New "Potential Spammer" Alert

Esteban wrote

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.

Artemis wrote

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.....

vreihen16 wrote

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.

This spam is really smelling already: https://f20.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?p=31135076#post31135076 (there is a spam link attached to the quoted one to look as an extension). A spam thread reported earlier today in the same forum/section is gone but this one remains reported for a few days. Another pet spammer or is the voting not so effective against just reporting?

What does a "potential" spammer mean, after all? A potential SEO spammer is this one: https://f20.1addicts.com/forums/showpost.php?p=31144262&postcount=1 (most recognizable/insolent, nesting another spam thread but no spam link yet). Should it be reported already for non-welcome consensus ("Come again, next time correctly!" )? I would guess so. But when the spam link is there it's actual. I would guess that should be reported as a forum rules violation to skip(?) the voting as unnecessary/misleading.

What happened to this? Spammer going crazy this morning but I don’t see how to report as spam. He’s posting in every forum.

cmyx6go wrote

What happened to this? Spammer going crazy this morning but I don’t see how to report as spam. He’s posting in every forum.

It will hopefully be coming back pretty soon (within hopefully 24-48 hours), but in the meantime can you point me to a post and ill take care of it Already got a bunch of them zapped

apptest wrote

cmyx6go wrote

What happened to this? Spammer going crazy this morning but I don’t see how to report as spam. He’s posting in every forum.

It will hopefully be coming back pretty soon (within hopefully 24-48 hours), but in the meantime can you point me to a post and ill take care of it Already got a bunch of them zapped

They're gone now. Must have been the ones you zapped. Thanks.

apptest wrote

It will hopefully be coming back pretty soon (within hopefully 24-48 hours), but in the meantime can you point me to a post and ill take care of it Already got a bunch of them zapped

Does the report post option in the three dots menu at the top of every post of the new forum site work? I haven't had a chance or need to try it yet.....

vreihen16 wrote

Does the report post option in the three dots menu at the top of every post of the new forum site work? I haven't had a chance or need to try it yet.....

Inconsistently for the time being

Related security suggestion for the administrators: has Bimmerpost considered adding two-factor authentication/MFA for member accounts?
I've had an active Bimmerpost account since 2010 but been away from Bimmerpost since I did not do much with my previous car. After recently buying a new car, I came back excited to start looking at parts and modifications. Unfortunately, that excitement caused me to move too quickly and not follow the verification checks I normally would.

A scammer impersonated a legitimate classified seller and contacted me outside the forum, and while I thought I did all my due diligence correctly, I ended up losing money. MFA would make it difficult for these types of scammers conducting their business so effectively and build trust between community members. Has this been considered in the past?