There was a thread just a few minutes ago asking for advice about (I think) using the leftovers from Black Opal Shiraz. It was from a new member, can’t remember their name.
I read it and I thought “this seems strangely familiar, didn’t we get asked this very same question about this very same wine in another thread recently?”, so I went back to the thread and was going to try to point the OP towards the old thread (and perhaps it was the same user) but I was given the “you can’t access this thread” message…and then when I refreshed the Cafe Society main page, it was gone.
Was this some weird kind of spam or something? I usually try to chime in on wine-related threads as its one of my few areas of expertise…but that was just weird.
OK, and now I go back and see that the original thread has magically reappeared and it was originally posted by Broomstick on 6/26/10.
I swear just a moment ago it was somehow listed as a new thread and the OP was someone else with a 2010 sign up date. Other than that the question asked was exactly the same. That was really…strange. Ghost in the machine?
Yup, it was spam. The OP was copied from another recent thread. I banned the spammer and moved one post from the spam thread to the original, which was started by Broomstick. You can see it here. I’ve seen spammers do similar things but I’ve never seen this exact version before. The spammer had made two posts, both of which were direct copies from previous OPs. I don’t know what the plan was since there wasn’t any spam in the post or in a signature or anything.
What a strange tactic, copying someone’s OP word for word and having it started as a new thread. Perhaps the spammer sought a foot in the door by posting a relatively innocuous thread until they could unleash the fury of penis-growth pills in another thread?
I have a hypothesis on this, based on what I see in the comment section of one of my websites.
I think it’s a test, getting a few innocuous postings on a board and waiting to see if they survive. If they do, then the spam signature can be added after the fact. If the account still survives, then they can go whole hog with the spam postings. Seems like a lot of trouble, but it’s the only explanation I’ve come up with.