What's with all these SPAMMERS lately?

[xviper]

We keeping getting these spammers of late. They embed links in their posts that lead to sites that are designed to take your money and/or sell you something. Worst case scenario is that you click on the link and then do something on that site that causes your computer or phone to get infected.

These posts generally happen in fairly old threads and the registered new username is not very inventive and has no avatar. The content of the posts can sometimes start with some "friendly" banter roughly related to the topic of the thread (but vague and tangential) and then after a couple of posts, BAM!, out comes the embedded link. You can usually tell that the poster is not from the west. By their sentence structure and by their grammar and syntax, it's not hard to guess that they are from the orient. In other words, they can't put a decent sentence together to disguise their lack of western upbringing and in many instances, their ignorance.

They expend very little effort to register a username and make a new post. Do they actually make money just doing as many such posts as possible knowing that they'll get next to no "hits" and quite quickly get the post removed and their account terminated? I thought they only make money if they get lots of hits. Anyone know how that works? Why do they even bother with apparently so little return?

[AirHead]

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of so many. But, the reason I jumped in here is because cordially, it's in "The Lounge" where it should be. My addition is not really about spammers. It's about the shockingly bizarre avatar photo you have replaced your old signature beacon with. What, why or who the heck is that? I have to say it's just creepy, brutal and odd to look at.Maybe that was the intention. Everyone else has to live with that? You're old one was much better...Just buy the forum....nyuck, nyuck, nyuck!....

[xviper]

About my new avatar .................... Since there's not much going on in this thread and it is in the "Lounge", I'll explain. This is a picture that I first saw in an email attachment nearly 23 years ago. It was a spoof on an ad about Sony. It was made by an APP that stretches any picture you have and ends up with something like this. I had that app and did it to myself and friends/family. None were as interesting as this "baby". It stood as a release from all the awful, gruesome things I saw on my last career, which still give me nightmares to this very day.
I have also seen the unaltered picture of the real baby, who must be 30 or 40 years old by now. He (I think) was a fairly normal, beautiful baby. Why someone did that to him was cruel but still .................. funny. I picked it up and started to use it as my very first avatar on internet car forums. Some thought as you do - odd and creepy, while some thought it was hilarious. Anyway, it stuck and is still on a couple of the car and motorcycle forums that I'm no longer active in. I changed it a couple of times, only to get a hoard of posts to bring him back.
This avatar morphed into this for one of those forums. It's still there. I was and still am designated as their forum "S2000 guru".
I had the "head up my a$$" avatar for quite a while as that's the way I viewed some people on the internet. I thought it was time to go back to my old avatar. I am the antithesis of a young baby, but still odd and creepy.

[OV10]

I gotta admit that I too miss your rectal-cranial inversion avatar but I can also appreciate that it does remove from the mix an invite by some of the dumbasses
(No political correctness from me ) that lurk in the wild reaches of the WWW to comment as I have seen in the past with just plain dumbass perceptions of you.

Your question about spammers I put into just one category, they are lazy criminals that can't get out of their parent's basement and get a real job.
That laziness is followed by a close second called social media influencers.........get a real job.

[Evan D]

Add just plain criminals. Porch pirates... People are catching kids around here doing it. Many say "they're just kids" but one day one's going to get shot. And then there are the criminals that cut the catalytic converter from under my van last saturday night... They probably got $50 for what will cost me $4500 to replace. And people stealing Christmas decorations. It's crazy here.

[xviper]

Cat converter theft is at an all time high here. The local authorities are making it illegal to buy such items. Big repair shops are making it a point to check the source and rightful ownership of these parts. It's the little "backyard" shops that are hard to control. Some places are even offering to engrave S/N's on popular cat converters. One car owner, after the second theft of her converter, sprayed painted her cat with heat resistant fluorescent paint. Makes it more work to clean it up for sale.
Converter thieves .............................. their day job is internet scammers.
As for them being "kids", 8 girls, aged 13 to 16 have just been arrested for 2nd degree murder in central Canada a couple of days ago. They swarmed a homeless guy and stabbed him to death. They see this kind of stuff on the interweb and thought it might be fun to do it. What kind of punishment can be levied on 13 year olds for murder? Not much. Internet scamming just becomes an idle game.

[Elbee]

I need to callout all of you for your diligence, integrity, and perseverance. We all volunteer here. I just wanted to say Thank You. Best to all and Merry Christmas, Sincerely, LB

[xviper]

HERE'S A NEW ONE!


A new user (generally 1 or 2 posts) finds an old post in an old thread and quotes someone's post. This brings that thread back to the top and makes it visible in the daily posts. Before he "post reply", he goes into the post he quoted and either adds a new embedded link or alters an existing link so you can't see what it is or where it goes when you quote him. If you click on that link in the quote, it takes you to a malicious site and a completely different site. You can tell he's not from around here by his use of words and sentence structure and general ignorance of western speech. Tricky, dirty and sneaky SOBs.

[Elbee]

xviper when looking for the post, either Aros or the author has deleted the "Node" so I do not have access. If you see further requotes make a note of the forum and the post number and I'll go directly to the post. Thanks, LB

[xviper]

Elbee, Aros must have gotten to them right away. Those posts are gone, but I can't tell if the user account has been banned. I always flag them immediately and send the report. This time, it really ticked me off because the guy used my own post to do it, as he did with gooniac's. Con-men always come up with new cons. I mean, come on! He thought a programming card was a greeting card. How obviously dumb was that? I learn a lot about the net this way.

[Aros]

Sorry gents, I immediately nuked his posts and banned him to boot even though I think someone else banned him already. Zero Tolerance for that crap.

[Grossman56]

Ah for the old days when no one did that sh*t on the Squawk. Then along came our buddy Konrad and we were shocked that someone was being an a.. Now here we are with Konrad the Next Generation. Makes you feel old...
Anyway, if were talking about the fellow I mentioned in the 'Moderators Only thread, then yes, he needs to go. I don't care if someone has an issue with a product, even something as small as 'it's not fast enough', each to their own. But constructive criticism, not 'it's a P.O.S.' just because it can't break the sound barrier. Being unduly rude and provoking a verbal fight with someone just gets people upset and sure there are times when something is taken the wrong way, but we all know when someone crosses the line.
I hate to ban anyone because I believe in Free Speech, but on the other hand, I don't want this turning into the WWF.

Grossman56