spam technique I just noticed: Administrators beware

[Shelley]

I think Carlos's post stands as a good warning to new forums owners who may not be aware of the many spammer tactics that are out there.

Yes, us old hats have seen it all before, but it doesn't hurt to share stuff like this as we all need to learn from somewhere.

Cheers,
Shaun

Very well said. Experienced Admins will be aware of various spamming tactics whilst they'll always be novices whom can always learn and most importantly made aware from threads such as these.

 

[M@rc]

First, by default, the signature line is dotted. That's one way of telling that they're using fake sigs.

What I did in the past at my xF forum, was used CSS to leave a small space between the dotted line and the contents of the signature itself. ( easier to spot if there was a fake sig )

Another of their spammy tricks is to ask questions in the forum ( eg. asked XenForo question ) , with the link to an answer in their signature, .
But that's when sigs are enabled for guests to view.

 

[Carlos]

AH I see what they did in your post. Looks like they were trying to simulate a vBulletin signature. So even IF signatures were turned off for guests, a guest would still see this type of signature.

Someone got it right! Bravo!

+1 for robdog!

I don't understand what the spammer thinks they are getting away with... Do they actually think hiding the signature in the post is going to make people click on their link in the "signature"?

Some people do click signature links. That's why I issued this warning.

So they're trying to get around the "no signatures for new members" forum rule, by faking a signature that hardly anybody will click on?

Yep. That's it!

Or maybe he thinks he's being clever in that google will index his site, because the forum has a "nofollow" on *real* signature links. Doesn't seem like a bright spammer to me.

You're right, not a bright spammer.

First, by default, the signature line is dotted. That's one way of telling that they're using fake sigs.

Yuh.

What I did in the past at my xF forum, was used CSS to leave a small space between the dotted line and the contents of the signature itself. ( easier to spot if there was a fake sig )

I don't like that method, it makes posts look weird to me.

Another of their spammy tricks is to ask questions in the forum ( eg. asked XenForo question ) , with the link to an answer in their signature, .

That is frustrating.

But that's when sigs are enabled for guests to view.

My forum has sigs that are enabled for guests to view... so when I saw that kind of spam, I removed the spammy link, warned him twice, before he started being s douchebag about it.

I have been moderating, and administrating forums for quite a long time, never have I seen this type of spam. Its embarrassing to know that others have done this, and think that I was the first.

 

[whynot]

Do they actually think hiding the signature in the post is going to make people click on their link in the "signature"?

Not necessarily.
The URL in the link is counted by the search engines,increasing a site's ranking.

 

[Forsaken]

Not necessarily.
The URL in the link is counted by the search engines,increasing a site's ranking.

Links posted by non-admin/moderators are all nofollow.

 

[Kier]

Not necessarily.
The URL in the link is counted by the search engines,increasing a site's ranking.

No, it's not.

#nofollow