CART Threatening Letter.

[bassplayer]

I think we should bring Teddyman into the discussion, that should raise the quality of debate!

I wonder what would happen if we all 'friended' Teddyman? It might make his day.

[MtB]

I'd just assumed it was Chris Pink's latest doppel!

[dogless]

Forgive my ignorance, but were the teddyman messages in some way computer generated, or did someone actually write and post them.

Rog

[bassplayer]

Forgive my ignorance, but were the teddyman messages in some way computer generated, or did someone actually write and post them.

Rog

I saw one very similar on another forum a few years ago, so probably a cut and paste job. Could do a Google search on some of the text to see what it brings up, but it's gone now. The other forum I speak of took it very seriously and contacted the authorities just in case it was a genuine cry for help. I don't know what came of it though.

[RLWP]

Forgive my ignorance, but were the teddyman messages in some way computer generated, or did someone actually write and post them.

Rog

 

I would say they were written by someone. Well, copy and pasted anyway. Each title was different

 

I'm with Snibs on this. The posts have the feel of someone genuinely angry with the world and lashing out, and it doesn't matter who they lash out at

 

Richard

[Sir Nibble]

The same massage has appeared on this forum before and oddly I saw it mentioned only yesterday which is something of a coincidence.

[RLWP]

I saw one very similar on another forum a few years ago, so probably a cut and paste job. Could do a Google search on some of the text to see what it brings up, but it's gone now. The other forum I speak of took it very seriously and contacted the authorities just in case it was a genuine cry for help. I don't know what came of it though.

 

That seems familiar, and it's possible that is what happened here a year or two ago

 

Richard

[Sir Nibble]

There's clearly no commercial motive but I don't actually believe this is a genuine tortured soul even if only because in the time since the last visitation they would have either done themselves in or grown up a bit and moved on, not posted more or less the same rant. This is just one of those sad characters who get a kick out of breaking other kids toys.

[MtB]

I've seen batches of those messages on here at least four times. Usually he posts three or four similar, but different messages over about a fiftenn minute period.

 

I too get the feeling each is individually typed out by an angry tortured soul. I hope one day he will feel better.

 

Somehow I doubt it is a she.

[Guest]

Forgive my ignorance, but were the teddyman messages in some way computer generated, or did someone actually write and post them.

Rog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot

[GreyLady]

That same spam/persons message appeared on another forum I use to use.

 

They got ignored and it stopped.

 

Best not to reply I think.

Edited November 28, 2015 by GreyLady

[dogless]

And I thought I was wasting time sat browsing this.

There's no accounting for taste, as the old woman said as she kissed the cow

Rog

[Guest]

 

I've seen batches of those messages on here at least four times. Usually he posts three or four similar, but different messages over about a fiftenn minute period.

 

I too get the feeling each is individually typed out by an angry tortured soul. I hope one day he will feel better.

 

Somehow I doubt it is a she.

I think the last time this was discussed it was reckoned they use the normal process to create an account (this being the bit that the 'captcha' check ensures as far as poss an actual human is creating the account and then once the account is created they use a 'spambot' program to do the actual postings.

 

Paul C will have chapter and verse I reckon.

That same spam/persons message appeared on another forum I use to use.

 

They got ignored and it stopped.

 

Best not to reply I think.

Well yes however the reason I reply is to alert other members that it has been clocked and reported to save the admin. getting multiple reports about the same thing. I also don't report the posts but the actual member using the 'report this member' button in their profile for similar reasons.

[tree monkey]

I think the last time this was discussed it was reckoned they use the normal process to create an account (this being the bit that the 'captcha' check ensures as far as poss an actual human is creating the account and then once the account is created they use a 'spambot' program to do the actual postings.

 

Paul C will have chapter and verse I reckon.

 

Well yes however the reason I reply is to alert other members that it has been clocked and reported to save the admin. getting multiple reports about the same thing. I also don't report the posts but the actual member using the 'report this member' button in their profile for similar reasons.

Whats the point of the spam though, has anyone any idea?

[Guest]

Whats the point of the spam though, has anyone any idea?

Well sometimes they contain links to various websites (for the purpose of sales promotion or more often pornography) and sometimes they seem to have no useful purpose what so ever apart from somebody getting some sort of kick out of clogging up forums and blogs with tripe. Our regular Spambotter seems to fall into the latter category so is probably a bit unwell or just has nowt else better to do. Sad really.

 

ed to add - Sorry I should have also added that sometimes the links in spam posts are to lure you to 'dodgy' web sites where malicious malware lurks which can infect your PC.

Edited November 28, 2015 by MJG

[tree monkey]

Well sometimes they contain links to various websites (for the purpose of sales promotion or more often pornography) and sometimes they seem to have no useful purpose what so ever apart from somebody getting some sort of kick out of clogging up forums and blogs with tripe. Our regular Spambotter seems to fall into the latter category so is probably a bit unwell or just has nowt else better to do. Sad really.

Thank you

[RLWP]

Whats the point of the spam though, has anyone any idea?

There are no links, just the rants

 

Richard

[Gordias]

Forgive my ignorance, but were the teddyman messages in some way computer generated, or did someone actually write and post them.

Rog

 

FWIW:

 

It's technically easy to automate spam posts like that, but based on a quick glance it looked like manual cut/paste (95% probability IMO).

 

Edit: The line above was based on the assumption that the spam posts were added to only one thread, but PaulC's post below says otherwise so I have to change my assessment to: "post content fully or mostly manually, posting to forum threads automated". The simplistic way the posts were created (see below) suggests the spammer isn't smart enough to write the "auto-posting" code themselves. He probably got the script f"off the web" - you don't have to me smart to use existing "attack scripts".

 

What caught my eye was that the upper-case text looked like a short phase copied once, then the doubled one copied, etc until a page or two is filled. This is easy to identify and filter with simple "anti-spam" logic. Someone serious has other options like: use code to generate text with no simple repeats; copy text from online books or files; duplicate existing threads; etc to make it harder to identify and filter out the spam posts.

 

There are certainly hundreds of thousands of people in the UK (perhaps a couple of million) who could automate that kind of thing. Fortunately most of them don't think it's amusing to "break" things online just because they could.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Gordias

[tree monkey]

There are no links, just the rants

 

Richard

Yup I noticed, which is why I asked

[RLWP]

Yup I noticed, which is why I asked

 

And it is one of the reasons why I think these are posted by a human, not a spambot.

 

It would be a particularly useless spambot for a start, the posts rarely stay up for more than a few minutes

 

Ricard

[Paul C]

They have no purpose other than to cause mischief. The process is semi-automated, in that once the user account is (manually) set up, a script it run which puts long, inappropriate messages all over the forum quickly. The attack isn't particularly clever, in that its technically easy to deal with, just takes a bit of time and inconvenience.

[Guest]

 

And it is one of the reasons why I think these are posted by a human, not a spambot.

 

It would be a particularly useless spambot for a start, the posts rarely stay up for more than a few minutes

 

Ricard

 

Surely that is nothing to do with how automated the process is or isn't. How long they stay up is down to how quickly they are spotted. reported and then dealt with. Of late that has been nothing more than 5 or 10 minutes.

[RLWP]

 

Surely that is nothing to do with how automated the process is or isn't. How long they stay up is down to how quickly they are spotted. reported and then dealt with. Of late that has been nothing more than 5 or 10 minutes.

 

What would be the point of writing a spambot that puts up messages with links that get taken down immediately? A successful spambot would make posts with links that persist so they can get indexed by search engines or followed by users

 

Richard

[Guest]

 

What would be the point of writing a spambot that puts up messages with links that get taken down immediately? A successful spambot would make posts with links that persist so they can get indexed by search engines or followed by users

 

Richard

 

No idea, who knows how the minds of people who create such things work?

 

My understanding is that as well as the admin removing the posts they also block the IP address they are being sent from during that particular session. Its only when they set up another spoof IP address and a follow up CWDF account that they can set off posting again.

[MtB]

They have no purpose other than to cause mischief.

 

 

Disagree. The purpose is to communicate their anger at "30 somethings who <whatever>...".

 

Appears pointless to us, but I think the OP achieves their goal.