PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

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Saka
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PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

Post by Saka » April 28th, 2020, 7:05 am

There has recently been a surge in the number of spammers all using the same technique, I dub this technique "copycat spamming". These spammers copy old topics and post the exact same contents but with a very small modification, such as the addition of a question mark to the title. They also sometimes remove formatted text, such as those in quotes or codes.
Here is an example, with a broken code tag highlighted in a red box. The spam is on top while the original is on the bottom.
copyspam.png
copyspam.png (201.66 KiB) Viewed 3353 times
How to tell if a post is a copyspam:
1. Be suspicious of users whose first post is a topic. This is the unfortunate reality made by these spammers.
2. Select some words from the message.
3. Put them in the search box at the top right of the page.
4. If any identical text pops up, the post is a copyspam.
5. Report the post!
6. Do not reply!

Thanks for noticing.

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dvgrn
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Re: PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

Post by dvgrn » April 28th, 2020, 7:14 am

Good summary, thanks. Someday a copycat scammer will inevitably duplicate your post, and it will somehow be particularly satisfactory to delete that one and ban the spammer with extra extreme prejudice. I usually use just "Permanent" for the ban period, but for that one I'll move up to the "Infinity times a bajillion gazillion" setting.

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bubblegum
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Re: PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

Post by bubblegum » April 28th, 2020, 4:34 pm

dvgrn wrote:
April 28th, 2020, 7:14 am
I'll move up to the "Infinity times a bajillion gazillion" setting.
Please don't tell me that's a real setting.
(or you can try aleph^1)

Also, be cautious of very obviously bad grammar or formatting attempts, like the "barely have any experience" at the start of the example copyspam
Each day is a hidden opportunity, a frozen waterfall that's waiting to be realised, and one that I'll probably be ignoring
sonata wrote:
July 2nd, 2020, 8:33 pm
conwaylife signatures are amazing[citation needed]
anything

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Saka
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Re: PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

Post by Saka » April 28th, 2020, 4:55 pm

bubblegum wrote:
April 28th, 2020, 4:34 pm
Also, be cautious of very obviously bad grammar or formatting attempts, like the "barely have any experience" at the start of the example copyspam
That's just copied directly from the "source" post, the spambot doesn't alter anything (again, besides a question mark in the title sometimes). Look below the bold text in the original post. (Again, they seem to ignore formatted text)

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bubblegum
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Re: PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

Post by bubblegum » April 28th, 2020, 5:22 pm

Saka wrote:
April 28th, 2020, 4:55 pm
bubblegum wrote:
April 28th, 2020, 4:34 pm
Also, be cautious of very obviously bad grammar or formatting attempts, like the "barely have any experience" at the start of the example copyspam
That's just copied directly from the "source" post, the spambot doesn't alter anything (again, besides a question mark in the title sometimes). Look below the bold text in the original post. (Again, they seem to ignore formatted text)
No, the fact that it's missing a subject pronoun

also, there seems to be at least a bit of effort put in (the script was removed, while the error message was kept)
I'm not saying it was taken out of the code-box, it's still clearly there

and the message doesn't make any sense either (where's the script?)
Each day is a hidden opportunity, a frozen waterfall that's waiting to be realised, and one that I'll probably be ignoring
sonata wrote:
July 2nd, 2020, 8:33 pm
conwaylife signatures are amazing[citation needed]
anything

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Moosey
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Re: PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

Post by Moosey » April 30th, 2020, 11:10 am

dvgrn wrote:
April 28th, 2020, 7:14 am
Good summary, thanks. Someday a copycat scammer will inevitably duplicate your post, and it will somehow be particularly satisfactory to delete that one and ban the spammer with extra extreme prejudice. I usually use just "Permanent" for the ban period, but for that one I'll move up to the "Infinity times a bajillion gazillion" setting.
That will indeed be very satisfying.
not active here but active on discord

wildmyron
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Re: PSA: Be Vigilant of Copycat Spam!

Post by wildmyron » May 4th, 2020, 11:51 am

The 5S project (Smallest Spaceships Supporting Specific Speeds) is now maintained by AforAmpere. The latest collection is hosted on GitHub and contains well over 1,000,000 spaceships.

Semi-active here - recovering from a severe case of LWTDS.

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