Ship Simulator
English forum => Ship Simulator Extremes => Topic started by: vin_sun on December 06, 2010, 12:12:41
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Spam has started showing up in the Forum now. There is a possibility it is the same person registering himself with different identities but the common factor is that his country is always Afghanistan. I can't quite fathom how an Afghan would be involved with Ship Simulator when Afghanistan does not have a sea coast !!!
This is a nice and tidy Forum with a devoted interest in anything to do with commercial shipping. It is enough that our email applications are bogged with spam and the Forum should be the last place where we need it. I noticed it in the Dutch and French Forums but it has shown up in the English Forum too.
I have come across some other Forums who do not accept a registration immediately but only after auditing the applicant. If shipsim.com also adopts this method maybe we could succeed in keeping the "garbage folk" away. Though it would not be right to limit the Forum only to seafarers could we not limit it, in future, to only those who have legal versions of Ship Simulator ? That casual members have access to some common boards it only gives them the liberty to post spam there.
I am aware that moderators are doing the needful to delete "garbage" posts but if things go out of control it could become a major job for them.
Below is a self explanatory picture of a spam attack on a genuine topic.
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_5qPQbQNNNuQ/TPy_oPuGPGI/AAAAAAAADpI/-icb2fQ5pUE/s640/Spam.jpg)
vin_sun
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Hi Vin_Sun
Unfortunately the forum is already on MARSEC level 3.. :P
Approving the members who sign up would be very unfriendly to them and scare new real members away. The people without a legal serial key are already limited to the public boards. If we seal it any further, the people who have questions about the demo will also be shut off.
The only thing can be done is keep on reporting them, the mods will send em to Davy Jones locker ;)
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Hi Ballast,
Thanks your prompt reply and I do understand your viewpoint.
You can count on me to report spam in the Forum.
Regards
vin_sun
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Hi vin_sun
Fred do'es a great job on these spambots but unfortunatly some are coming faster
than a speeding bullit ;D but we try thanks for you'r help :2thumbs:
Eric
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...... thanks for you'r help :2thumbs:
Eric
You're welcome Eric !
Regards
vin_sun
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I have noticed the same thing this morning..Already three meaningless topics which have just as fast been removed..
It's annoying.. Perhaps something the mods can keep an eye on..
ps: yes, also with Afghan flag, but a flag means nothing sometimes..
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The mods actually keep an eye on, we remove them as fast as possible. If you see one of this message, and a few minutes later you see it has disappeared, that's because one of us removed them manually.
If it's annoying for you ... let me ensure you it's much more annoying for us ;)
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Thanks Denis..Let's hope Spamalot betters his ways.. ;)
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speaking of which, he has striked again >:(
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Best to ignore him and let the mods deal with it.. :)
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yeh, whenever i find it i just report it
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He was here just a minute ago, called himself j454gfgfg@hotmail.com
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Hi everyone,
'They' have obviously found a new way to circumvent the current security, at least, a few of them have.
Just so that you all know, we all very much appreciate your reports. As you can guess, there's lots of them coming in, so we simply don't have the time to write you all personal thank you notes. :)
But thank you all very much!!! You know how you all are, we're very glad you take the time to assist us in keeping the forum clean of such rubbish.
At the moment it's under investigation, with the help of the good SMF people, to get it all sorted. Up till then, we'll just keep on giving these silly spammers the boot. And your reports are an integral part of that, so thanks again everyone!!!
Kind Regards,
Fred
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They're really having a field day today - been about a dozen postings today... :-\
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You bet ! Have reported as many as I could.
I think they are using the Afghan flag as a "flag of convenience" ! In my opinion I think they are all originating from China.
ITF ! Help !!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
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wytky7780 13:25:16 Posting a new topic in Ship Simulator Extremes.
here comes another one...
cr9fgyfD 13:26:09 Viewing cr9fgyfD's profile.
And here is one in waiting...
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mark 14:55:41 Viewing hfgf899ggf's profile.
mark 14:58:09 Nothing, or nothing you can see...
Hasta lavista... Spammer
Please... don't come back
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the dude who's spamming most probably made a tool which automaticaly generates new email adresses and forum accounts, pretty stupid actualy to bomb a forum like this. a little optimism though, spammers always occur when a game/forum becomes more populair :D
this also happened on Mafascene (fansite for the game mafia) at the time Mafia II was going to release, the website had about 60 members each minute, the website was bombed by spammers, now the game seems dissapointing to most of the people, and the forum is quite empty now, and guess what? no spammers. ;)
this is just a waste of his time in a sad attempt of keeping the mods busy. and if he's reading this and thinks "i only spent 2 minutes making that bot LULLLLZZZZZZZZZ!?!?!?" then it's 3 minutes of his time wasted ;)
trying to give them a IP ban doesn't work either, they're most probably using a Proxy.
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Hi Vin_Sun
Unfortunately the forum is already on MARSEC level 3.. :P
Approving the members who sign up would be very unfriendly to them and scare new real members away. The people without a legal serial key are already limited to the public boards. If we seal it any further, the people who have questions about the demo will also be shut off.
The only thing can be done is keep on reporting them, the mods will send em to Davy Jones locker ;)
what do you mean by MARSEC level 3
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read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARSEC then you get answer on you question
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and if he's reading this
If he really is from Afghanistan, it's possible he can't understand English at all, and is blissfully unaware of the hubbub about him..
So far all he has done is quote texts from commercial sites, and hasn't posted anything resembling comprehension..
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i hope the website stays carful more of these attacks
but just because a person is from afganistan doesnt mean that ALL afghans are bad
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ive seen no spam
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You're very welcome on behalf of the whole team. ;)
;D
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You're very welcome on behalf of the whole team. ;)
;D
are you speeking to me
if so what do you mean
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he means that all the moderators are glad to help remove the spam, they do it so quickly that you havn't seen any
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Gold star for Ralphy! ;D
Yeah I was being cheeky.. :)
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I found two more spam posts, one in Small Talk, and the other in SSE, the SSE one not relative to the game. The poster is from Afghanistan and both have the same name but both have one post. I find it odd why this person would spam on the Ship Sim Forum of stuff completely unrelated.
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I guess he is either very bored or very unimaginative..
(oops, there's another one)..
Untill this pesk is dealt with, it would seem best not to click on the links in his topics.. (you never know) ;)
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I find it odd why this person would spam on the Ship Sim Forum of stuff completely unrelated.
because that's where spamming is all about ;)
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I found more Afghanistan Spam and surprisingly the person revealed his email address in his profile. Here is a picture from one of the afghan users' profile:
(http://i53.tinypic.com/35c0x6v.jpg)
Here are two recent topics from afghan user with same name and one post each:
http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,23650.msg312767.html#new
http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,23651.msg312767.html#new
Second link is in the Ship Simulator Extremes Board.
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Not trying to be racist or anything but, people from that country have a bad name across the world especially in the US, this person will need to be reminded this is not the place to leave spam
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Guys,
Have you ever thought that the country that is first in the list when registering is Afganistan? The spammers are NOT from this country, I am almost 100% sure on that, but instead they are simply just a macro script running from a server somewhere (or on someones computer) that visits websites (much like a search engine spider) and register itself on forums to be a nuisense. Most of the time it is a bid to advertise drugs and pointless things.
I would bet a beer on the fact that spammers have almost nothing to do with Afganistan :)
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i do not think spammers will leave anything of personal information around the internet, in fact im almost a 100% sure it's a bot which generates these random email adresses and account names.
and i wouldn't count on it either that he/she's from afganistan, any idiot can select that country. ;)
the email will probably be useless as no one uses it, the name of the email adress could be made by a bot because of the strange combination of characters. aswell for the name.
btw, what is the first country in the list of countrys you can select? wouldn't surprise me if it is afganistan.
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Hmm been a long time since I registered, is there a "human check" when registering? Most forums have a picture with letters to type in...
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this is not the place to leave spam
There is a good place to post spam ? ;D
But yes, as no passport is required to add a flag to your name, the guy could be from anywhere..
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i do not think spammers will leave anything of personal information around the internet, in fact im almost a 100% sure it's a bot which generates these random email adresses and account names.
and i wouldn't count on it either that he/she's from afganistan, any idiot can select that country. ;)
the email will probably be useless as no one uses it, the name of the email adress could be made by a bot because of the strange combination of characters. aswell for the name.
btw, what is the first country in the list of countrys you can select? wouldn't surprise me if it is afganistan.
Wasn't that what I said? :D
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btw, what is the first country in the list of countrys you can select? wouldn't surprise me if it is afganistan.
It is Afghanistan, I just checked.
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Captain Spencer already said that aswell.. and lots of other people have in the past as well.. ::)
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Captain Spencer already said that aswell.. and lots of other people have in the past as well.. ::)
Sorry :'(
Where does Mr. Afghanistan typically spam? I have been looking but, I can't find anything.
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That's because his posts are removed by a mod as soon as they're spotted.. ;)
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Hmm been a long time since I registered, is there a "human check" when registering? Most forums have a picture with letters to type in...
I agree, it's about time security is beefed up on this Forum as it would seem any Tom, Harry and Dick are able to register on this forum and then leave spam messages.
Something like "Word Vertification" where you see an image of random text and you would have to type in exactly what you see, like this one:
http://ruturajv.wordpress.com/2006/02/13/anti-spam-word-verification/
It's unlikely any spammers would waste their time typing in these word vertification every time they spam a website or a forum.
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Wasn't that what I said? :D
yes, but i was writing my message while you were, so you clicked on the post button before i finished my message. ;)
Recaptcha is a good initiative
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Some threads are just pointless. I'm very surprized that a Moderator even created it. All forums have SPAM. We as members can report it, and the Moderators can take action. Instead of a thread like this being made, I would like the many Moderators of this site to delete the so many duplicate threads, and/or look-a-like threads, or at the very least condense them into one.
Such as:
"Polls" asking what you think about SSE. I know of at least 3 of them.
"Questions" about the game. God, there must be at least 8 of those.
"Control Issues" Another exhausting topic.
This makes it hard to get a decent search in the forum program, when you have several of them popping up, instead of 1 - 3 listed.
Need I go on? Please don't ask me "if I can do better" because as a Moderator I have, and done it. With the many moderators here, someone should be assigned to catch these postings, and take the appropriate action.
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are people still on about this spam thing?
I thought the mods had finished the job already?
and the fact that accusing *afghans* and *Paki's* already shows that people have no respect at all when this forum isnt even meant to have such people who use words that might sound offensive to some people.
Please show respect to what your talking about and use your words carefully,
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and the fact that accusing *afghans* and *Paki's* already shows that people have no respect at all when this forum isnt even meant to have such people who use words that might sound offensive to some people.
Well spoken, TFK
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Hi,
The spam attack is - for now at least - stopped.
Talking about the country of the spammers is totally pointless. Why Afghanistan ? Because it's the first country in the list, when you have to choose. Point. It's alphabetical, and has nothing to do with the nationality of the spammers.
Some threads are just pointless. I'm very surprized that a Moderator even created it. All forums have SPAM. We as members can report it, and the Moderators can take action. Instead of a thread like this being made, I would like the many Moderators of this site to delete the so many duplicate threads, and/or look-a-like threads, or at the very least condense them into one.
"pointless threads" ... Looks like you know what you're talking about.
1. the spam attacks, as I wrote above, is stopped
2. Vin_sun, when he started this thread, was not even a moderator yet.
Don't hesitate to report new spam message, if some come again, anyway. Everyone's help is very appreciated :)
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there should be a country in the top of the list called "aaim a spammer"
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there should be a country in the top of the list called "aaim a spammer"
;D
Heres its flag..
(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJJFasLnKZBPbs8Ppr22RIAI4e-wRAm9XdsGAvGtX0hZ1Zamtd)