thread I now want a mockumentary about spambots narrated by David Attenbrough.
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Re: How to Recognise a Spambot

Postby Yaxley » 12 Oct 2013, 06:19

Another sign is if the bot just copy-pastes a previous post in a thread, or changes a few words. Hard to spot in long threads, but here's one I reported where the only replies were mine and the bot's. Pretty obvious there(until that post gets deleted anyway).

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