Scams and Spam Links

Greetings

You're all familiar with the random threads that show up from time to time on the forums that contain links to random sites. I had a thought about these spam bot accounts that are banned soon after they post. It may be just me but it seems out of character for most legitimate businesses to advertise through posting on random sites through automated accounts. I think many of these spam bots are created by scammers trying to drum up business. The links posted by the bots may lead to legitimate products however you never know what is on the other side. I'd say it's most likely a trick to lure people into being conned out of their money. It would be plausible that the links on spam posts may actually be fronts that redirect you to a fake error page typical of tech support scams. There's also the possibility that these links may be used by con artists to try to get curious and unsuspecting users to download a virus. Often its a fake security program that lies to the user about their PC being heavily infected with malware and requiring a payment for cleaning in an attempt to steal money and banking details. Do you think that these spam links most often have to do with scams or the distribution of viruses?

Dunno, but I know I never touch the links. It would be great if maybe somehow N3V could modify the forums so that no links could be posted unless it was by a bona fide member, with at least one product on the timeline. I don't know how much programming that would take, but if they couldn't post links, I think it would decrease the amount of spam.

That could work. Unless the account is a hacked existing user's, much of the spammers are fresh accounts with no registered products to their name. That or some other form of verification could be nice as having a game on timeline also helps to prove the user has a legal copy of TRS tied to them.

I know I had to contact the help desk to get the free version of 2009 to show in my timeline. So, that's not a sure fire way to tell if someone has a legal registered copy of trainz in order to post.

Good Day all,

All the items discussed here of are of Noteworthy Concern. I would like to add this one Program to the mix only as a Reference point.



I have watching been watching all the Spamming, Virus Attacks, and what not for probably 40 some years, it has gone from individual to Nation State, which to me, raises and continues to raise my Eyebrow, I am also a victim of Identity Theft more than once. I can tell you, that at least one of these attacks on my Credit, took 6 months to clear, and was horrible.

So when I see these Spam intentions to our Forum, it gets my attention right away.......

If those that are interested, and who can receive Podcasts, I like to suggest "Lock and Code", I think it would be beneficial to some of things seen here.

Just Google it or if you use a Podcast Player, do a simple search and it should pop up........

Hopefully a solution to maybe tighten up our Forum will come into Fruition.

Peace and Good Health to all........

Forester1 said:

It would be great if maybe somehow N3V could modify the forums so that no links could be posted unless it was by a bona fide member, with at least one product on the timeline. I don't know how much programming that would take, but if they couldn't post links, I think it would decrease the amount of spam.

Click to expand...

A good idea but it may run into a problem caused by the forums using a commercial product (vBulletin) from vBulletin Solutions Inc so I am uncertain how much programming N3V would be able to do to implement that idea. That said, the current vBulletin version is not the latest version so an upgrade might solve the problem (but at what cost for a free service).

Overall, I consider that the SPAM problem here is minor compared to other forums. The moderators (unpaid volunteers all) are usually quite good at removing it once they have been notified (but there have been exceptions).

As for users being mislead into giving away personal details and/or money to the scammers, that is not just confined to web based forums. My partner has been receiving SMS scam messages about items being delivered (taking advantage of people relying more on online shopping in these Covid time) or missed phone calls. It comes down to cyber security education and some common sense precautions.

EDIT: I just checked the specs for the latest version of vBulletin (v5) and while it looks cheap to upgrade ($US209) it seems to offer nothing different in SPAM control to the currently used version (v4).