Comments on: I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, spammers like me. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/ Random samplings from a universe of ideas. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:18:11 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Dave http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39801 Dave Wed, 21 May 2008 04:35:26 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39801 I can't stand garbage traffic. However, those CAPTCHA boxes some sites use really irk me - especially when it costs <b>me</b> time to decode the silly things (two or three attempts on some sites) and the site <i>still</i> lets spammers through. The <i>best</i> pages are the ones where you submit data but then lose all your work because you incorrectly or forgot to enter some stupid copy-paste code at the bottom of the screen. I use an invisible GOTCHA that I designed on a forum site I run. It's one of those phpBB forums that spambots love to pieces, as there's no end of internet bots designed to set up fake accounts and post offensive things. The entire trick uses a small piece of CSS coding on the registration page, and has been so effective that I've turned off all of the more visible tricks. One of the registration fields is made invisible (using a display:none rule in the external style sheet) so that real users cannot see it. Spambots, however, don't look at the page styles - they want to get in, make the account, post a few times, then disappear. To them, the field is visible. (And not only is it visible to them, the input boxes were renamed so that the spamcatcher box has an irresistible name - username or email or something that's always a required field name. I've been spam-free so long I've forgotten what I used!) Needless to say, any data entered into the normally invisible box causes the registration to fail. To date, exactly 0 auto-registered accounts have slipped past, meaning there have been exactly 0 spam postings since it was put into effect! And the best part (for me, at least) is that there are no CAPTCHAs or similar hoops that real people have to jump through to prove that they're really people - it's the spammers that are being duped to reveal their illegitimacy. I love having an innocent-until-proven-guilty system on my site, as I feel it shows proper respect to our members. :) If you've got access to the actual forum HTML code, the GOTCHA idea is pretty simple to put in place - however, the way blog bots operate may be different enough than forum bots to make the approach less effective. Still, it may help reduce unwanted traffic! Good luck fighting the good fight! ~Dave I can’t stand garbage traffic. However, those CAPTCHA boxes some sites use really irk me – especially when it costs me time to decode the silly things (two or three attempts on some sites) and the site still lets spammers through. The best pages are the ones where you submit data but then lose all your work because you incorrectly or forgot to enter some stupid copy-paste code at the bottom of the screen.

I use an invisible GOTCHA that I designed on a forum site I run. It’s one of those phpBB forums that spambots love to pieces, as there’s no end of internet bots designed to set up fake accounts and post offensive things.

The entire trick uses a small piece of CSS coding on the registration page, and has been so effective that I’ve turned off all of the more visible tricks. One of the registration fields is made invisible (using a display:none rule in the external style sheet) so that real users cannot see it. Spambots, however, don’t look at the page styles – they want to get in, make the account, post a few times, then disappear. To them, the field is visible. (And not only is it visible to them, the input boxes were renamed so that the spamcatcher box has an irresistible name – username or email or something that’s always a required field name. I’ve been spam-free so long I’ve forgotten what I used!)

Needless to say, any data entered into the normally invisible box causes the registration to fail. To date, exactly 0 auto-registered accounts have slipped past, meaning there have been exactly 0 spam postings since it was put into effect! And the best part (for me, at least) is that there are no CAPTCHAs or similar hoops that real people have to jump through to prove that they’re really people – it’s the spammers that are being duped to reveal their illegitimacy. I love having an innocent-until-proven-guilty system on my site, as I feel it shows proper respect to our members. :)

If you’ve got access to the actual forum HTML code, the GOTCHA idea is pretty simple to put in place – however, the way blog bots operate may be different enough than forum bots to make the approach less effective. Still, it may help reduce unwanted traffic!

Good luck fighting the good fight!

~Dave

]]> By: BlogD http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39786 BlogD Wed, 14 May 2008 17:02:09 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39786 A "new breed"? Boy, have <em>you</em> not been paying attention. I've been getting that kind of spam <a href="http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/727" rel="nofollow">for many years now</a>. It's a simple attempt to bypass the human filters by being non-specifically obsequious. It's based upon the idea that many bloggers will think, "Hey, great, what a nice compliment!" and not bother to see the link to the spam site. It is so common that some times, I almost delete <em>actual</em> compliments from visitors to my blog because they look just like the spam. And, by the way, I think your site is fantastic! Great design. I will definately be visiting again. And also by the way, here is a completely unrelated link to an innocuous site that I just happened to pull out of my ass. A “new breed”? Boy, have you not been paying attention. I’ve been getting that kind of spam for many years now. It’s a simple attempt to bypass the human filters by being non-specifically obsequious. It’s based upon the idea that many bloggers will think, “Hey, great, what a nice compliment!” and not bother to see the link to the spam site. It is so common that some times, I almost delete actual compliments from visitors to my blog because they look just like the spam.

And, by the way, I think your site is fantastic! Great design. I will definately be visiting again. And also by the way, here is a completely unrelated link to an innocuous site that I just happened to pull out of my ass.

]]> By: Trent http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39785 Trent Wed, 14 May 2008 15:43:42 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39785 Thank you. You have helped someone more than you could know. :) Thank you. You have helped someone more than you could know. :)

]]> By: Count Iblis http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39790 Count Iblis Wed, 14 May 2008 15:03:21 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39790 <a href="http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_8.html#sejnowski" rel="nofollow">The internet is (self) aware and cannot stop thinking about sex</a> :) The internet is (self) aware and cannot stop thinking about sex :)

]]> By: andy.s http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39789 andy.s Wed, 14 May 2008 14:53:34 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39789 I wonder if the spam percentage of email is close to the ratio of endogenous retro viruses in the human genome. Maybe all information systems experience this phenomenon. I wonder if the spam percentage of email is close to the ratio of endogenous retro viruses in the human genome.

Maybe all information systems experience this phenomenon.

]]> By: The Almighty Bob http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39791 The Almighty Bob Wed, 14 May 2008 11:31:27 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39791 They're called "link farms" - they build up a Google rating, and get paid to link to other sites to boost theirs. There's also the ones that copy whole Wikipedia articles into posts... They’re called “link farms” – they build up a Google rating, and get paid to link to other sites to boost theirs.
There’s also the ones that copy whole Wikipedia articles into posts…

]]> By: milkshake http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39800 milkshake Wed, 14 May 2008 01:41:43 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39800 Given how many machines are compromised and work as a part of botnet, I am amazed that e-mail and internet actually works at all. Now 95%+ of all e-mail volume is spam. One of more amusing spam developments are fake blogs that copy and paste at random from real blogs and web pages. Of course nobody sane reads those gibberish blogs - you end up there by search engines getting fooled. I wonder how the profitability of this scheme is supposed to work... Given how many machines are compromised and work as a part of botnet, I am amazed that e-mail and internet actually works at all. Now 95%+ of all e-mail volume is spam.
One of more amusing spam developments are fake blogs that copy and paste at random from real blogs and web pages. Of course nobody sane reads those gibberish blogs – you end up there by search engines getting fooled. I wonder how the profitability of this scheme is supposed to work…

]]> By: andy.s http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39784 andy.s Tue, 13 May 2008 22:23:26 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39784 apparently, hackers like you, too. apparently, hackers like you, too.

]]> By: Count Iblis http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39781 Count Iblis Tue, 13 May 2008 18:19:05 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39781 Another way to fight spam is by simply loading the advertized webpage over and over again. If a spammer sends millions of emails containg a link and everyone who receives that mail were to do this then that amounts to a massive DDOS attack :) Another way to fight spam is by simply loading the advertized webpage over and over again. If a spammer sends millions of emails containg a link and everyone who receives that mail were to do this then that amounts to a massive DDOS attack :)

]]> By: The Nerd http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/comment-page-1/#comment-39783 The Nerd Tue, 13 May 2008 15:50:52 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/05/12/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-doggone-it-spammers-like-me/#comment-39783 What a touching work! This has moved me in a way that I had hitherto only attributed to sexual arousal. (Yes, it's a joke.) What a touching work! This has moved me in a way that I had hitherto only attributed to sexual arousal.

(Yes, it’s a joke.)

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