# Why do the spam attacks come in the middle of the night? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 29, 2014, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876 "2014-10-29T07:26:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/41 "2014-11-05T16:54:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > They appeared to be coming from New Zealand this time. The posts came from India. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/42 "2014-11-05T17:32:25Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > The posts came from India. We’re talking about the jewelry posts? Because I thought they mentioned New Zealand by name. If an Indian spammer is posting for an NZ company, it indicates a much higher level of organization that I had suspected. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/43 "2014-11-05T21:05:12Z")
We only have one repeat offender who really causes us a lot of grief right now, and that’s the guy who posts the +91 phone numbers and all of the voodoo astrology crap. When **tonyfop** said “He’s Baaaaack!” it referred to this one particular problem spammer. The jewelry post you referred to came from Japan. We don’t get much spam from Japan these days. That was a one-off oddball spammer. Indian and Pakistani spammers post spams for folks all over the world. It’s much more organized than i think you suspected. It’s not uncommon to see an Indian or Pakistani spammer link to something like a dentist in Chicago or a supplier of building materials in the UK. These types of spams probably constitute the largest percentage of our spam here, and they are difficult to block because we have legitimate users using the same ISPs that the spammers use. The other ones that are difficult to block are the Romanian watch free movie spams because we’d pretty much have to block the entire country to get rid of them. We have one spammer from the Philippines who often posts links to things in Australia and New Zealand. He also often likes to claim that he’s from California. I don’t know why. Maybe he really likes Hollywood or something. He only shows up a few times per month and often gets banned before he even posts anything, so he’s definitely not the problem child that Mr. Indian Voodoo Astrologer is. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/44 "2014-11-05T21:47:17Z")
For those who are curious, this is where our spam has come from in the last couple of weeks: India Pakistan Romania Romania Korea India Denmark Philippines Atlanta Serbia Pakistan (selling jewelry in Australia) Salt Lake City India \* India India India \* Bangladesh (selling Spanish life insurance) Redmond, Washington India \* India Romania NSW Australia New York Wisconsin Philippines (claiming to be a girl from Florida) India Romania India \* Florida (pretending to be in New York) San Jose + India India \* New Jersey Taiwan California Salt Lake City Pakistan India Zurich, Switzerland Canada with Indian e-mail address India India India (posting in Danish, linking to a Danish web site) New York India \* San Jose + Philippines India Philippines India Nigeria Pakistan India \* Poland India\* Illinois India \* Philippines Utah India \* England Florida San Jose + India India \* India Pakistan Singapore San Jose + India \* Utah San Diego Japan India \* Salt Lake City Bangladesh - These are all our tantric voodoo love astrologer spammer - These San Jose spammers are actually Chinese spammers. Some of the Chinese spammers have set up ISPs in California to get around country bans. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/45 "2014-11-05T23:08:24Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > You de-lurked to post something because you don’t understand why posters feel a need to reply to something? > > How meta. 🙂 ETA: I knew all the time it was the fucking Swiss. And Bill Gates. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/46 "2014-11-06T03:55:46Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > For those who are curious, this is where our spam has come from in the last couple of weeks: > > India > Pakistan > Romania > Romania > Korea > India > Denmark > Philippines > Atlanta > Serbia > Pakistan (selling jewelry in Australia) > Salt Lake City > India \* > India > India > India \* > Bangladesh (selling Spanish life insurance) > Redmond, Washington > India \* > India > Romania > NSW Australia > New York > Wisconsin > Philippines (claiming to be a girl from Florida) > India > Romania > India \* > Florida (pretending to be in New York) > San Jose + > India > India \* > New Jersey > Taiwan > California > Salt Lake City > Pakistan > India > Zurich, Switzerland > Canada with Indian e-mail address > India > India > India (posting in Danish, linking to a Danish web site) > New York > India \* > San Jose + > Philippines > India > Philippines > India > Nigeria > Pakistan > India \* > Poland > India\* > Illinois > India \* > Philippines > Utah > India \* > England > Florida > San Jose + > India > India \* > India > Pakistan > Singapore > San Jose + > India \* > Utah > San Diego > Japan > India \* > Salt Lake City > Bangladesh > > - These are all our tantric voodoo love astrologer spammer > > - These San Jose spammers are actually Chinese spammers. Some of the Chinese spammers have set up ISPs in California to get around country bans. What, nothing from Thailand? I’ll have to see what I can do about that. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/47 "2014-11-06T12:06:45Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > By my psychic predictions, I don’t think he’s going to get much of a response from people on this board. 😛 The sheer futility of it all has a certain fascination… you can’t help pondering about what sort of person(s) can’t see the forlorn waste of effort it is. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/48 "2014-11-06T12:40:22Z")
> [@Cugel](#): > > The sheer futility of it all has a certain fascination… you can’t help pondering about what sort of person(s) can’t see the forlorn waste of effort it is. Probably a poor person who gets paid enough for making the effort, no matter how many time it gets caught. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/49 "2014-11-26T18:08:22Z")
[Moderate New Registrations Based On IP Geographical Origin](http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=198440) This vBulletin plugin has been invaluable for screening new members from countries where there’s there’s a high ratio of spammers to legitimate users, such as India, Indonesia, the UAE, and the like. As for countries like Russia, China, Poland, Ukraine, Philippines, and those where 99.99% of all new members are spammers? IP blocks. Preventing spam, scraping, and hacking takes precedence over the one-in-a-thousand chance of blocking out a legitimate user, accommodating legitimate users who might be visiting Moscow or Minsk for a week, or appeasing those who believe country blocking is an act of bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/50 "2014-11-27T00:45:00Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > [Moderate New Registrations Based On IP Geographical Origin](http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=198440) > > This vBulletin plugin has been invaluable for screening new members from countries where there’s there’s a high ratio of spammers to legitimate users, such as India, Indonesia, the UAE, and the like. > > As for countries like Russia, China, Poland, Ukraine, Philippines, and those where 99.99% of all new members are spammers? IP blocks. Preventing spam, scraping, and hacking takes precedence over the one-in-a-thousand chance of blocking out a legitimate user, accommodating legitimate users who might be visiting Moscow or Minsk for a week, or appeasing those who believe country blocking is an act of bigotry. **Elmwood**. You’re my friend. Your board and your banning of countries is understandable. The SDMB has a more inclusive policy. We can’t ban countries. Sam ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/51 "2014-11-27T01:10:18Z")
Not even Sweden? ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/52 "2014-11-27T13:24:36Z")
How about the United States? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-spam-attacks-come-in-the-middle-of-the-night/702876/53 "2014-11-28T00:03:04Z")
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