Message board spam is a growing problem

[Renew Deal]

A few other sites I visit have been hit with message board spam. Two of them are fairly small sports sites that got hit with "Indian Porn." The other is a new private site. It's not a problem on sites actively moderated like DU. But I find it surprising that people would target such small and well off the beaten path sites.

[n2doc]

1. People put spam everywhere

Nearly every commentary board I look at has at least 1 or 2 spam messaged about some cheap merchandise as one of the first 3 or 4 messages. I wonder if they are automated somehow.

[gateley]

2. I wondered that about the unrecs here -- if they could be automated since

they appear immediately on the most innocuous threads. I suppose it could be done...

[Renew Deal]

4. There's no incentinve to rec or unrec.

Post count rules here.

[pipi_k]

7. I don't know about the immediate ones, but

this morning I went to rec a thread and very nearly clicked "unrec" instead.

I'd have felt like a shit if I hadn't caught myself at the last second.

[japple]

12. You're right about that...

[sandnsea]

16. Lots of software automates posts, etc

The stupid part is that the only thing it works for is to create spam. It doesn't boost search engine ranking and it doesn't create any sales. It's just people getting rich selling shit that spams up the internet.

[RedCappedBandit]

3. They's trollin'!

[drm604]

5. A lot of it is automated.

They have bots that spam thousands of message boards, big and small.

[sandnsea]

6. It is everywhere and I can't figure out why

Who buys Viagra online anyway? Or says, oh yeah, I'll contract this Indian company I found in an obscure thread on bloviatorsrus. It's insane. Why do they do it if there can't possibly be any money in it.

I have gotten to the point where I have to check my spam box for real mail, and just delete Viagra mail from my inbox. Why is Viagra the only thing getting through the spam filters? Hmmm. Interesting.

[Doremus]

9. It's less about selling from the links as it is about improving page rank in search engines. nt

[drm604]

11. Exactly.

The more pages that link to their site, the better their rankings on the search engines.

[sandnsea]

15. A lot of it has no link or site

And page rank isn't really improved through comments sections because a lot of that has automated no follow. The only real reason to use comments sections is for actual traffic, or to spread the name of the site. Spam sales are typically spur of the moment types of sales. I suspect that somebody sells people some automated piece of shit get rich quick crap - and that is where this spam comes from.

[whistler162]

8. Yes it is and if you buy my messageboard SPAM begone

software for only $19.93 it will be gone.

[wyldwolf]

10. Yes, it is. By the way, I have a substantial sum of money in a bank in Nigeria...

[Blue-Jay]

13. Spamming message boards? This should be in the LBN forum!

[Clintonista2]

14. You should see the world of warcraft forums

Talk about spam. The spammers there aren't your regular annoying brand either, they're pretty malicious. They'll make fake posts that look legitimate, but provide a link that leads you to an infected site that will give your PC a virus.