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Guess how many SPAM accounts are created in Beersmith Forums - Per Day

jomebrew

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On a typical day.

Hint- More that one. 

We have about 2 or 3 a week get past the filters and moderation and are able to post spam messages.

How many do you thing we get a day?
 
I'd think you're getting up to about 150 per day with one or two getting through and posting or laying dormant. Bots are bastards.

Killing spam is probably pretty tedious. When they do get through, I try to make my report a little humorous. Though, I'm sure you probably get a lot of reports rather quickly.

 
Yep.  Between 150 and 200 new spam accounts are created a day (and the same are purged).  A few do get through and we nuke them as quickly as we spot them.  We appreciate reporting spam accounts which helps nuke them much more rapidly.    I am usually online twice a day though I will be away for a few days on a beercation in New Mexico.  So, a few more may get through.
 
Somebody must be making money on this to make it worth the effort. I know it isn't much work on their part, but it does cost them something.

--GF
 
GigaFemto said:
Somebody must be making money on this to make it worth the effort. I know it isn't much work on their part, but it does cost them something.

--GF

Usually the signup is done by a bot program. You'd be surprised at how much money is made in spam scams. Often, once the scammers figure out how to beat the registration challenges (most have a pattern) they will launch a few dozen signups per day. What still has me in awe is the amount of plain old email spam that goes around.

Lately, I've noticed that some of the spam accounts here are posting replies to legitimate threads. This is designed to make the account "trusted." This is usually done by a real person. After some time, the account(s) can be sold to a real spammer and the account will start to have taglines with links or just plain go rogue. Trusted accounts may take weeks to get removed on some sites.

There are many businesses who have just spam as the way to get "customers." A lot of the "pharma" spam actually results in the real product being shipped. The more an item is likely to be reordered and the quality can be judged by the customer, the more likely the spammer will deliver the real thing, or a very good approximation (never underestimate the placebo effect).

Fun Fact: The US is responsible for just as much automated spam as comes from China. Only Russia has more.

Kudos to Jomebrew, Brad and the other moderators for keeping spam under control. This is a very enjoyable site due to their efforts.

PS: If you want an eye opening and often hilarious education on spam, google "scambaiting". But please, don't try that on your own. There are very real risks involved.
 
Funny timing.  I spent the morning visiting Google and a few spammers posted while I was away.  Now they are watching me to see when I will be away and can't nuke spam accounts. 
 
Thanks for your diligence. I know I'm appreciative of phone apps that help me weed out the phone scam and spam that I get hourly on my business phone. It's a hidden world for most of the public that can be scary if you think of it's size. Nuke on!!
 
Sorry folks, I was away on a beercation to Albuquerque and didn't log on for 4 days.  Great beer and breweries there.  back to purging spam and spam accounts again...
 
jomebrew said:
Sorry folks, I was away on a beercation to Albuquerque and didn't log on for 4 days.  Great beer and breweries there.  back to purging spam and spam accounts again...

Thanks for you diligence!  As you could see, your absence was missed, but you deserve the break!
 
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