Nonsese Posts

[Ringlet]

What are all these nonsense posts that have suddenly appeared in great numbers? Is it possible to report these to get them removed?

[Togo]

I spotted them earlier also Ringlet, and decided to give them a wide berth. I think Eddie responded to one of them, so if he is online perhaps he could shed some light. I would think that the tech bods would have checked them out or maybe the EDs content invigilators have decided that they are harmless. Still I will give them a swerve.

[woofgang]

they have got links to medication sales sites within them.

[Togo]

Well spotted woofgang.

[THECORBYLOON]

I have reported four or five this morning

[fiction-factory]

Reporting them only works once the Ed is back at his/her desk and has had chance to look at the reports.
Mods can only deal with them if they are looking in. Much of the spam come sin in teh early hours of the morning and have disappeared from Latest Posts by the time the mods get up

[Togo]

fiction does that mean we can get away with naughties on the early bird posts.
Ooooh that's the place for me.

[fiction-factory]

Yes- you can get away with it until Ed sees the report and decides to suspend/ban you!

[Mamyalynne]

Ringlet - Is it possible to report them ,yes use the report button.


As FF says Spam goes away quite quickly if reported during the day -less so in the wee small hours.


I take it they've gone now?

[Togo]

Do the spammers have to use a different profile and email address for every post fiction? They must be pretty determined.

[Togo]

The thing is mamy you have to open the post to report it. If they are hackers or key loggers they can then get malware hooked up to your system. I just give them a swerve.

[Mamyalynne]

I guess it's like shooting fish in a barrel- they hope to catch one or two along the way.

[EDDIE51]

I have reported 5 or 6 recently.
I am wondering if there is some sort of computer program that generates them, or if people sit down and 'write' them.

[fiction-factory]

I assume most are genearted by bots, since I can't imagine people sitting there setting up so many email addresses and user names and then activating them.
I think even if the threads are deleted quickly there is a trace on Google and so the spammers think it's worthwhile.
There's even more spam than people may see- if you ever look on Recently Answered Posts tab early in the morning you'll usually find several new spam replies tagged onto really old threads from up to 10 years ago

[trt]

Not seen any, where are they?

[Mamyalynne]

Perfectly safe to open the thread and report it - just don't click on any links within.

[fiction-factory]

They have beenremoved, trt. They usually appear in Business and Finance and are ofy=ten written in Russian or similar or contain gibberish English interspersed with references to meds or trainers.

The Recent Posts contained a few this morning which i reported but there are still some others such as the one from balanceme on a 2007 thread
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/?cftype=recently_answered

[Togo]

My advice would be. Do not open any link that is attached if you answer one of them inadvertently or by mistake. The link could be a phishing site or hide a virus.

[Mamyalynne]

Simply open the thread and report as Spam,as ordinary members that is all we can do.

[Ringlet]

I have just recovered internet access after a virus attack on my PC yesterday, and I am highly suspicious of those dam websites that I was roaming around a couple of days ago. Sometimes knocked everything out on my machine, and it took about eighteen hours of hard work by my wonderful son in law to put it right. So please be warned.

[Ringlet]

*Something, not sometimes.