[Esteban]

Saw him in the LOL Pic thread, thought it looked suspicious. Noticed someone gave him a rep point. lol

Good looking out, Artemis.

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Saw him in the LOL Pic thread, thought it looked suspicious. Noticed someone gave him a rep point. lol

Good looking out, Artemis.

A nightmare is also a dream. A bad reputation is also a reputation, LOL.

Low post count + suspiciously banal comment + brief succession of posts in different threads: finger on the spam bot annihilation trigger. If I notice a comment featuring a spam URL: permanent ban + all comments from the spam bot are rounded up, merged and subsequently 'emptied' (in Bimmerpost sections where I got moderator powers). For hard-delete: merging the 'empty shell' (after merger) with a dedicated dummy post.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by Artemis

Lately Bimmerpost encounters spam traffic from spam bots 'nesting' spam URLs with this technique:

• a spam bot creates a dummy post featuring a bot-generated banal ChatGPT comment (related to the topic in order to fake relevance);
• a spam URL is hidden inside the post (only physically discernible when you click the QUOTE button, or also the EDIT button for moderators and admins).

This isn't a new thing. I've been smashing the triangle on this type of posts for at least two years now, with SEO links hidden on punctuation marks or in white-on-white text.

There is another technique that they use to hide SEO links to avoid reply/quote detection, but I will not share it publicly to prevent it from being used any more than it is.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure that I had posted a "Turing test" in Nicky77's profile, and may even have reported a suspected spam message.....

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

This isn't a new thing. I've been smashing the triangle on this type of posts for at least two years now, with SEO links hidden on punctuation marks or in white-on-white text.

I am definitely familiar with hidden spam URLs since quite some time. But those URLs are visually discernable: a visible spam URL, 1 character hiding a spam URL, white or grey text hiding a spam URL, mini text (text size 1) hiding a spam URL. Either those feature in the original post, or are added at a later point in time to distract attention (however, when posted later, the spam bot blows its cover, as the post is marked as edited, attracting attention).

The spam technique I pointed out is more subtle: impossible to discern - 'physically', the post looks normal. But when you edit or quote the post, a 'nested' spam URL is revealed. The only visible anomaly is context-based: bot-like rambling or some banal compliment (out of context). Low-post count is an additional parameter (although I noticed in the recent past that some old accounts seem to have been 'hi-jacked': suddenly posts feature spam URLs).

Also a red flag: a comment featuring text already at the very top line of a 'comment box' (i.e. 'glued' to the top, right under the grey area featuring the date/time info), instead of featuring lower in the 'comment box', almost at the same level of a forum member name). Those posts are deleted, no matter the contents. If you spot such posts: please report with the warning triangle.