Uh-oh, Spam Bot is Attacking

[XBGuy]

And it looks like it's Chinese.

 

[TheOldBear]

The 'report post' function needs to be visible in the topic [e.g. 'Ask a Cruise Question'] view, and not just when 'hovering' the cursor on an open message. 

 

Marking large batches of messages as spam is needed to counter large batches of spam [and blacklist / throttle the source network]

[XBGuy]

OK, it appears to be cleaned up.  Good job Cruise Critic.

[XBGuy]

Old Bear.  I was unaware of the "Report Post" capability.

 

Thank you.

[Underwatr]

I'm not really sure it's necessary to report more than one of these per Forum section. An admin is (should be) smart enough to look for other similar ones.

 

Having said that, I reported two in this recent flurry.

[Scrapnana]

I usually just report one but mention that the poster has more just like it.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I haven't seen the 2 recent spam attacks.
 

But in the past I have seen them and would report one and also make mention about seeing quite a few more.

[GeezerCouple]

3 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

I haven't seen the 2 recent spam attacks.
 

But in the past I have seen them and would report one and also make mention about seeing quite a few more.

 

This.

 

I happened to see this one(long ones, with foreign characters), quite by accident, when the first one had posted.  I flagged it.  Moments later, I saw the count had sort of exploded!  The mods will see these and recognize they type that tends to be sent out ad nauseum/etc. (which many are, alas).

 

I wish there was a way to report them without actually opening them.  At the top of the thread would be a *great* idea for this type of ultra-spam.

 

GC

[wwcruisers]

I agree that there should be 'safe' mode for reporting obvious spam posts, without opening them. A year or so ago, when we had a problem like this (after the last major forum re-do), I spotted what was clearly a 'bot' attack. Rather than risk opening it, I sent an e-mail to CC, clearly describing what I was seeing, and where it was on the forums. I don't know if that was as effective as hitting the old triangle (now the 'report' button) would have been -- since it takes a while for the mods/admins to respond to e-mails. But, in that situation, I felt that immediately sending a detailed e-mail would be better than doing nothing.

[GeezerCouple]

2 minutes ago, wwcruisers said:

I agree that there should be 'safe' mode for reporting obvious spam posts, without opening them. A year or so ago, when we had a problem like this (after the last major forum re-do), I spotted what was clearly a 'bot' attack. Rather than risk opening it, I sent an e-mail to CC, clearly describing what I was seeing, and where it was on the forums. I don't know if that was as effective as hitting the old triangle (now the 'report' button) would have been -- since it takes a while for the mods/admins to respond to e-mails. But, in that situation, I felt that immediately sending a detailed e-mail would be better than doing nothing.

 

Yup.

 

Any computer gurus out there...?

IS there **ANY** risk clicking on the CC message but *NOT* clicking on anything else (NOT on links, etc.) but ONLY on the 'report' button and enter something like "Spam" and submit?

Thanks.

GC

[Underwatr]

2 hours ago, wwcruisers said:

Rather than risk opening it,

I don't see risk in opening the message, if you're not clicking on any links.

 

Ad servers are much more risky.

[wwcruisers]

Good point. But, since the entire 'suspect' post was in a foreign language (Chinese?) I didn't know WHAT I might be clicking on, in the process of opening it. 😱

[Host Hattie]

On 11/21/2018 at 7:58 PM, Underwatr said:

I'm not really sure it's necessary to report more than one of these per Forum section. An admin is (should be) smart enough to look for other similar ones.

 

Having said that, I reported two in this recent flurry.

It's fine to just report one post, thanks for your help.