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View Full Version : How does some spam even help the spammer?



the goat
08-31-2008, 02:05 PM
I have always been confused by this so I thought I would ask.

This is an example of comment spam from one of my sites. How does spam like this help the person who posts it?

Beverly Guzman
gibberish crap link here | gibberish crap email here | 200.63.42.136

poorliness diversion unpeaceably surmaster febrifuge delitescent underchanter quaedam
luqavh hudxl
gibberish crap link here
rmcigza gzecv
gibberish crap link here
wnmktg prakn
gibberish crap link here
lsbmc crahiek
gibberish crap link here

From Where is the bad blood?, 2008/08/31 at 2:10 PM

How does jibberish and fake URL's help anyone, who has time to do something like this if it doesn't benefit them in some way?

*edit, I just realized that I just posted spam, but I really just wanted to use an example, if it is a problem for this to be used please delete it, I wasn't sure.

Harold Mansfield
08-31-2008, 03:48 PM
First off, they are using some kind of auto posting software that usually does not work.
Spammers make money because it still works, and it's cheap.

The easiest way for spammers to make money is installs. Perking curiosity enough to get people to click through by offering something like music, ringtones, or movies for free and installing something like Zango, that pays per install, or another piece of crap ad hijacker.

As for the pharmaceutical products spammers..there are enough people in the country with a pill problem, or looking for a way to get Oxy, Somas, or some other "cette" that that they are just playing the odds of catching the right person at the right time.
All of them are overseas "pharmacies" and importing controlled substances is still a crime, but rarely enforced. That is if you even get anything besides ripped off.

Other spammers that are just trying to get a link back to their site...they are just idiots.

KristineS
08-31-2008, 09:09 PM
As eborg9 said, a lot of spammers are just looking to get links. They also work on the same principle as the e-mail spammers who send you the e-mail that says you've just won the Nigerian lottery. 9 times out of 10 no one falls for it, but on the 10th time someone might and the spammers make money. If you can send out enough spam and send it out fast enough, you can make some cash.

It's a lazy and dishonest way to make money, but spammers don't care.

cbscreative
08-31-2008, 11:55 PM
Just in case those links led to places that were trying to plant malicious crap on your computer, I edited them to remove any teeth they otherwise might have. That's usually what they seek to accomplish, so there is no point in furthering the scam and putting others at risk.

the goat
09-01-2008, 12:02 PM
I'm sorry Steve I should have edited them myself, the only reason I didn't was because they did not lead anywhere, just "address not found, could not find server..."

I do understand most spam, but this one I was curious about so I clicked every link. Not one of them was active, so it seems to me that it would be impossible for this spammer to gain anything, no?

Or am I missing something and "Beverly Guzman" somehow benefits (in one of the ways listed above) even though there is nowhere to go from anything she posted. I just don't get this one.

billbenson
09-01-2008, 01:33 PM
Could be the spammer was installing malware and the host took their sites down. That's what a lot of links in email spam do so don't click on them unless you are confident of the source. Email spam tends to come from drone computers. If you see two identical emails with the same or similar text that's a dead give away.

Also, don't click on links that say remove me from your mailing list. If they are spam, they are either confirming to the spammer that they have a valid email or they are doing something nasty like installing malware.

Harold Mansfield
09-01-2008, 02:07 PM
Also, don't click on links that say remove me from your mailing list. If they are spam, they are either confirming to the spammer that they have a valid email or they are doing something nasty like installing malware.

Excellent tip. It is worth a repeat. :) It's ingenious in it's application, but a dirty, low down...and yes criminal offense.

cbscreative
09-01-2008, 10:26 PM
Excellent points on the malware, that's exactly why I didn't test them. I figured one of two things: either they would generate a page not found error, or they would attempt to install malicious code. Either way, I thought it best to edit them.

I second bill's advice to never click on email links for exactly this reason.

orion_joel
09-02-2008, 03:01 AM
I think it all comes down to conversion just like any other sort of marketing (may be twisted marketing at best).

Even if just 1% of people did fall for these spam / scam links. On the volume they are putting them out, this could lead to some big time money. Even if they only made say 10cents somehow off everyone that clicked through. They put it out there enough and in enough places, there is a good chance even millions of people could see them somewhere. 1% of 1million is 10,000 X 10cents, is $1,000. If they continue this the automated process could make them potentially thousands, all the is required is changing the system ever so slightly and they potentially have the chance to catch the same person multiple times.

the goat
09-02-2008, 09:01 AM
I get that, but my question is how do you make anything off a link to nothing? A page not found.

I can understand that links break but I checked them within 10 minutes after they were posted, and not one went to anything.

Sorry if I am beating a dead horse, I just feel like I am totally missing something.

orion_joel
09-03-2008, 01:11 AM
Maybe the question is not so much how do they make money off a dead page, but more so is the page actually a dead page, or is it just made to look like it while it does something else in the background.

As previously mentioned maybe it installs something or puts some spyware in, or maybe it is masking something that means that now when you visit sites that display certain ads, those ads will then be diverted to the masked site. It is really easy to make it look like a harmless page not found site, that actually is not so harmless.

the goat
09-03-2008, 01:46 AM
Ah I get it. Faking the "page not found" and all the other stuff they do sounds like a ton of work though. You'd think that if they just focused all that effort on a legitimate enterprise they would make a killing.

cbscreative
09-03-2008, 10:54 AM
Ah I get it. Faking the "page not found" and all the other stuff they do sounds like a ton of work though. You'd think that if they just focused all that effort on a legitimate enterprise they would make a killing.
That's the real irony. If they put all this creative energy to legitmate use, they actually could be far better off. It's like greed. Greed actually causes people to lack the very things they are greedy for. Even if they do achieve anything, they are unable to enjoy it.

orion_joel
09-06-2008, 12:53 AM
I have to agree if they put even 1/5th the time and manpower into a something real, they could probably profit far beyond what they do from wasting their time on wasted pursuits.

The real problem thing is that it probably more so looks to them that once they have done something once, to just duplicate it and make a second, third or 100 more seems like a couple of cut and copy operations. Then when they automate the actual distribution of the links and posts and such, they are probably spending a lot less time then we think on this.

But just imagine the sort of business you could create if you used the same principle's in a legitimate way, and let it grow organically.