New "bot" to deal with?

[rickhz]

I have had a couple members join up and begin to answer threads using the exact text from earlier posts in the same thread. The answers are correct, but they are pointless in that it is just a copy and paste of existing solutions.

Has anyone else seen this? What could be their motivation? A couple moderators think it's AI training.

 

[thomas1]

In the past, we noticed them returning to insert spam links into their copied-and-pasted posts.

 

[rickhz]

[RIGHT][URL='https://testmyspeed.onl/'][COLOR=#a9a9a9][SIZE=1]Speed Test[/SIZE][/COLOR][/URL][/RIGHT]

Just noticed that below the copy and pasted text they have inserted an "invisible" link.

 

[ehd]

And check their IPs. Mostly VPNs and Proxies.

 

[chillibear]

We've had similar with new members introductory posts being copies of posts from many many years back to presumably look "on topic". Not seen it with Q&A threads yet however.

 

[Suzanne O]

Manually approve all new accounts it stops them from spamming your forum

 

[ES Dev Team]

Manually approve all new accounts it stops them from spamming your forum

You have a total of 3 members on your forum.
I'm sure this would be quite easy for you, but that won't work on a forum of reasonable size

 

[Alpha1]

Just put http in your moderated spam keywords and such posts will go to approval queue.

But it would indeed be nice if empty posts with only a qoute would get get blocked. The user shouldn't be able to submit it at all.

Maybe @Xon can address this in his Signup Abuse addon. Its getting quite common.