Berlingo Forum

I see the forum seems to have been hijacked again and is full of totally irrelevent posts sowed like confetti in all sections

Peter

I quite agree, if you look at the members list newest page,  of the 20 names or so on each page,  of these usually, there is 18 scammers banned. 

That's not just on the first page, its just one of many pages like that . There are names  that do not get to post as they get nipped in the bud either by SOL or me.  Some make it through to make hundreds of posts , 542 is my highest so far.

Once the Forum gets onto a scammers list that's it , expect lots more but we're trying to stem the tide and doing what we can.

Unless there is a system set up to verify new members before they make a first post then it will continue.  That would mean a delay in new members being able to make a first post as the moderators cannot sit waiting for new members to apply to be verified.

This is my personal opinion only and does not reflect the Forum s position.

I am always happy to be vetted before I join a new forum if it can protect it from scammers

Peter

Yeah, it's been p*ssing me off recently too - in the last few days I must have logged on 3-4 times solely with the intention of reporting a scammer.  I think I must report scammers more often than I make a post in a thread.  I'm assuming they get paid per post they make, rather than from 'customer' enquiries?  I can't see how they're picking up any custom for the voodoo cures / free money / Thai brides or whatever other criminal crap they're trying to flog. I get sorely tempted to send each scammer a private message telling them to F*** OFF.

I've reported a few, some in old threads ( I can't see how they think they'll get anything by bumping an old thread). Other times I think is it even worth bothering reporting them. This is the first time I've been on a forum where this happens, although I do notice that it seems to go in little bursts.

I too would be happy to be vetted before posting.

I usually report them when I see them when I'm having my brekky about 6.30, this morning I just CBA. I know zilch about the technicalities of running a forum but of the 5 or 6 I'm a member of (and other I lurk on) this is the only one that suffers...

(27-11-2023, 08:43 AM)notsofast Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah, it's been p*ssing me off recently too - in the last few days I must have logged on 3-4 times solely with the intention of reporting a scammer.  I think I must report scammers more often than I make a post in a thread.  I'm assuming they get paid per post they make, rather than from 'customer' enquiries?  I can't see how they're picking up any custom for the voodoo cures / free money / Thai brides or whatever other criminal crap they're trying to flog. I get sorely tempted to send each scammer a private message telling them to F*** OFF.

They're mostly 'Search optimisers'. The theory being that the mosre sites that links to a site the more important it must be...
And since Google tends to ignore 'link aggregator sites'(pages with hundreds or thousands of links), they instead target forums because Google's robots scan those often. Now, if all links in forums defaulted to adding the 'NoFollow' Meta tag to every posted link, this wouldn't even be an issue. The robots still follow the links, but they no longer count for importance.

In short, spammers doesn't care if their posts gets deleted in a few hours, or no one follows the link. First off, Google has probably already seen it, and secondly, the spammers always ask for payment up front, so they'ver already gotten paid.

I sometimes try to 'follow the money', check out the website in question, and track down their payment processor(they're always selling something). Then I alert whoever that is, and add links to the spammage, and ask if they're ready to handle the influx of complaints and reversed charges... That has had a few successes, but it requires the spam to stay on the site for days.

Another fun trick is that some forum SW has autocorrect...
So that 'a certain pill' name turns into 'sadtosserpillnotworthyofowningaberlingo' in the middle of the link...

As a global moderator on a motorbike site with 22 k members, we have no spam. Just by having the first post needing to be approved , And you can also check out the person's profile first, so any links can be checked out. Spammers are banned and IP address also banned.

One point I noticed, the email notifications I get are sometimes complete ads with links in themselves, so the thread post they link to is by the by - the email is enough of an ad.

I hate to say it but despite the valiant efforts of just two mods I can see the writing on the wall for this forum unless the policy maker decides to care once again. Reminds me of Lord of the Rings.

I'm looking into it. Most likely forum script needs to be upgraded and an additional protection against spammers needs to be implemented.