I have no idea how spamming works, and this has made me quite curious…
What is it about the fighter jet thread that has attracted spammer(s?) to reproduce it more than once? Any layman’s terms answers appreciated.
The spammers just grab a title to (fully or partially) copy so as to try to fit in. Seeing a title like Apple iPod $300 Immediate Shipping! tends to give away that it’s spam.
Though grabbing a random portion of a title or using a current title has much the same effect.
Not to mention the links when you open the thread or the gibberish username.
ETA:A title is likely used more than once it it stays at the top of the forum for more than a few minutes.
Been wondering the same thing. Thanks.
Moved from General Questions to ATMB.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Ahh, that top of the forum bit makes sense. Probably I miss more than I see, but I’ve seen this one more than once today and it really piqued my curiosity. Thanks!
Colibri: I did consider putting it in ATMB but thought it wasn’t necessarily JUST about this message board. Works for me though. :0)
Purely coincidence. As running coach says, currently spammers are often just copying some random part of existing titles. Others are just posting three or four random words that have no relation to existing threads.
They seem to change their camouflage strategy periodically. For a while they were copying complete thread titles, but they gave that up. Sometimes they have posted random strings of letters as titles, but haven’t done that today.
It’s pretty stupid, really. Spam threads are almost instantly recognizable regardless of what they do, especially from the type of user names they pick. They would probably get more hits if they just posted “Free streaming sports” as a title. The gibberish titles are nearly as noticeable, but less attractive to someone who might actually be looking for their product.
Thanks again!
I’m pretty sure that I have seen a few that were just titled “free streaming sports”, or the like.
And for the copied/partially copied titles, my guess is that they just take whatever happens to be first on the list at the moment. I think that sometimes, one spammer even ends up using the post of another spammer as the template, so you get a real title, a shortened title, and a shortened-even-more title.
Moderator Note
Thread title edited to clarify which forum the thread title was in reference to, since the thread has been moved from its original location.