Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

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Z98
Release Engineer
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Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by Z98 »

Some of you might have noticed the recent proliferation of new user accounts that posted short one-offs before disappearing. As some of you have rightly guessed, those were all spam bots. I believe I've expunged all of them, as I was a lot more ruthless this time around and assuming the worst. However, I don't expect this flood to end anytime soon, especially considering it's obvious the spambots have been able to bypass our registration checks. This guideline is to help both the community and moderators to identify suspicious accounts for referral to the moderators and myself.

1) The account responds to threads with a very short post saying the topic was interesting, saying they had similar problems, or thanking the starter of the thread and other posters, without actually adding anything to the conversation. These types of messages are the only types of posts this account makes. Case in point, a bunch of the recent spambots.

2) The account starts threads that ask questions of the community, either asking for the community's recommendation on choosing something to buy/where to buy or what is the community's favorite "something." Case in point, the favorite programming language thread was started by a spambot.

3) The account starts threads on topics completely unrelated to ReactOS or technology in general. Case in point, the spambot that started the favorite programming language thread started a post about deforestation in Brazil.

4) The name of the account is rather unimaginative, using a combination of real first and last names potentially with a bunch of numbers. Case in point, the spambot that started the favorite programming language thread and a bunch of the recent spambots.

5) The post is quoting a previous post and makes extremely vague statements about how the previous post was interesting or useful. Look inside the quoted section for altered links.

There have been genuine community members in the past that may have done one of the above, but genuine community members tend to have a wide range of posts beyond the ones that fall into the above categories. If the only posts an account has associated with it fall into the above categories, then it's likely a spambot.

Another way to identify spambots is to search for the user name. Some are actually listed in spambot databases while others show a very peculiar pattern. Specifically, spambot accounts tend to be registered around the same time on multiple sites. This spontaneous appearance generally does not occur for a real person.

If any of you see accounts that match the above, please inform me. You may also inform a moderator at the same time to speed up deletion of spambot posts, but I do need to be notified specifically because the moderators do not have the ability to disable an account outright.
fred02
Posts: 551
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:54 pm

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by fred02 »

Z98 wrote:pecifically, spambot accounts tend to be registered around the same time on multiple sites. This spontaneous appearance generally does occur for a real person.
You mean "does not occur"?
SomeGuy
Posts: 586
Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2004 9:48 am
Location: Marietta, GA

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by SomeGuy »

Does the "Report this Post" button notify you, or should we PM you directly?
the favorite programming language thread was started by a spambot.
Damn I hadn't noticed that. That is exactly what they hope for, a post that by chance looks somewhat relevant and interesting, and if they are lucky attracts intelligent posts that will show up on Google searches. Then eventually they edit their post or sig to contain keywords or links.

And an annoyance with a generic topic like that is they can and will continue to bump or necro post additional babble to it in an attempt to further boost rankings or get additional human posters.

The accounts do need to be deleted - on boards that allow it they will fill up their profile page with keywords and links.

Futurama's Philip J. Fry squints and wonders: "Can't tell if babblebot - or just stupid".
Z98
Release Engineer
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Joined: Tue May 02, 2006 8:16 pm
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Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by Z98 »

I will see the reports, assuming another moderator doesn't close it.
Budi7250
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:23 pm

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by Budi7250 »

Now internet is using everywhere, in the world , i think not all spambot detection guideline are correct, because like me , my english language isnt good, my english is pasive...so i am only reading all forum in this web, to know what happen done in these web.
so like me after registration i will pasive because my english not good....but i am not spammer.....just pasive member.
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EmuandCo
Developer
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Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by EmuandCo »

Z98 wrote:I will see the reports, assuming another moderator doesn't close it.
Or not removing the suspicious thread.

Right now I tend to remove the posts and keep the user because I was told in the past not to remove them due to problems with roscms. Btw, how about a captcha added to the register page?
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
vicmarcal
Test Team
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Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:35 pm

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by vicmarcal »

Budi7250 wrote:Now internet is using everywhere, in the world , i think not all spambot detection guideline are correct, because like me , my english language isnt good, my english is pasive...so i am only reading all forum in this web, to know what happen done in these web.
so like me after registration i will pasive because my english not good....but i am not spammer.....just pasive member.
We don't check if the English language is poor or your activity, just if you are pasting links to other sites or if the answer to a thread has any sense.
If there are doubts the user remains, but usually it is pretty obvious :)
DeadDude
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:53 pm

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by DeadDude »

it may be beneficial to include some specific keywords to make this post easier to locate... as the search term "Spam Reporting Guidelines" didn't bring this up... I just wasted some time and effort making a post asking where this post was...

So feel free to edit or delete this post if deemed unneccessary...

Here's a tip! The triangle icon with the red ! is the report button!
(I'm used to seeing the WORD "report"... Doh!) :oops:

Search Tags:
SPAM Spam Reporting How to report spam found spam bad posts report button
andreas84
Posts: 101
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:09 pm

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by andreas84 »

how about using honeypots for spambots. The honeypot would use an invisible pixel as link which would be never clicked by a human and afterwards keep the bot in a trap or mute the account
alexei
Posts: 137
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:29 pm

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by alexei »

You may want to remove all posts with the word купить (Russian for "buy") and block user alburleby.
Though technically it may be OK to post ads to "Off Topic", a posts from picfile.org/albums/shop/clothing are obviously spam.
milon
Posts: 969
Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:26 pm

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by milon »

Just hit the Report Post button (the '!' beside the Quote button), and choose the 2nd option for the reason why (advertising). That's a more effective way to report spam. And I'd be cautious about banning the Russian word for buy, as that could legitimately relate to a ReactOS discussion. (ie "What old computer should I buy to try to get ReactOS to run on real hardware?")
huckleberrypie
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2012 8:02 am

Re: Spam Bot Detection Guidelines

Post by huckleberrypie »

What about this mod for PHPbb3? https://github.com/philnate/phBadBehave

Tried it myself and it did snuff out most of the bot accounts.
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