[johncanfield]

Just a head's up to ROFers about spammers that we've been shutting down for the last few months. Just this morning I deleted TheHills who made his first post about a bike mount for his 2018 JL. He included a link to that product which was a clear tip off that he was going to use ROF to post links for his/her employer, also his IP address was in the Philippines. By the time I saw the post/thread there were already a couple of responses. I tried to find the thread after I banned/spam cleaned it but I suppose it's lost somewhere in the ether. Anyway if you were looking for that guy and his bike reply it might not be there.

So here's the usual attributes of spammers we've observed so far:

• they might resurrect an old thread with a strange post
• they usually have avatars of a person, two people or something else - usually not a Jeep
• their new thread (maybe first or second post) will include a link that might or might not have anything to do with Jeeps
• they don't seem to have any detailed knowledge of Jeeps
• some are quite good at trying to mask their intentions so we let them run a little while
• the moderators are also quite good at sniffing out spammers so they will look at their IP addresses for a foreign address or logging in from multiple IPs

If anybody suspects a new user is a spammer, click on the Report Post button and we will check it out. Thanks for the help and assistance.

 

[Mouse]

Lots from Philippines and Pakistan

 

[Wildrat]

Hmm, I responded. I guess I did not pay attention. I usually catch those people. I have been a bit out of it lately though. LOL

 

[johncanfield]

No worries Mark, we have lots of eyes working here.

 

[Blue Baby Sound]

I help moderate another forum and we have the same issue. India, Africa, Pakistan, Georgia, etc.
I delete 5-6 a day on average, not sure about the other mods.

Good luck guys and thank you for the time you invest on this forum to keep it running smoothly.

 

[johncanfield]

I was chatting with the admins/mods on greentractortalk (also owned by VS) and they have the same problem with spammers.

 

[Mouse]

The old Pirate 44 site has imploded; now the spammers seem to be who post most often.

 

[johncanfield]

The old Pirate 44 site has imploded; now the spammers seem to be who post most often.

That's a shame, I suppose the admins/mods don't much care.

 

[RubiconRic]

What is their intent? Is it malicious (i.e. malware), they just want us to buy something from their link, they're trying to do recon on people to more fully populate black market databases, etc.?

 

[johncanfield]

My theory is they are getting paid to join forums (or social media perhaps) and shill products by posting links. I'm on the staff of rvforum.net and we've been alert for this for many years. My other theory is they are harvesting contact information from our members. As far as I know malware isn't directly involved but there are risks clicking on unknown links. I have occasionally clicked on spammer posted links to check and they seem to be legitimate but never assume.

 

[Wildrat]

My theory is they are getting paid to join forums (or social media perhaps) and shill products by posting links. I'm on the staff of rvforum.net and we've been alert for this for many years. My other theory is they are harvesting contact information from our members. As far as I know malware isn't directly involved but there are risks clicking on unknown links. I have occasionally clicked on spammer posted links to check and they seem to be legitimate but never assume.

I know clicking on some links will install malware. After You caught this individual, I ran a check, nothing detected. I have clicked on other supposed legitimate links and have had malware installed. The main ones I find guilty is when I want to download a PDF. I hit the link, it goes to a page, and nothing downloads. I know now this is a pretty good indicator this nefarious link has just installed malware on the computer, and I run a scan.
I use a program called Malwarebytes. I have been using it for near 15 years. I felt it protected me enough that I went ahead and purchased the program. I don't normally buy programs. It is not anti-virus SW. I use McAfee for AV, but only because it's free from ATT, my inet provider. Most all the cable companies have free AV software to download, if you are subscribed to the leeches.

 

[Norminator]

I use my iPad to test links since it has no hardrive.

 

[Wildrat]

I think the spammers are doing the updates on the forum to improve it! The latest improvement today has rendered my phone access unusable. PC seems fine so far. Darn spammers should leave the forum alone!

 

[johncanfield]

We're usually don't get a heads-up from the tech support people when a change is on the agenda .

 

[Wildrat]

Spamming, Phishing, Trolling, seems it's the future.