The Spam Tsunami

[buksida]

In the last week or so we have seen an unprecedented level of spam in the form of automated software bots and human posters infiltrating this (and HuaHinMedia.com partners') forums and websites. Some will even post a bunch of text to manipulate the Google ads that show up on each page.

Fortunately this forum's software has been modified to prevent new posters inserting links else we would have been flooded with spam by now.

We have also seen viral attacks on Hotmail accounts, hacking attempts on partner websites, and a generally elevated level of spurious internet spamming activity. (Conspiracy nuts aside)

This thread has been started primarily to apologise on behalf of forum Admins and owners for the incursions and to warn all members to be on their guard against bogus emails (with attachments) that are engineered to spread the infection and spam bots across networks.

If anyone has any concerns or questions on the above please post them here, we all need to be a little more vigilant with our computers to slow and hopefully curb this digital pestilence.

[Spitfire]

Keep up the good work gents. Spammers are pretty sad really...............

[chopsticks]

Not sure if it's related but I have noticed over the last few weeks how the forum start-up page is taking longer to download. Using IE8 and seems as if it's waiting longer than it used to for the Google-ads to load.

[buksida]

Not sure if it's related but I have noticed over the last few weeks how the forum start-up page is taking longer to download. Using IE8 and seems as if it's waiting longer than it used to for the Google-ads to load.

Not related, where are you accessing from? Maybe some geo-targeted ads take longer to load.

[PeteC]

Everyone can help out with this as well. If you think a spam post has slipped by the mods, hit the exclamation mark at the bottom right in each post screen and report it. Pete

[dtaai-maai]

And on that topic, why is John612 still posting?
6 unrelated posts on different topics, some completely irrelevant, none followed up. Obviously some kind of spammer.

[Big Boy]

Just to advise, when we discover a spammer, and there have been subsequent posts - all posts will be deleted when we delete the spammer's thread. Apologies to those of you have posted, but without the OP, your posts would look nonsensical.

[PeteC]

Yeah, that one for meds got through and had a live button for a link as well. Seems they have found a way around the forum no link under 10 posts defenses. Pete

[redzonerocker]

Just to advise, when we discover a spammer, and there have been subsequent posts - all posts will be deleted when we delete the spammer's thread. Apologies to those of you have posted, but without the OP, your posts would look nonsensical.

There's nothing nonsensical about Anna Friel , but i get your drift

[buksida]

Yes, please don't reply to the spam threads as we'll delete the entire topic as soon as we can.

We may go through the database and clean up all the spam accounts also.

[Frank Hovis]

Has anyone noticed that a lot of new members are posting semi-relevant but generally glib posts?
Are they spam infiltrators, who think they can post 10 slightly on-topic replies and then they'll have the ability to post links and images to all manner of cack? Or just people desperate to get into the after dark forum (boy will they be dissapointed !)

Take this post for instance.....

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16901&start=90#p239356
On topic but hardly the ramblings of a sentient hua-hin expat.

And there are others where the entire post is just 'Wow - that's amazing' or similar.

Just a thought....

[dtaai-maai]

Yep, noticed. I've started clicking that exclamation mark, with my observations.

One of the more recent signs is a token effort for the post to have some relevance to the topic, though often by copy/pasting something from the Net.

Wow!

[Big Boy]

No worries Frank, we are monitoring such posters constantly. I would guess that between us we've eliminated 100+ spammers in the last month. Obviously the odd one will get past us, and we are always grateful if members can help by hitting the exclamation mark to highlight potential problems.

[Lev]

Please do not reply to posts that you suspect are spam - it only helps them achieve their goals. Threads from this forum are syndicated over a number of other websites across the net and the spammers know that this is a highly trafficked site, henceforth they are becoming more sophisticated about the distribution of their wares. Our moderators are online 24-7 and will edit/delete as appropriate.

We thank you for your patience during what has been a bit of a storm lately on the spam front.

[PeteC]

Maybe explain a bit what these people achieve by eventually posting a link if they get through all the defenses. What is the going rate per hit for these spam merchants? Pete