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View Full Version : Indsutrial Strength forum spamming



theGypsy
08-26-2008, 10:27 AM
Man, we were looking at a spammer on another board and I was truly impressed at the spamming abilities;

Here's the phrase (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22website+is+carzy+about%22&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1T4GFRC_enUS219US219&filter=0)

Now I have to figure that is Xrumer or something automated... but WOW....

KristineS
08-26-2008, 10:39 AM
That is some industrial strength spamming. Good grief!

theGypsy
08-26-2008, 11:02 AM
Impressive huh? Xrumer is an automated forum poster that web spammers use... I have to figure they were using it... or something related...

cbscreative
08-26-2008, 11:29 AM
Gotta love those spammers. :rolleyes:

KristineS
08-26-2008, 12:22 PM
There's an automated forum poster for spammers? I should have figured there would be something like that, but I guess it hadn't occurred to me.

theGypsy
08-26-2008, 12:42 PM
yeah.... there are a few out there... but most serious web spammers make their own...

But Xrumer is a well known one; xrumer - Google Search (http://www.google.com/search?q=xrumer&sourceid=groowe&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

KristineS
08-26-2008, 03:36 PM
That's kind of ingenious in a very annoying sort of way.

Paul Elliott
08-27-2008, 10:26 AM
yeah.... there are a few out there... but most serious web spammers make their own...

But Xrumer is a well known one; xrumer - Google Search (http://www.google.com/search?q=xrumer&sourceid=groowe&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

The description at BotMaster.net is really impressive! This means I can post to SBF.net with no more than an occasional visit to my laptop! <wicked grin>

The really amazing part (to me) is the ability to recognize all the captcha variations (See the "more information" link under this description.) to automate account set-up.<who knew!>

Paul <configuring XRumer> :D

theGypsy
08-27-2008, 03:39 PM
he he.... in case ya don't know... peeps tend to use these little tools fer black hat stuff as it can easily cause one more grief than they bargained for .... You can bet Matt and the web spam team at Google have a copy (as well as other link spam tools) to reverse engineer for footprints ;0)

And in case ya missed it; link building can easily be one of the big mistakes in SEO - as we were chatting about in the other thread; http://www.small-business-forum.net/search-engine-optimization/282-worst-search-engine-optimization-mistake-you-can-make.html

cbscreative
08-27-2008, 04:43 PM
LOL, Gyspy. It would not at all break my heart to see spammers get their just reward. They may be cunning and crafty, but they're lazy and not very smart. The only shame is that some legitimate businesses have likely hired these kinds of slime without realizing what their tactics are.

vangogh
08-28-2008, 01:31 AM
I caught this particular spam a few days ago while moderating at Webmaster-Talk. I was beaten to the post by one of the other mods.

Dave it's funny how spammers use the tools without changing the code around. Isn't rule #1 in blackhat tools to either write your own or seriously customize the tools of others. Leaving a footprint isn't the brightest idea in the world.

And...umm...if you were a blackhat and had a tool that you could use to make you big money, would you ever sell it and increase your competition or would you wait till it was no longer effective before putting it on the market?

orion_joel
08-28-2008, 01:52 AM
I don't see how this could be of benefit to them because that link you gave seems to give every result looks identical, and i thought google really discounted the value of duplicate content.

vangogh
08-28-2008, 02:17 AM
But as other people reply to the post the threads become less and less duplicate. The spammer is just trying to get as many out there as possible for the sig links. They may not be great links, but they're still links and since getting them only takes a click or two on some software it's pretty easy to get a lot of them that way.

cbscreative
08-28-2008, 11:42 AM
I think Joel is right. Maybe the threads are different, but the posts are identical. I'm sure Google looks to squash things like this.

vangogh
08-28-2008, 12:33 PM
Google is more likely to look at the overall page content and not just one part. There are many reasons why a small amount of duplicate content will appear across pages. Think about a bunch of bloggers all quoting the same source.

Had the original post in those threads been more of an article I'd agree and I'll also say that immediately on post it is duplicate content. But as more people post in the threads the threads become less and less like each other and so in time are probably not seen as duplicates of each other.

Paul Elliott
08-30-2008, 11:24 AM
he he.... in case ya don't know... peeps tend to use these little tools fer black hat stuff as it can easily cause one more grief than they bargained for .... You can bet Matt and the web spam team at Google have a copy (as well as other link spam tools) to reverse engineer for footprints ;0)

Aw, there you go, Gypsy, ruining my week!

What's a good, honest, lazy, worthless criminal supposed to do? :p <big sigh>

Oh, well . . . .

Paul <working ceaselessly for wealth without working> :D

cbscreative
08-30-2008, 01:51 PM
I sure hope you don't get quoted out of context on that, Paul.

Paul Elliott
08-30-2008, 03:09 PM
I sure hope you don't get quoted out of context on that, Paul.

<humongous, toothsome grin!>

theGypsy
09-02-2008, 11:22 AM
Dave it's funny how spammers use the tools without changing the code around. Isn't rule #1 in blackhat tools to either write your own or seriously customize the tools of others. Leaving a footprint isn't the brightest idea in the world.


Yuppers.... any good BH writes (or has written for them) a custom tool.



And...umm...if you were a blackhat and had a tool that you could use to make you big money, would you ever sell it and increase your competition or would you wait till it was no longer effective before putting it on the market?

It is funny that serious BHatters get a laugh out of publicly available tools because it is just too easy for the Big G to get a copy and find footprints. So, many times one has to figure they have already burned that tool, or created something better and are trying to cash in....

One almost feels sorry for the dorks using them.... almost... ;0)

Business Attorney
09-02-2008, 11:49 AM
What is interesting to me is that some of the forums where that spam is still showing up are relatively well-moderated forums. Without your post of the Google search showing this identical spam post across a large number of boards, there is little about the post to draw attention to itself.

theGypsy
09-02-2008, 12:22 PM
well, I guess being a search geek my first instinct with suspect posts is to consult the Oracle of the GooglePlex.... I have been a forum hound for years and one begins to 'smell a rat' with some posts...

One board I am on uses nofollow for links within posts and a min-post limit for sigs (which are passing luv)..... but once again, when using an automated program spammers likely don't know (or care) if the links are live in a post... so not sure how much that helps.

To give you an idea, web spammers (good ones) have a dedicated box (or or 2 or 3) in their home (no public hosting) that are not only auto spamming 24/7 but also have dedicated programs creating spammy web sites all day long as fast as the spammer can reg domains.... it is serious stuff really....

The goal is simply to make $5/week or whatever... when you have 1000 sites... it starts to add up don'tcha know...

vangogh
09-02-2008, 12:38 PM
One almost feels sorry for the dorks using them.... almost...Yeah not too much sympathy, huh? I have a lot of respect for the best Blackhatters. I know most of their programming skills put mine to shame. I may not always like their ultimate output, but I do admire the skills to get that output and I've learned quite a lot from them.

You do have to laugh though, at the ones who solely rely on someone else's scripts. My favorite is the emails I get where the variables from the program are visible, because the person using the software couldn't grasp the concept that they were supposed to supply real text for those variables.

I've thought about making links in posts here nofollow, but decided against it unless there's a real problem. Sig links are limited though.

@David - I think the not drawing attention is part of the strategy. They want those posts to stick and the less attention they get the more likely the thread will still be there.