Topic: Post a spammer thread (Read 2267 times)

My thanks to rizzlarolla for pointing out this thread.  I have started a thread Spambots (backlink spam and whatnot) - ie Zombie Accounts ^TM over yonder: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/spambots-backlink-spam-and-whatnot-ie-zombie-accounts-tm-1660106 which I hope will tackle / identify the bulk registered UID's using clearly identifiable markers such as MMM Global, MMM Extra, MMM Global Extra and the like.

Spambots that are registering en-mass only have (at this point in time) a finite set of values when they have registered in the past, so prior to now is fairly easy to identify these "Brand New" / "Newbie" accounts that are either inactive or are being brought into play (as rizzlarolla has noticed are farmed accounts) with again easy to identify markers such as all posting on the same day / were registered around the same time.

My research so far has been in identifying scammers through multiple Wallet Addresses, Facebook, Twitter, Skype or similar methodologies, so this kind of identification is an extension of the methods I have already been using.

I'll have a closer look through the previous posts to see what kind of contributions I can make here and I hope to see you all over on the other threads from time to time.

Regards,

Tonight I looked through 100 previously unchecked, consecutive u=numbers, in the OP target range, and found 27 farmed active users. None had been banned
(about 5 not farmed active users in that 100 sample, the others inactive)

That is 5 farmed spam accounts for every 1 not farmed active account in my sample. (Those 5 may/may not be spammers, but they are not farmed)
No wonder bitcointalk is overrun.
Theymos must know this.

If anyone is interested, I will publish.
I thought people were worried about spam. These active farmed accounts are the root cause.

Is account farming allowed?

Thanks for popping in lightyard12, you 1 line shit posting ,account selling, signature spammer.
"a nice way to make money if you don't give a shit about bitcointalk"

Farming gold on WoW is still done today. Just take a look at the big name marketplace sites such as Epicnpc and Sythe or even owned core.

I can assure you there have been posts within an hour and a half ago. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.16017183
After I first posted about this issue tonight.

Also -added-, to be clearer. Are all the thousands of others I have implicated/linked, but not "found yet" by OP. Are they banned too?

And as usual the moderators jump in before they read/understand.

I do not need assuring that those accounts are banned.
I stated they very well maybe. I just wanted to know.
I could not know, BUT I CORRECTLY ASSUMED THEY MAYBE.

I know you cannot do anything Mitchell. (not even address the account farmed "active" member issue) Hence I suggested Theymos reply.


Your rules are only vague rumour, open to individual moderators to enforce.
As you point out, even the rules list is "unofficial". Some poor soul trying tho make some sense.
(lol. first line in bold "NOTE: This is meant to serve as a reference/educational/informational thread, NOT a rock solid list of rules.")

Did you guys not see my copy/paste reports? (please answer that on https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/known-spammers-user-generated-1586378 off topic here)
Edit - Something you could have acted on/could still act on, but chose not to?

I can assure you that those accounts have been banned. Just because someone is listed as a member, doesn't mean they aren't banned. Only the staff can see if a user is banned or not.

Anyway, moderators cannot ban members (because of how SMF ACL's system is build), only global moderators can, so we, as normal staff, really can't do anything. There is just one exception: Newbies. Those members can be nuked (but not banned) by Patrollers, which we have done with those MMMGlobal and KNC accounts (and of course the bot helped a great deal).

Maybe you should read: Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ

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EDIT: Updated my post to be more clear.

You stuck your "I cant do anything" nose in. I never invited your response. Butt out.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Update, you didn't/couldn't answer my questions.

Nobody has to pretend anything.

Obviously not all of them, at some point the bot became a replacement. Anyhow, it's much easier to nuke accounts than you think.

Not sure why you're telling me this since I can't do anything about them. You should be talking to global moderators regarding those, not me.

We have.

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Update: I see that people are very grateful when others answer their questions.

Are "they". That is fine, don't respond then. Just keep pretending you havn't seen the "active" OP spam farmed list then.


Banning 50,000 accounts by hand? Idiots. (i said they may have been banned, i cannot know)
The accounts on OP list are "active". Not a thing of the past. As I have shown.
And the many thousand others which I have shown. If you cared to read.[/quote]


You have no rules. Only vague rumour, open to individual moderators to enforce.
Your tools have not detected this account farming spam.

Or you have chosen not to act?
(like on my copy/paste reports. 1 strike and your out hilariousandco said. lol)

They are very busy and it is rather likely that you will not get a response at this time.

That was a wave of spam accounts by the same person. We have been manually banning them back then (I remember having a 5 second refresh timer on the member page) and then the situation started to calm down as we've started using a bot to do it for us. They are a thing of the past (for now).

With the appropriate rules and tools we can.

If i'm "lucky"? Ok, lets see if I can tempt him here.  

"Viewing all members is temporarily disabled" https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=mlist
So, It is painstaking to research this topic of "who" is spamming.
The (main) period of time in question by OP is when accounts 600,000 - 700,000 were created, that period was Oct/Nov/Dec 2015, approx.

If you view the "forum history", (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=stats) at the bottom of the page you will see in October 2015 68832 people joined bitcointalk. (up 9 fold from 7727 in sept, and more than joined in the previous 6 months)
Followed by 44058 in Nov 2015, and 39950 in Dec 2015 (and for several months after, maybe these accounts are too new for OP to have "noticed" these yet)

I know these figures are not conclusive to account farming. But coupled with my previous observations, maybe more so.
Also, I have found other massive "attacks".

In Oct 2015 (rough figures as guide, impossible for me to study properly) created accounts consist mainly of (or i was just very lucky to "hit" target)
Accounts between 572000 and 575000 are "btcRDkill_"
Accounts between575000 and 600200 are "MrFudged1_"
Accounts between 600200 and 625000 are "KNC_areThief"
(all followed by different numbers)

Over 50 thousand there. Again, i know these aren't "all" countable, but most seem to be. Have a go yourself. (i have no tools here) Pick a number between u=572000 and u=625000. Which one above did you hit?

Also endless (unused) MMMglobal accounts. Are they responsible for all of this? Pick a number between OP target u=600000 to u=700000. (guess, 1 in 5 chance to hit)

Also the strange letters at the end of names I previously mentioned, and Connected. Take your pick of target u=, very good chance to hit.

These accounts are All(?) inactive?
Are these accounts already banned? Or just waiting. I cannot know.


I previously linked (some of) OP listed active accounts. There are many more "patterns" which are easily findable in these active farmed accounts.
They are all bought up to status by posting once a fortnight. the minimum post to max potential?
(you need to look at the first posts on the account. it may be sold now)

Christmas day wont stop the system. (i know, why should it)
But for fun(!) look at "stadus", https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/stadus-664919
Check his original posts https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/stadus-664919;sa=showPosts;start=180
He posted Nov 25, Dec 5/14/25, Jan 7/20, Feb 2/14/27

Now see "asidaman", https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/asidamani-664926 (he joined 4 min 11 seconds later than stadus)
Check his original posts. https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/asidamani-664926;sa=showPosts
He posted Nov 25, Dec 6/14/25, Jan 7/20, Feb 2/15/28
This pattern runs right through OP target period

Look at "efemen" (from OP list) https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/efemen-667865
And compare with (all registered within 8 minutes)
"Falmant" https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/falmant-667868
"Gatotare" https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/gatotare-667872
"Hamaber" https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/hamaber-667873

They posted on (from first posts remember)
Dec 27, Jan 5/16/27, Feb 9/22
Dec 27, Jan 6/17/29, Feb 10/23
Dec 27, Jan 7/18/30, Feb 9/22
Dec 27, Feb 8/19/31, Feb 10/23
This pattern runs right through OP target period?


It is MASSIVE.



Clearly these farmed spammers will just keep coming en masse. You will never keep up with them.
If I can stumble on this, you must already know.

Is this Anti spam thing all a pretence?
Theymos must know all this and could act.
It would "kill" spam overnight.

Why hasn't he acted?


(OP, you have listed https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/dumana-658316 twice. and maybe another. could you order them in sequence and maybe include user names. more human friendly than the present list!)

(edited, < 1 hour)

Although there are many cases in which IP logs may be inconclusive, the answer is yes. Currently, the global moderators are the ones handing out all of the (or most of the) bans. Previously, BadBear was active and they had access to the IP logs which helped unravel spammers, ban evaders and whatnot much easier than it is now. Theymos rarely handles bans.

The moderators have no access to the IP logs, ergo can't do anything about it.

Possibly, if you're lucky.

Correct. However, keep in mind that the problem is also caused by the signature campaigns themselves. They usually are not putting up enough pressure on their participants regarding quality, or just don't care at all. As long as there's no regulation, and not enough pressure from the stuff the situation will keep degrading.

@rizzlarolla yes I read all the additions. We will need the help of the mods to unravel their operation and stop it.  We alone cannot stop this. I will try to message a mod and get him involved in this thread later.

This user has managed to get away for so long, because Badbear isn't that active.
Once he does become active, you could see a string of perma-bans.

It's a nice way to make money if you don't give a shit about bitcointalk and don't mind taking a dump all over the forum.  Can't these mongoloids find a more honest way to make money, like farming gold on WoW? (don't know if that's still done, but you get the point).  It's not an effortless job to rank up a bunch of BS accounts, especially if they're enrolled in signature campaigns that have rules, and it's not a super high-paying one either.  In fact, it takes some sort of hardcore, dedicated, insane scoundrelly type to come up with this shit to make money.

I hope you have seen my "adds" above and can understand the implications.

Obviously this is quite hard to follow. Long lists of numbers/links.
But In my brief look, I think I have linked one of your listed users to many different (unlisted) accounts.
Now times that by thousands more.

If you are trying to find more of these farmed accounts as they post, you will be looking for eternity.
From my quick look, I would bet there are many thousand you haven't found yet, for every one you have found. (many are dormant)
If all these farmed accounts could be culled in swathes, would the spam problem be almost solved overnight?

If these swathes of accounts are registering on a limited number of IP, Theymos would know wouldn't he?
If I have reasonably connected multiple accounts in an hour, Theymos must have done the same?
All the mods must be aware that this is where a very large % of the spam originates?

I hope Theymos can find time to comment here.

What is the different agenda?

Also, I would think that Reputation is more suitable as you would be posting of the users (which reputation is mostly used for) instead of things relating to the forum itself. I understand that spam is a forum-wide problem, but it just felt like a better place to put it.

(Oh, and you can usually pick out a spammer easily by randomly going to any huge thread and choosing someone that recently posted. Most of the time, their replies are "redundant, generic and is a one liner")

Yes. It really needs further investigation because it is possible that this is now done in a massive scale because it is a business to them. They also make sure they have accounts available to sell for each rank. I will post more spammers of the same kind if I see them.

Agreed. Maybe.


Good list actually. Quick look reveals...

https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/kewatia-676083
"The account is still available."
"I have sold one. Another one is available."


Added,
Looking a little further, I compared u=numbers, for example, (from your list)
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/ruhtilg-669128
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/auponef-669144
are only 16 registrations apart.

So looking at u=669129 through to u=669143 shows a very similar pattern of farming (except 1 possibly? lol if you find it!)
All histories are either 0/0 x 6, 5/5 x 1, 20/20 x 6, or 40/40 x 1. (the 1 odd one 669140 has 293/280, probably unassosiated)

Could be on a more massive scale.
Needs further investigation?
 

Added again,
Again look at the users surrounding, say, https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/kellor-662242 from your list.
(you have another only 38 regestrations away, https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/kaller-662280)

The next registered user, u=662243 has a 21/21 score (activity/post) and looks the same as your targets.
The next registered user, u=662244 has 177/177, and looks the same as your targets.
Then the next two are 0/0 (and looks the same as your targets, in idle)
Followed by u=662247 having 74/74, and looks the same as your targets.
They are probably the same owner.

Look back from 662242.
Looks pretty boring. 662241 has 1/1, then 10 0/0 accounts. Hard to connect these?
Look at the names. Many end cfcaf.
662235/4/3/2/1/ all cfcaf ending.

Lets follow cfcaf back up the regestration numbers.
u=662249, Payablesadcfcaf. So from 662231, straight through your already listed "662242", up to 662249. (no not every name, no one is that dumb)
Then u=662250 is Coolibarsacdeddf. Ending cdeddf.
then Hardwiredacdeddf, and Classlessnessacdeddf in the next 10 registrants (u=662253, u=662257)
These u=numbers themselves are interspersed with "real N. ames"  Howard M. Patterson u/662255, Orlando C. Siegel u=662256, Jared D. Lees u=662258, and so on.

All these are very probably the same owner, and should be on your list. + the countless thousand others.