What's with the sudden influx of spam accounts?

[backontrack]

My fault, I ordered spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, beans and spam.

Beans are off.

 

[najaB]

Genuine question - how do I spot spam, or am I too unworldly to recognise it?

The majority of the spam accounts I've noticed of late are in Cyrillic.

 

[me123]

Genuine question - how do I spot spam, or am I too unworldly to recognise it?

Most of them make very little attempt to engage with the forum. They'll generally post links to adult websites and shops and make no attempt at hiding their true intentions. They're usually fairly obvious.

 

[A Challenge]

Written in another language or plain advertising for example.

 

[DaleCooper]

Genuine question - how do I spot spam, or am I too unworldly to recognise it?

Look out for nonsense thread titles and Cyrillic letters.

 

[northwichcat]

My suggestion would be to either put a temporary block on brand new/unverified users making any posts, or to look into barring the IP address where this 'spam attack' is originating from.

Spammers can easily change their IPs. Using mobile data restarting your device gives you a different IP!

 

[najaB]

Spammers can easily change their IPs. Using mobile data restarting your device gives you a different IP!

Quite often it does not. A lot of (most?) mobile networks are NATed, meaning that the IP address the forum software will see will remain the same.

 

[A Challenge]

look out for nonsense thread titles and cyrillic letters.

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я
а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

 

[A Challenge]

Quite often it does not. A lot of (most?) mobile networks are NATed, meaning that the IP address the forum software will see will remain the same.

I think mine must change as I get an error on goo.gl for send suspected automated requests on my laptop and phone (and wifi) but works on mobile data.

 

[najaB]

I think mine must change as I get an error on goo.gl for send suspected automated requests on my laptop and phone (and wifi) but works on mobile data.

Equally, the IP range may have different rules applied to it since it's known to be a shared range owned by a mobile provider.

The only way to be sure would be to test it yourself using an external website (e.g. www.whatismyip.com or www.ping.eu).

 

[A Challenge]

You can also google (I dodn't know if it works with bing) "What is my IP?"

 

[najaB]

I dodn't know if it works with bing...

Nobody uses Bing...

 

[A Challenge]

Nobody uses Bing...

I had to a couple of weeks ago when we couldn't connect to google and the system admins couldn't work out why, and it does do better quality in-search pictures where you don't have to go through to the website!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I used to know a Jacko from Truro... never had him down as a Russian agent though- always the ones you least suspect!

 

[D365]

Nobody uses Bing...

Windows "10 S" will change that it seems.

 

[najaB]

I had to a couple of weeks ago when we couldn't connect to google and the system admins couldn't work out why...

I hope suitable trauma counselling was made available.

 

[A Challenge]

Windows "10 S" will change that it seems.

Why? IE and ME already use it automatically and people don't use them. Bing isn't too bad!

 

[najaB]

Why? IE and ME already use it automatically and people don't use them.

Windows 10S will only run Apps from the Microsoft Store - no sign of Chrome or Firefox in there, and they aren't likely to show up any time soon.

On Windows 8, you can't change the default search engine in the Modern UI version of IE (or at least I've not seen how to do it).

 

[DaleCooper]

Windows 10S will only run Apps from the Microsoft Store - no sign of Chrome or Firefox in there, and they aren't likely to show up any time soon.

Hearing stuff like this makes me glad I no longer use Windows.

 

[najaB]

Hearing stuff like this makes me glad I no longer use Windows.

10S is a response to Chrome OS so it's not really surprising that they are restricting it to only run apps from the official store.

 

[D365]

Hearing stuff like this makes me glad I no longer use Windows.

The best bit is, an "upgrade" to regular Windows 10 will cost $50!

 

[najaB]

The best bit is, an "upgrade" to regular Windows 10 will cost $50!

That actually makes sense. Windows 10S *devices* are expected to cost around $200, as compared to $199 for a standalone Windows 10 licence.

 

[sk688]

To be far , Windows 10 S is designed for the education market ,to take on , as another poster said , Chrome OS , which apparently dominates classrooms in America ( Have not seen any in schools here though )

Our school's Laptops are of 13-14 Vintage , while the desktops and AIOs were replaced in 15-16 Vintage , but they are all running Win7 , which is pretty old now , and our school are considering Surface Laptops ( Not Surface Books or Pros ) to replace our current laptops

 

[Bevan Price]

Genuine question - how do I spot spam, or am I too unworldly to recognise it?

There is no simple & universal answer, but it can appear in forums, or in emails sent to you. Sometimes it is an offer to sell you goods or "services"; sometimes it appears to come from your bank, or even your internet supplier, often claiming that there is some problem with your account.

Frequently it contains a hyperlink - you should never click such links - even if they pretend to direct you to somewhere genuine. These links often redirect you to sources of malware, etc., designed to extract your personal data, bank account details, or to damage the file / data contents on your computer.

 

[A Challenge]

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THIS POST, THEY AREN'T ALL WHAT THE SEEM TO BE

There is no simple & universal answer, but it can appear in forums, or in emails sent to you. Sometimes it is an offer to sell you goods or "services"; sometimes it appears to come from your bank, or even your internet supplier, often claiming that there is some problem with your account.

Frequently it contains a hyperlink - you should never click such links - even if they pretend to direct you to somewhere genuine. These links often redirect you to sources of malware, etc., designed to extract your personal data, bank account details, or to damage the file / data contents on your computer.

By hovering over a link (or holding down on it on a phone) you think is suspect you can are the domain name and then if you are sure it what it claimed to be, you can click it safely. Be careful, it could be for example railforums.co.uk.aloadofrubbish.com not the correct railforums.co.uk.

If it just says what it is, it may not be what it says, for example this: railforums.co.uk does not take you to this forum, but if you hold over it you can see where it does take you
You can check also that this takes you to this thread.

 

[najaB]

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THIS POST, THEY AREN'T ALL WHAT THE SEEM TO BE

Found what I think is a flaw in Tapatalk - you can't long-press on a link to bring up a context menu. So there's no equivalent to hovering over the link to see where it really goes.

 

[A Challenge]

It works on railforums' mobile setup through a browser, I don't like tapatalk.

 

[northwichcat]

Be careful, it could be for example railforums.co.uk.aloadofrubbish.com not the correct railforums.co.uk.

If that was in an email, it is likely the main email providers would flag it as a phishing scam.

Also to add to the confusion it might be the link to railforums in an email goes to something like http://railforums.tracking.com/gyw562ftts but if you click it then it does in fact go to railforums.co.uk after first going to a link which records what you've clicked on, then redirecting you to railforums.

 

[A Challenge]

If that was in an email, it is likely the main email providers would flag it as a phishing scam.

Also to add to the confusion it might be the link to railforums in an email goes to something like http://railforums.tracking.com/gyw562ftts but if you click it then it does in fact go to railforums.co.uk after first going to a link which records what you've clicked on, then redirecting you to railforums.

Is that another fake link, goo.gl can give you analytics data or is it a full which Email was it invasively?

 

[northwichcat]

Is that another fake link, goo.gl can give you analytics data or is it a full which Email was it invasively?

That's a made up generic link but bigger companies don't want to use a link which obviously belongs to another company. Some company's use a subdomain of their usual website address for tracking links e.g. on a Nectar email I just opened it goes to http://links.e.nectar.com but others do use a separate domain e.g. a Research Opinions one goes to ct.sendgrid.net and then redirects to researchopinions.co.uk. In the case of the latter it sounds like they use the default tracking provided by their email provider and haven't even tried to customise it.