spam team: on the job

[branchandroot]

I would just like to thank the DW spam killing team: overnight I got one of those idiotic "contact me with your credit details so I can send you money from overseas" personal messages, and by the time I logged in this morning the user was already suspended.

*kisses to the spam team!*

Comments

[rthstewart]

But those Russian spam bots are SO ENTERTAINING!

[branchandroot]

Did you know Wordpress oriented spambots are now programmed to look for major anime character names and post incoherent anti-some-character screeds? (Probably scraped from a forum somewhere.) I imagine it works like a charm on a lot of fans; it's kind of diabolically clever, as a way to validate your bot by getting a reply to its message. I'm just glad journal-bots are dumber.

[edenfalling]

OMG, that is brilliant. In an evil, annoying way, of course! But wow, if you just want to get a reply to a comment, that is a damn good way to get one.

[branchandroot]

I've gotten them on my fic archive, because it runs on Wordpress and the menu is full of major fandom names. It almost got me, too, except the screed was so /very/ off topic it didn't make sense, even for the usual foaming-at-the-mouth-fan.

[kenllama]

If they almost got you, less discerning folk are almost certainly hopeless against the allure of someone being wrong on the internet.

As AI gets better and better, the world is going to be a weird mish-mash of uncertainties like this...

[kenllama]

That is wickedly brilliant, and vice versa. If only we could harness their ingenuity for better purposes...

[synecdochic]

Hee. I was the one who suspended it, so you're welcome! (And I will point the rest of the team to this entry, too.)

[jazzyjj]

I actually got a spammy-looking follower in my profile last year not long after I created my account on here, and I immediately reported the account. I honestly wasn't crazy about reporting, but after looking through the form with my screen reader I decided to give it a go. The way I found out it was a spammer was by clicking on the account name. I forget what exactly I saw, but something about collecting false money or something along those lines. But anyhow, when I checked the next morning the user was banned. So thanks Dw spam team! I absolutely love this site! Never gotten comment spam though, but if and when I receive it I know what to do.