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Increased level of forum spam. What's the cause?

by easternodyssey
13 replies
I am just wondering what the cause of the increased amout of forum spam is. Over the past 2 weeks there just seems to be an increase in the level of spam making smaller web forums to monitor posts. Personally i am kind of little bit sick of it, as every time i write a post i have to wait for about 3-4 days for the post to be accepted. I am just wondering if this is normal, or there is new automated spam programs that are trying to use methods to bypass the new Google updates? I also can not see how these methods are successful and must be resulting in negative rankings for the people using these programs.
#forum #increased #level #spam
  • Profile picture of the author Robert M Gouge
    I've only recently added forums to my site, and, with my minimal traffic, the forum is already being relentlessly harassed by spammers. I honestly wonder how a forum like WF keeps up with the non-stop spamming attempts.

    I feel your pain.
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    • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
      Originally Posted by Robert M Gouge View Post

      I've only recently added forums to my site, and, with my minimal traffic, the forum is already being relentlessly harassed by spammers. I honestly wonder how a forum like WF keeps up with the non-stop spamming attempts.

      I feel your pain.
      If that is the case I would Imagine that you have a free forum script ? and have not employed the forums spam protection features as yet and that you have an open gate to the spammers, and these people ( if you call them that ) are like fleas on a junk yard dog, they will continue to increase unless you start to crack down with some registration options.

      Look up and read your forums information on stopping spam and start there
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      | > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |
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      • Profile picture of the author easternodyssey
        Well my forum sadly enough does not get spam or users at the moment still down in registered users. However, have it locked down good, so i can never see being inundated with spam. The question was actually more in reference to most of the IT, marketing and web design forums on the net that just seem to be inundated with spam because they allow backlinks. I spend for ever going through all the Joomla spam to find a good thread lately and as i said, a lot of the small web design forums have closed self posting.

        Being a new web designer and having only have done this for 6 months i like to use forums as a source for backlinks, because it not only allows for me to gain juice for my site, but also helps for to increase my skills and knowledge. Taking into account my new Google rank i am assuming this method has paid of. Probably another reason people are increasing forum spaming. Its just from my perspective if every time i use a forum (especially web design or SEO), and my comments and topics have to be moniterd and take 3-4 days to gain a response i lose the interest to return to that forum. Currently that stands at 4 web design forums that offer backlinks.

        For example because i have an Asian orientated site i posted on the Malaysian web master forum for people to review my website. Kind of handy as they have a large Asian audience. However, currently been waiting 3 days for my post to actually be shown. That forum and another webmaster forum stopped self posting about 1 week ago. So i am hopping this does not become a trend with other more well known forums as well closing down self posting or registration.
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        Eastern Odyssey | The Definitive Guide to Asia
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      • Profile picture of the author Robert M Gouge
        Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

        If that is the case I would Imagine that you have a free forum script ? and have not employed the forums spam protection features as yet and that you have an open gate to the spammers, and these people ( if you call them that ) are like fleas on a junk yard dog, they will continue to increase unless you start to crack down with some registration options.

        Look up and read your forums information on stopping spam and start there
        I think I have most of the protection already enabled. I'm just having issues with them registering accounts and having to IP ban them. Really frustrating though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Hugall
    Are we talking about the spam that appears on my blog. If we are that is driving me insane.

    The posts look like this.... iuLDSFGUIHJWVFCHIJXCHJBW LIKE WHAT IS THAT.
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    • Profile picture of the author vCr8
      Originally Posted by bilkat19 View Post

      Are we talking about the spam that appears on my blog. If we are that is driving me insane.

      The posts look like this.... iuLDSFGUIHJWVFCHIJXCHJBW LIKE WHAT IS THAT.
      I've seen like 5 posted thread here the other day like that; random letters on the title and on the message. I was actually thinking if it was a test post, because honestly... I don't think that post would do any good to the poster... but 5 posts like that is too much for a test post lol.
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      • Profile picture of the author easternodyssey
        Actually a new one i have seen lately, a lot in Joomla, is a nicely composed letter or Article extracted from a book with all there keywords stuffed in. Normally it does not look bad in SEO terms, so i think they assume it avoides being descreadited by Google bot. However, can be really funny when its some sex shop posting the spam.
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        Eastern Odyssey | The Definitive Guide to Asia
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Bard
    Automated software constantly searches the web for new places to post crap and insert a backlink. Unfortunately, since everything is automated and only a handful of people do anything about it, it doesn't look like it's ending soon.

    Here, we have the Report buttons on each post so that we the members can help. So, if you guys see anything going on here, hit the Report button to end it quickly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert M Gouge
    Anyone know a way to decrease spammy user registration?

    I do IP bans with ranges, but doesn't seem to stop user 'adffeeiinnenn' from registering again.
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    • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
      Originally Posted by Robert M Gouge View Post

      Anyone know a way to decrease spammy user registration?

      I do IP bans with ranges, but doesn't seem to stop user 'adffeeiinnenn' from registering again.
      One thing to do if you have not done so is enable a question in addition to the captcha or on its own, this should stop most automated bots climbing in, change the question if the break the code.
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      | > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |
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  • Profile picture of the author wordpressmania
    I only get targeted people on my site so spam is still low...
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  • Profile picture of the author SFquality
    The reason maybe that people try to take advantage of free traffic which is easy to generate that way, but I agree this is annoying!
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  • Profile picture of the author SamAlnawar
    For this thing I suggest you to use vbulletin for your forum ....it automatically stops spam posts.

    Also, here's a great post entitled "How To Stop Forum Spam - Anti Spam Systems": How To Stop Forum Spam - Anti Spam Systems : Nifty-Stuff.com
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