Please help us fight spam by reporting "clever" forum spam!

Please help us fight spam by reporting "clever" forum spam!

Some of the spam posted in the forum is very obvious.

Some of it, however, is not.

These days, a lot of spam posts also contains seemingly relevant comments. This is usually just copied and pasted from elsewhere, but it seems to be a normal post at first glance.

What gives it away is that it contains a spam link, either in the message body or in the user's signature. Here is a specific example (the image is grayscale, so as to not confuse it for other posts):



This is an example of an unusual kind of spam post where the text actually seems to be a response to the thread (some of them may even quote other posts), but you will also notice a random link in the post. That is usually a dead giveaway!

Most spam posts, however, are nothing but copy and pastes from other sites using some automated script to make it seem relevant.

If you see any posts with links "out of nowhere" (or a spammy sounding text link in the signature), please look at the link, and if it doesn't seem relevant at all, please click the "Report" link in the bottom right corner of the post, and report it to us as spam (remember to choose the "Spam" option on the report page).

Thanks for helping us keep the forums clean!

I would like to report this user as a spamer

Tsah in paradisesahinnparadise # 17. May 2011, 07:14
Kendinizievinizdehissetmeyeceksinizşahinnparadiseseoyarışması teşekkürler
Quote | Edit | Delete
The comment can be found in S&T blog
http://my.opera.com/shootell/blog/2011/05/14/may-2011-news-2?cid=60971942#comment60971942

Wrong thread for this. try the "Report comment spam here" thread (next time).

I think there needs to be more transparency from moderators as to exactly what constitutes spam and what does not.

I registered an account last month, made informative posts with a signature link pointing back to my website, not advertising anyone to click on it or anything like that, and had my account removed for "spam". I even sent an e-mail asking for clarity but received no response.

I could accept this, however there seems to be many active members here who have signature links actually advertising products, especially antivirus products. These members don't seem to be banned.

If putting a discrete link to your website is not allowed, but actually encouraging users to visit your antivirus product is, then I'm at a loss for words. Is it due to my lack of activity? If that's the case, then establish a clear policy of what post count is required before creating a discrete link pointing back to your site in your signature.

This thread mentions spam as "unrelated messages". My messages were related. As you can see from reading this, I'm not a "clever spam bot". I'm human. Why then was I deleted? If it's because I'm not allowed to make a signature until I reach x posts, then please, specify this in the thread!

They're not getting any money from the links. Some of them even list more than one ...

I don't know what your old sig looked like and can't really speak to that ... A non-commercial link should be fine. A link that says just "My website: www.somesite.com" should be fine also.

A real sig is a little different also from the original topic. Forum sigs can be disabled, and in fact can't be seen by search engines. As such, they can't be used for SEO, there is no "placement" if search engines can't see it. A fake sig where you manually add a dotted line and links is seen by everyone and as such we are more strict on that.

But as I say, that's not the original topic - you should start your own thread or contact one of the community managers directly.

Thank you for explaining that sgunhouse. I will go ahead later and perhaps add the link to my site again and see what happens. It was a link to a wiki page.

Originally posted by lartimian:

I could accept this, however there seems to be many active members here who have signature links actually advertising products, especially antivirus products. These members don't seem to be banned.

The difference is likely that these are active members who are not advertising their own products, and are not gaining anything personally from linking to something as useful as antivirus software.

If putting a discrete link to your website is not allowed, but actually encouraging users to visit your antivirus product is, then I'm at a loss for words. Is it due to my lack of activity? If that's the case, then establish a clear policy of what post count is required before creating a discrete link pointing back to your site in your signature.

If the purpose of your account is to promote your product, then that is considered spam. If the purpose of your account is to actually participate in the community, that is not spam. This is not about a certain number of posts, but rather the way the account is used. I'm guessing that the members you are referring to are here to be part of the community, and not to promote a specific product. That means that recommending something to someone else is perfectly acceptable.

It also seems that you are assuming that people who link to something in their signature are promoting their own products. It is far more likely that they are simply providing advice to others. There is a huge difference there.

I'm quite curious about these members you are talking about, so could you send me a list? I'd really like to look into it. If someone is promoting something for personal gain, that could be a clear violation of the Terms of Service.

This thread mentions spam as "unrelated messages". My messages were related.

The spam is usually off-topic, but these spammers frequently copy and paste seemingly related pieces of text as well.

Why then was I deleted?

Since you did not actually mention the username of this account I can't look into it. However, if the first thing you do here is to promote your own site, moderators are not very likely to consider that as anything but spam. Understand that linking terms like "internet marketing" is a typical thing spammers do.

By the way, I strongly recommend that you remove the link from your signature. It looks quite spammy.

I don't know how clever this nincompoop is but he is about to GTHOOH, I hope:

Anonymous # Sunday, December 11, 2011 4:25:26 PM
sarwar alam writes: sahelcollection

http://my.opera.com/Weatherlawyer/blog/2011/11/30/earthquake-series?cid=77005522#comment77005522

Wrong thread, that belongs in the comment spam thread.

Right. Never mind then.

Mod edit: Please stay on topic.

Blocking any post where they repeat the same link 10 times would work for those ... but this isn't really the place for this discussion. (Another common trait is that the titles tend to contain a lot of punctuation characters and mixed case ...)

Mod edit: Please do not post off-topic comments here. This is a thread about forum spam.

off-topic

Weatherlawyer, you have already been informed that you are posting in the wrong thread. Please read the thread title and first post carefully before commenting.

Somewhat off-topic but I would like to propose a couple of measures to combat the spammers.

Please implement a "Report" trigger. When a new user is reported for spamming a certain number, the account is temporarily banned and their forum posts hidden until reviewed by a moderator. This would be especially effective to fight the spammers who target the time/day when Opera staff is not active, like right now.

Please consider appointing several "Community monitors" who has the power to temporarily freeze user account of spammers but nothing more. When temporary freeze is in place, the user's forum comments are hidden but their own blog & photo album contents are still retained and open to access, though the user cannot post a new content including forum posts. Like the report triggered temporary ban I proposed above, a moderator is to review the temporary freeze and decide the final decision either to formally ban the account or not.

Let's fight them off

Thanks, nice to keep forum well.

http://my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog/2012/04/09/feedback-time-line?cid=87853372#comment87853372

I have an idea against the blog spam.
If any user who has written less than 25/50/100 appropriate comment writes a comment which contains one/some of these: currency sign, URL (except the popular ones, like Gmail, Facebook, My Opera, etc.), more than 1 empty row, and generally spam phrases like: sale, price, sell, buy, pay, cheap

These comments would be pre-moderated and approved by moderators.

This is a thread about forum spam, Penge4...

Originally posted by haavard:

This is a thread about forum spam, Penge4...

Indeed, I paid no attention. I'm sorry. Please, move to the My Opera Community Wish-list.

BTW shouldn't you emphasize/pin the "Report Comment Spam" topic? Because it's quite hidden in the Useful Threads topic. Considering to there are more comment spam than "clever" forum spam.

Originally posted by Tamil:

Originally posted by Penge4:

BTW shouldn't you emphasize/pin the "Report Comment Spam" topic?

Report button is available in about page.

well yes it just need to "click" it (the report) button , done.

Moderator edit: This comment was removed for breaching our terms of service.

Not all member photos are photos of the person themselves. Some are movie stars, flowers, statues or other famous artworks ... you don't think Tamil is really a monkey statue, do you?

Another user who can't read the instructions ... Just report the user (and/or the offending images), it'll be removed a lot quicker that way than posting links here.

So (next time) report them! Go to the appropriate blog's About page, and click on the Report button.

Malicious BUG affecting my "my Opera" BUT NOT my gmail nor yahoo accounts.

i am interested very much in marketing on line ,so, i have subscribed to many of newsletters of such kinds & offers.
recently i received an offer, a more or less copied bullshit like many others produced to suck money out of the eager but uninformed population.
not that is the problem.
the problem is a bug was installed in my computer from that particular offer from which any link from my opera emails opens that stupid offer when clicked on.
Problemz;
Mine;
the bug is there in my computer but with no affect on my gmail nor yahoo emails.
so i know i have the problem of getting rid of that bug , But so has the"My Opera Staff"
MyOpera'z;
why the same "BUG"makes my-opera so vulnerable but has no effect on gmail /yahoo accounts???

I've just spotted a rather clever spam tactic.

This spammer started a rather harmless, innocent looking thread, just a one liner, 'I want to sa that my opera 4.2 browser is not opening so what to do...any one please suggest?' under a vague title, "My Opera Browser Doesnt Work Well?" I saw it and reported for being in the wrong forum.

A few minutes ago, I saw someone else posted to his/her thread, so checked out what was said (knowing it was in the wrong forum and all), and, lo & behold, the OP added whole lot of spam links to it.

I assume this spammer waited until a well meaning contributor added a post. He/she might've assumed it would remove his/her spam thread from automated filter or something? What a cheek!

I'm just about to report it now. I'd say we need to be on guard

Is it OK to have a link in your signature that is to your own blog or website?

Certainly, as long as the link text doesn't sound commercial. And referrer links (the kind where you get some reward for people clicking on them) are strictly prohibited. But if you want to say "My website" or the website name that's fine. Or we even have a user whose link says something about free smilies (yes, that's his website).

Given your name, I'll presume you're in web design. Saying "Web design" or the name is fine, saying "We will design a custom website for you" might be a bit much.

Keep in mind, forum sigs are only shown to logged in users (Google will never see them) and even then the user can choose to disable them. So unless it sounds too commercial or is prohibited (referrer links, porn, hacking, etc.) you can say anything you want. Well, okay, no offensive language - other than that.

Thanks for the heads up on that, I will bear in mind the points you made.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
R

http://my.opera.com/maychieuchothue/blog/show.dml/55938562?cid=99668722#comment99668722

Seems to be a post about TV screens.
No idea if it is spam.

About the topic at http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1587462&t=1355341380 I wanted to report it to ask to remove the Japanese text in there but to leave the English content intact. Because she already posted the same thing at the Japanese language forum. But her issue seems unusual and possibly worthy to discuss here and share information. I was not able to use the report button, just told the member has been reported.

I do question the wisdom of blocking others using the report button once a post has been reported by someone. A specific case is, when a member posted at the wrong forum or used an inappropriate title, but otherwise had a legit issue that deserved an answer. I used to reply the question and suggested the OP to report his/her own thread and ask to be moved to the correct forum, or if 24 hours has past, to have the title amended. This may not be possible now.

Didn't the blogs also have a report feature?...
What am I missing?

Anyway, here's a comment with backlinking, which I think is nasty...
http://my.opera.com/mobile/blog/2012/11/29/new-update-for-opera-mobile-on-android#comment102335812

If this post is not for here, please point me to the right place.

Originally posted by Tamil:

Just report the user with comment spam in additional comments field.

Ah, yeah, it was in every user's page, that's what I had forgot. Thank you!

I've just reported a spam thread titled "Opera don't accept my password". Makes me think spambots are getting rather clever. Or was it man-made spam?

Another one with seemingly legit title, "Continously Opera Link error" & content,clearly from the existing legit thread. I think this is actually a man-made.

Not spam (yet anyway) ... but as other than the title it's a dupe I'll remove it anyway. (Yes, the title is not quite the same ...)

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

Not spam (yet anyway)

How do you mean? When I reported it, there were a half a dozen spam links in it. Do you mean the spammer actually removed the spam links, probably because he realised he's been reported?

I guess so ... I just know it was only the copy of the other post (and no other text) when I deleted it.

Moderator edit: This comment has been removed for breaching our terms of use.

Moderator edit: This comment has been removed for breaching our terms of use.

Mod edit: Further violations will get you banned. Report things in the right place.

@ aysegulguncesi

Stop doing that, Posting the spam blog links here, Click the 'Report Abuse' button, it's on their 'About' page.