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Recent spam attacks and what makes spammers tick

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Posted 2/14/2015 5:38 PM (GMT 0)
Because of the recent wave of spam attacks on our forum (and may I add my thanks along with those of others to Vickie for doing such yeoman's service in cleaning up their mess), I thought it might be useful to post this article I came across that gives some very interesting vital statistics about the average spammer:

www.spam-site.com/profile-of-spammer.shtml

It's short and can be read quickly, but provides some revealing facts about the typical spammer who does this kind of mischief, such as:

Usually male
16-35 years old
Single
Lives at home
(and other stuff)

The article also mentions, surprisingly, that "… a good spammer can easily earn $ 100,000 per year." shocked

It's a good read.
Posted 2/14/2015 5:56 PM (GMT 0)
actually, a good spammer/phising/cyber crime ring can earn 100 of millions of dollars doing spamming, credit card theft and other electronic crimes.

Turns out it's not that hard to do if you put your mind to it and given the global nature of the internet it's very hard to prosecute most of these folks.

Andrew
Posted 2/14/2015 7:06 PM (GMT 0)
I saw the early morning spam here and I don't understand how they make money doing this. Do they want us to click on the post, then take the bait, or what? No, I don't want to start my own "business". I just want to know how it's worth the effort posting garbage on a forum. ??
Posted 2/14/2015 9:00 PM (GMT 0)
It was a phising attack - they wanted you click on the links which likely would have encouraged you to either leave personal information or download malware to your computer that would look for interesting information or turned your system into a 'bot' that they could then use to attack other larger networks that have more juicy data to download.

It's worth it to them because of the 1 million links they leave around in forums like this, about 10,000 will click on them and get the bots or other data. Of that number a few hundred will result in actual cash rewards. It's a numbers game - the more they throw out the more they get. They try all forums to see which ones aren't protected.

They hit this one from time to time, don't get anything and move on. They'll be back in a few weeks.
Andrew
Posted 2/15/2015 1:02 AM (GMT 0)
These particular spammers hide hyperlinks inside the garbage and as your scrolling you happen to click one and especially from a mobile device you have just made a international $87 call,thats why we warn folks to be really really careful even opening them. No why I know that? I have done it twice early out with these guys!! Lol

This particular spammers the black magic guru,love Dr,whatever he's calling himself this night runs a spambot or many during the night and has been haunting us for almost a year so thankfully my cell carrier took care of the charge once I explained but not all would have.

Interesting article and surprising to me anyway. I don't think I realized how much money they could make but places like HW where folks are suffering,sick,at the end of the line for answers and treatment are perfect places for the folks who prey on others misfortune,how many times have we thought we would try anything,buy anything,do anything to fix our issues or those who we love?

So spammers are a priority for your Mods and Peter. We try to keep these idiots from preying on those here that at are at that moment of desperation where anything is worth a try no matter how ridiculous it may be.

Thanks for the article!
Posted 2/15/2015 6:53 AM (GMT 0)
Looks like our spammer is back... shakehead
Posted 2/15/2015 7:02 AM (GMT 0)
Yes actually 3 different one's at the moment,one in here,allergy and Alzheimer's! He's getting old and I would think that after almost a year and hundreds of usernames and IPs there has to be a way to rid us of him permanently??


Looks like your resident spammer signed off!! We can ban their usernames and IPs but neither goes into effect until they log off then they can't get back in,not sure why the server is set up that way maybe because it's ancient?
Posted 2/15/2015 9:18 AM (GMT 0)

nvrthesame98 said...
Interesting article and surprising to me anyway. I don't think I realized how much money they could make but places like HW where folks are suffering,sick,at the end of the line for answers and treatment are perfect places for the folks who prey on others misfortune,how many times have we thought we would try anything,buy anything,do anything to fix our issues or those who we love?

So spammers are a priority for your Mods and Peter. We try to keep these idiots from preying on those here that at are at that moment of desperation where anything is worth a try no matter how ridiculous it may be.

Thanks for the article!


THANK YOU Vickie for all your hard work and diligence. I did not understand why they chose this place until you mentioned the reason above. Preying on the most vulnerable! That is so sad confused

You can ban there ip but if they are using a proxy server or something like the Tor "onion" network then they can create as many new ip addresses as they want. So you will never beat them that way unfortunately.

I could see that some folks had checked the spam posts out. Most likely one of our many guest visitors.

I am not sure what the answer is. But I am glad that we have "angels" such as you watching over us. Once again THANK YOU.

Just too try and lighten the mood a little bit. All this SPAM reminded me of this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
Posted 2/15/2015 3:03 PM (GMT 0)
Casper555 - One of the better Monty Python routines! LOL!
Posted 2/17/2015 1:12 PM (GMT 0)
Here we go again.
Posted 2/17/2015 3:26 PM (GMT 0)
There seem to be two kinds lately: Korean ones that are advertising gaming sites or massage parlors and Indian astrologists that can fix all the problems in your life. Sounds tempting? turn
Posted 2/17/2015 7:06 PM (GMT 0)
Last night was a challenge. Spent the better part of an hour deleting spam and closing down spammers. They would open them faster than I could delete them.
Posted 2/17/2015 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
Spammers are misbegotten scum and not worth the explosive diarrhea they defecate on forums like this. That's my sugar-coated opinion
Posted 2/17/2015 9:06 PM (GMT 0)
There's another line in the above linked article that catches the eye: "... He [the spammer] claims to have covert agreements (sometimes referred to as pink agreements) with ISPs to allow him to send the 84,000,000 pieces of junk e-mail per day that he claims to."

"Covert agreements" with certain ISPs = "On the take?"

It would make sense, I guess. The spammers can't do what they do alone, and if some unscrupulous ISPs see the opportunity to reap benefit from getting a hold of some of the spammers' presumably extensive profits, then I suppose many of them will not hesitate to do so.

More on "pink agreements" (or "pink contracts") on the same site as above:

www.spam-site.com/isp-doing-business-with-spammers.shtml
Posted 2/19/2015 3:56 PM (GMT 0)
The spammers have gotten to the point that it takes a couple of us "late-night" type mods to delete it all. Peter W. is investigating what can be done with the forum software.

One change we have made is to put a timer between posts. It has been changed a bit to confuse the spammers, but for those of you with "flying fingers", frustration may result if you are trying to rapid-fire posts. They will end blocked out.

Last night I spent two hours purging these scum, but some got through.

One advice - if you see foreign characters, or "junk" in the subject, please don't even look at them. One of us will get to them eventually.
Posted 2/19/2015 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
If we were on a site with the more powerful vBulletin software we could get a Plug In that looks at a huge database.....and keeps known spammers from being able to register...

Or the simply ability to deny access per IP address or range of addresses.

BUT, thanks to the MODS for dealing with this.
Posted 2/19/2015 4:21 PM (GMT 0)
Steve,

We do block specific IP addresses, but it looks like these folks are using a site that randomly generates IP addresses over a large range.

Agreed, there is newer / better software, but there is a cost ...
Posted 2/19/2015 4:29 PM (GMT 0)
I suspect the reason they post so much so fast is that the bots are programmed to set a tempo that keeps them from timing out. We can ban their user ids and their IP addresses but neither takes effect until they log out and try to log back in -- they aren't thrown out immediately.
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