Why Spam?
This may seem like a silly question: but who is creating spam on forums and why? Our site at okgo.net/forum gets something like 1000 spam registrations every 2-3 days right now. Amazingly, they come from relatively unique IPs. At most 30 registrations so far have come from one IP, often it is just two or three. I find this amazing. Aside, from not knowing exaclty how to dynamically block all these IPs, I'm just wondering why this is going on? Is this exceptional? Or is this somehow the norm? Is our site being targeted?
Best Answer
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x00
MVP
But what is the point of it? What does it achieve for whoever is doing it?
Good question.
The people who create the exploits, or post the spam aren't really connected to the content normally. Only ammeters do that.
People innocently sign up to service they believe are legit. They think it is just promotion, they don't ask what method will be used. Others know there in a black.grey market.
There is a massive demand for exposure. Some of this spamming is more effective then others, but that doesn't change the demand.
Networks of infected computers, servers, caches of spamabale sites, these are worth money, simply because of the demand.
The target, can vary from anyone, to specifically search engines, to a well filtered demographic.
it is a combination of international criminal network, amateurs, self promoters, and largely poor people who are just trying to earn a living.
Some for the the black market network are as sophisticated as some for the better legit ad syndication services. The only difference is they don't really have permission.
grep is your friend.
6
Answers
Spam make of the majority of traffic on the web, more than porn or anything.
Spam is the number one reason for exploits, viruses, malware.
Not activism, not state funded hacking, it even surpasses financial fraud.
With a proxy serivce liek Tor, you don't need to worry about IP blocks.
grep is your friend.
But what is the point of it? What does it achieve for whoever is doing it?
as x00 says.
have you tried:
http://vanillaforums.org/addon/registrationrestrictlogger-plugin
I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.
Good question.
The people who create the exploits, or post the spam aren't really connected to the content normally. Only ammeters do that.
People innocently sign up to service they believe are legit. They think it is just promotion, they don't ask what method will be used. Others know there in a black.grey market.
There is a massive demand for exposure. Some of this spamming is more effective then others, but that doesn't change the demand.
Networks of infected computers, servers, caches of spamabale sites, these are worth money, simply because of the demand.
The target, can vary from anyone, to specifically search engines, to a well filtered demographic.
it is a combination of international criminal network, amateurs, self promoters, and largely poor people who are just trying to earn a living.
Some for the the black market network are as sophisticated as some for the better legit ad syndication services. The only difference is they don't really have permission.
grep is your friend.
Right... any good texts that I could read about it?
Kind beyond the remit of this forum but try google.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=spam+statistics
grep is your friend.
@peregrine i couldn't get the registration logger to work. i tried openning up permissions on the files all the way, and still had no luck. didn't have time to debug or go deeper. but i think that is probably the right tool!
5 minutes of your effort will save you hours later.
see the readme. see what errors you get with debug. when you get the chance.
I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.
Quite simply: profit.