What's with all the spam lately?

[Guinastasia]

All of a sudden we’ve got all these spammers popping up all over the boards in the last few months – what gives? Any ideas what’s attracting them?

[engineer_comp_geek]

It’s mostly the work of one spammer (or one small group of spammers) from Bangladesh. He (they?) have gotten pretty good at evading our spam filter and are also good at constantly registering from different e-mail providers and using different hosting sites to constantly change their IP to avoid IP bans.

Since we can’t predict where the spam is coming from, the best we can do as moderators is play whack-a-mole.

Also, the new mobile skin, as much as some folks complain about it, has apparently moved us up in the ranks quite a bit with google. We are getting more traffic in general, and more legitimate new users along with more spammers. I’ve also noticed a big uptick in new users who think we’re a site for the discussion of drugs (sorry, wrong kind of dope, dude).

[madsircool]

Its also the heart of the college and pro football seasons and the footie season.

[kopek]

I blame Hawaii.

[Siam_Sam]

Hey!

[Siam_Sam]

@madsircool

Its also the heart of the college and pro football seasons and the footie season.

That explains the uptick in sexual harassment news stories, with it being footsie season and all.

[TreacherousCretin]

Excuse my ignorance, but what’s their point? Before I wised up and started ignoring them it seems like they were always links to livestreams of seemingly random sports events. What’s in it for the spammers?

[running_coach]

@TreacherousCretin

Excuse my ignorance, but what’s their point? Before I wised up and started ignoring them it seems like they were always links to livestreams of seemingly random sports events. What’s in it for the spammers?

The spammers get paid.
The streaming sites hire the spammers to drive traffic to the streaming sites.

[samclem]

@running_coach

The spammers get paid.
The streaming sites hire the spammers to drive traffic to the streaming sites.

A dollar a day goes so much farther in Bangladesh.

[Rick_Kitchen]

@kopek

I blame Hawaii.

You mean Kenya.

[TreacherousCretin]

@running_coach

The spammers get paid.
The streaming sites hire the spammers to drive traffic to the streaming sites.

@samclem

A dollar a day goes so much farther in Bangladesh.

Got it. Thanks.

[Procrustus]

@running_coach

The spammers get paid.
The streaming sites hire the spammers to drive traffic to the streaming sites.

And then what? Who would buy ads on illegal sites?

[running_coach]

@Procrustus

And then what? Who would buy ads on illegal sites?

Not ads.
People who want to see what would otherwise be a very expensive pay-per-view event ( MMA), a blocked sporting event(local NFL) or a subscription sporting event.

[Gatopescado]

@samclem

A dollar a day goes so much farther in Bangladesh.

Noted for future retirement consideration.

[kopek]

I can’t believe we’ve made it this long in this thread without someone saying "Spam spam spam spam. Lovely spam! Wonderful spam! "

Ooops.

[Leaffan]

@running_coach

Not ads.
People who want to see what would otherwise be a very expensive pay-per-view event ( MMA), a blocked sporting event(local NFL) or a subscription sporting event.

1. How do the streaming sites make money? Ads must be involved, no?

2. How do the streaming sites know who directed whom to which stream?

[running_coach]

@Leaffan

1. How do the streaming sites make money? Ads must be involved, no?

2. How do the streaming sites know who directed whom to which stream?

For 1), they charge you to watch, just less than where they stole it from.
2) No idea.

[Leaffan]

1. Ah. Thanks.
2. Maybe they just pay by messages posted, and not results. So the spammers just copy and paste all their posted messages. That’s all I can come up with.

[Colibri]

@Leaffan

2. How do the streaming sites know who directed whom to which stream?

I would love to know how the spam sponsors verify how much spam the spammers have posted and on what basis they pay them for it. The spammers appear to care only about posting the spam, and oblivious to how long it stays up before being deleted. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m amazed at how much time and effort they put into generating new accounts that are going to be immediately banned.

[madsircool]

@running_coach

For 1), they charge you to watch, just less than where they stole it from.
2) No idea.

Streaming sites that I know of do not charge anything. And you would have to be an idiot to give a cc# to one of them