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procainestart
procainestart SuperDork
5/17/24 1:19 p.m.

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :

I've found the spamming kinda fascinating and went down a bit of a rabbit hole. It's called "black hat SEO" -- they're trying to manipulate page rank. Content in forums apparently confers extra legitimacy, which is why they're dumping it here (as well as all over other forums that they can easily post to). Also, GRM's site already has great SEO and a really good domain rank, or authority -- it's very credible, which helps the spammers: their BS rides on the coat-tails of GRM. Meanwhile, I think it's more than just the word "Quickbooks," or whatever other service they're pushing. It's the phone number, too, and if included, links. Plus the repeated use of terms, numbers, and questions.

I also think that once you see the posts in search results like the one above, the spammer has achieved their goal, and they don't care that the post has been deleted: Google and presumably other search engines have crawled the posts and applied them to whatever page ranking the spammer's trying to manipulate. But I don't know this, for sure.

It's also conceivable that a human is posting this stuff. If "Quickbooks" is altered, they'll likely use Unicode characters that look the same but are different (called "confusables" or homoglyphs) and won't be found in a search for the word. They're actually already doing this. And even is you use code that finds them, you can have multiple Unicode characters put together form a single letter, e.g., in some instances, you can create an accented letter by combining two unicode characters. So, it's hard to find them.

It seems the best common element to search for is phone numbers, which, for now, are *mostly* (but not entirely) using standard numerals. All that said, I assume this is a big enough headache for people that there's a tool, or equivalent resources, available that can search for at least a majority of confusables, though you probably wouldn't have to: if a post has more than, say, 10, it's a baddie, and nuke it.

TL;DR Search new members' posts for phone numbers, and don't publish, if found.

J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
5/28/24 8:05 a.m.
Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Testing.  Looks like any interactions on my part only result in error messages.

Hey, if you're getting any error messages, please feel free to contact me. We'd be happy to clear those up for you. Thanks, Hungary Bill!

DarkMonohue
DarkMonohue SuperDork
5/29/24 2:04 a.m.
stuart in mn
stuart in mn MegaDork
6/2/24 7:26 a.m.
DarkMonohue
DarkMonohue SuperDork
8/10/24 4:26 p.m.
DarkMonohue
DarkMonohue SuperDork
8/10/24 6:09 p.m.
DarkMonohue
DarkMonohue SuperDork
8/11/24 4:07 a.m.

This guy bears a striking resemblance to this guy

DarkMonohue
DarkMonohue SuperDork
8/12/24 12:24 a.m.
Mr_Asa
Mr_Asa MegaDork
8/12/24 7:17 a.m.

Feels AI ish, but I dont like to bring down the bamhammer until a link is posted.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/jazmindavina/

Duke
Duke MegaDork
8/12/24 11:24 a.m.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Yeah, just stepped in to post that one.  Dubious new user is dubious.

 

LifeIsStout
LifeIsStout Reader
8/12/24 1:02 p.m.
Duke
Duke MegaDork
8/15/24 6:42 a.m.

Definitely a canoe, so I ain't clicking the link, but I admit the idea of a sandwich calculator is intriguing.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/dameia/
 

Mr_Asa
Mr_Asa MegaDork
8/17/24 10:21 p.m.

EGT ad messin up mobile.

Android phone, chrome.

 

J.A. Ackley
J.A. Ackley Senior Editor
8/17/24 11:18 p.m.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Thanks for the heads-up! We'll get that checked out.

Duke
Duke MegaDork
8/19/24 7:57 a.m.
EvanB
EvanB MegaDork
8/19/24 8:24 a.m.
myf16n
myf16n Reader
8/23/24 10:00 a.m.
DarkMonohue
DarkMonohue SuperDork
8/23/24 2:41 p.m.
90BuickCentury
90BuickCentury Reader
8/24/24 6:24 a.m.
TJL (Forum Supporter)
TJL (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
8/24/24 8:46 a.m.
90BuickCentury said:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/speedrackwest/

 

Canoe storage racking?

This canoe is a good example. Even though they are de-activated, their name is still an active link.  Go to their profile and click the username. 

Brotus7
Brotus7 Dork
8/24/24 12:27 p.m.
stuart in mn
stuart in mn MegaDork
8/25/24 7:48 a.m.

I think this guy has been masquerading as a regular reader but is actually selling canoes for the Dyler website.  https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/community/goldenyear/

Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself
Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself PowerDork
8/26/24 1:24 p.m.
Duke
Duke MegaDork
8/26/24 2:48 p.m.
brandonsmash
brandonsmash Reader
8/28/24 4:10 p.m.
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