Questions tagged [spam]

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6 votes
2 answers
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So many new spam bots thanks to AI - what can we do?

I keep seeing users like this, the quality of their posts is abysmal: Can we get a captcha or something? Would that help? What else can be done? One of those things where you have to solve a little ...
Gantendo's user avatar
  • 4,905
4 votes
1 answer
38 views

I flagged an answer as spam, where the user profile contained spam. Why was my flag declined?

My "spam" flag on https://superuser.com/a/1834925/1482432 was declined. Did the moderator not see the username and the profile of the spambot? "Declined - a moderator reviewed your flag,...
Gantendo's user avatar
  • 4,905
2 votes
0 answers
121 views

“Please do not vote to close spam.” Why?

On a recent piece of spam, a user (Ramhound) stated: “Please do not vote to close spam.“ Why? Should we just downvote and close as spam? What is the harm in voting to close as off topic? Wouldn’t ...
Giacomo1968's user avatar
  • 54.7k
9 votes
1 answer
255 views

Combatting Spam: Enhancing Keyword Approval and Filtering

Recently, as a regular user focused mainly on Q&A, I've noticed a surge in spam content related to the "HERO RUPEE LOAN CUSTOMER CARE HELPLINE NUMBER". These posts consist of spam ...
Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
74 views

Please clean up diskpart.com spam by user Metaphor

User Metaphor (1692216) is spamming diskpart ads. Can someone clean that up please?
Gantendo's user avatar
  • 4,905
1 vote
1 answer
47 views

Question about spam site incorrectly deleted as spam

This question (deleted: link requires 10k+ reputation) was deleted as spam. However, it's a question about spam. It contains some unfortunate language around this, but could surely be edited into ...
tripleee's user avatar
  • 3,181
1 vote
1 answer
47 views

How to deal with answers that are "Essentially a spam" [duplicate]

So I came across an answer while reviewing late answers that was essentially a spam and was focused on promoting the poster's own program and website. His own profile and his answer ("our" ...
Saaransh Garg's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
69 views

Is this answer spam?

I came across this answer in the First Answers review queue which I wasn't sure about, so I was hoping to get some insight from other members of the community. On the one hand, it does kinda-sorta ...
Mureinik's user avatar
  • 4,024
14 votes
1 answer
196 views

Should I have flagged this question?

Earlier today, I came across a question asking for recommendations for software for an automotive repair shop. This question is clearly off-topic, and I voted to close it as "Questions seeking ...
Mureinik's user avatar
  • 4,024
12 votes
1 answer
261 views

Why is this audit spam?

I just received this review audit in the Low Quality Posts queue. Here is a screenshot: I passed the audit, but only because I noticed that the user who posted it was deleted, so I opened the post in ...
Donald Duck's user avatar
  • 2,549
12 votes
1 answer
296 views

Answer copied and filled up with spam

The content of one of my answers was copied and a new answer was created (with some spam added). This was then "corrected" by a user with a score over 2000. Since he was only shown the "...
Albin's user avatar
  • 10.4k
4 votes
1 answer
62 views

Checking if a post is spam

This answer links to the author's site. It is a poor answer, and could only be used in conjunction with the author's site as a vital detail (what the "program" is) is missing. Does Thanks ...
Andrew Morton's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
54 views

shouldn't a spam post not bump a post up after the spam post is removed?

I notice this old thread How can I migrate mails from Yahoo! Mail to Google Apps? got bumped up it got bumped up because a spam post was made. the spam post was removed but it remained bumped up.
barlop's user avatar
  • 23.8k
16 votes
2 answers
558 views

Korean spam attack?

We seem to be under an attack from a Korean spamming group. They make a post about every 3 minutes, which gets deleted through flag as spam in less than 1 minute. Is there a way to stop this at all? ...
LPChip's user avatar
  • 61k
11 votes
2 answers
363 views

HTTP Downloader Spam Answers

Just a heads up to reviewers tonight: there’s a newbie who has been posting answers to questions about large downloads. He has answered at least 5 other questions the same way: promoting his app. Here’...
Joseph's user avatar
  • 1,361
6 votes
1 answer
59 views

"Our system has identified this post as possible spam" - Audit

I'm a bit confused about what I just saw and would love to get some clearification. I was just doing post reviews and came across an answer that had written above it: Our system has identified ...
confetti's user avatar
  • 2,455
10 votes
2 answers
93 views

How to deal with spam+answer?

We have spammers on the site. Normally, you vote them down + flag: spam. However, if the spammer also self-answers their own post with an answer (that is also spam btw), what do we do to the answer? ...
LPChip's user avatar
  • 61k
12 votes
1 answer
97 views

My answer keeps getting suggested edits from spambots

I have been noticing a trend that my this answer, always gets edited by some spammer (may be a bot). It's only that answer and no other answer in any of the other SE network. Finding subdirectories ...
iammilind's user avatar
  • 332
11 votes
3 answers
214 views

A clarification request for declined spam flag

I flagged this post for obvious spam link inserted in the end when posted in Charcoal HQ. Check the first version here. After looking at the user's profile and the link in the end, I flagged it as ...
A J's user avatar
  • 105
13 votes
1 answer
783 views

Serial keys hidden in HTML comments - what to do?

Today, these two posts were 'vandalized' by their author. This got picked up by the SmokeDetector bot, and as I attempted to roll them back to their original state, I noticed they both had (probably ...
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 4,099
12 votes
1 answer
136 views

Spam through autobiographer badge?

Discussion on MSE I noticed this today when looking at badges. Obviously these accounts will probably be nuked by some type of spam script, but for now it's mildly annoying that I can't celebrate ...
Raystafarian's user avatar
  • 21.7k
24 votes
1 answer
510 views

Which proper action should be taken to handle this suspicious post?

Recently I see through this question: How to paste text into input fields that block it? There is a late answer includes a link which it looks to be suspicious: From what I read in other site meta ...
Tetsuya Yamamoto's user avatar
33 votes
2 answers
1k views

Dealing with a troll that's flooding the site with plagiarized answers

Over the last several days, we've been seeing a novel trolling attack on Super User: a flood of answers containing plagiarized content posted by a user called "Marlin Woods": The user creates a new ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
11 votes
1 answer
630 views

"This looks like spam"

I have a complex issue. It is a rare issue and has been plaguing me for several years. Therefore, it needs explaining. Therefore, it's long - 7237 characters produced over two hours of constant ...
Dragomok's user avatar
  • 213
17 votes
2 answers
495 views

What should I have done with this spammy answer?

I flagged this answer (now deleted, so I can't repost its whole text) as spam. I was later greeted by this message in my flagging history: declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no ...
Ben N's user avatar
  • 40.9k
9 votes
1 answer
131 views

Blacklist "Muscle" on Super User

The body building spam seems to be relentless and while lot more is blocked, we still see close to 4-5 posts every day about this. A search for "muscle" indicates that so far there have been 445+ ...
Sathyajith Bhat's user avatar
  • 61.8k
1 vote
1 answer
90 views

Could I be the first to say that this is scam? [closed]

https://superuser.com/q/979061/277991 is a scam. Could anyone vote this post as scam?
Joseph's user avatar
  • 1,361
7 votes
1 answer
162 views

Sudden influx of Korean spam

Has someone been fiddling with the filters? 10 or so Korean spam posts on Super User within the past few minutes. Can we get this banned?
DavidPostill's user avatar
  • 156k
14 votes
1 answer
285 views

Should this be considered spam?

Reviewing the first posts queue, I run into this question. The last answer seems to have a link for the Firewall keyword, which leads to a commercial firewall (and doesn't have much to do with the ...
nKn's user avatar
  • 5,647
1 vote
1 answer
99 views

Even given that some information is unwanted, is it appropriate to use spam mechanisms when a post needs to be more focused?

On “Is there any way to squeeze more performance out of a vintage Itronix GD8000 laptop PC?” (previously titled, “What, for a Paleo computer, can be done to get performance out of an Itronix GD8000?”),...
Christos Hayward's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
216 views

Is there something off with how reputation is built on Stack Exchange?

Is reputation only built or assessed by tenure and quantity and not by fewer but well researched, studied and articulated questions and relevant answers? Original title started as this: Why does ...
Alex S's user avatar
  • 971
22 votes
1 answer
472 views

Spambots promoting personal enhancement products, can we better defend against them?

I'm seeing a disturbing increase in spam posts promoting personal enhancement products such as male enhancement, hair care, dieting, brain enhancement, and other similar products. The following list (...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
3 votes
1 answer
57 views

Is all spam also rude or abusive?

I flagged a question as Spam. When I clicked on the Flag link again this is what it showed me: I raised only the Spam flag, so is all spam automatically considered rude or abusive too? What is the ...
Karan's user avatar
  • 56.4k
3 votes
2 answers
68 views

Would a link be considered as a spam?

A user has posted an answer which is correct in respect to the question. But in the end of the answer he has posted a link which has no resemblance to the answer (could be for promoting). So what ...
Kunal's user avatar
  • 1,899
2 votes
1 answer
201 views

Can we stop advertising Crucial.com?

The most top answer of How can I tell what RAM will fit my computer? reads: Crucial is a good place to buy RAM and they have a System Scanner (Windows only) to analyse the memory that is present and ...
kenorb's user avatar
  • 25.3k
32 votes
1 answer
20k views

The Master Spam List: Known spammers, spam domains, and associated IP addresses

This is a list of known spammers, spam domains, and IP addresses to which these domains point. This list is derived from spam patterns observed on Super User as well as information from DNS and ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
0 votes
1 answer
83 views

How do we identify and respond to "linkless spam"?

Recently, I've noticed a trend towards spam postings that are free of any external link but advertise a product without disclosure. These techniques evade normal spam detection mechanisms and ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
2 votes
2 answers
98 views

Is this spam or only a low(er) quality answer?

There is a question concerning PureVPN VPN/PureVPN = make some apps connect directly to internet (whitelist?) The answer seems to come directly from the manufacturer, pointing to its websiste and ...
marsh-wiggle's user avatar
  • 2,994
8 votes
0 answers
66 views

Block suggested edit if the edit summary contains an email address

A follow-up from this question. I've noticed that many spam suggested edits have edit summaries that contain an email address (examples: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]). Spambots seem to be treating the edit ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
7 votes
1 answer
266 views

Possible spam question, how to proceed?

I noticed this fishy question https://superuser.com/questions/808674/chkdsk-deleted-index-entries-now-my-file-is-gone-how-to-recover-it Answers seems cut-n-paste from three sources, one of them being ...
Jan Doggen's user avatar
  • 4,218
3 votes
1 answer
111 views

Add a domain to the spam blacklist

Recently, I've flagged as spam six answers coming from two new users containing a spam link that promise to earn clickers money. They all go to the same link, and I'm sure that there may be other ones ...
gparyani's user avatar
  • 1,845
10 votes
3 answers
286 views

Is an answer still spam if it answers the question correctly?

I came across this answer in the late review que today. In case it gets deleted, it says: Word Files Splitter is an excellent tool to split a single word file into multiple word files according to ...
Jon's user avatar
  • 9,315
4 votes
1 answer
103 views

Does SuperUser have a spam problem

I asked a question recently and had a few spam answers. All by people with 1 rep as well... Don't know if it was because I had put a bounty on the question and they didn't know how it worked but I ...
Spedwards's user avatar
  • 292
8 votes
1 answer
95 views

Improve filtering of spam suggested edits

I've been seeing an increasing number of spam edits in the review queues, replacing the entire body of the post with filler text such as a complement (to get past spam filters), then including a link ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
3 votes
2 answers
214 views

What is up with this user?

There is a particular user who seems to be posting really weird, unrelated "answers" to a particular question. The answers seem to contain HTML code that is supposed to generate spam, in my opinion. ...
gparyani's user avatar
  • 1,845
4 votes
1 answer
44 views

Can we search for posts with links to specific domains?

I flagged yet another spammer today, and found she had an older post that got by. This annoys me, since I want them gone and burninated like forgotten toast SU and SE as a whole lets us search for ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 129k
5 votes
1 answer
89 views

Vandalism from these 2 accounts

There are several posts from these 2 accounts - https://superuser.com/users/238676/doland and https://superuser.com/users/238678/tyrone, in this question: How to retrieve data from Firefox sync ...
sashoalm's user avatar
  • 4,032
3 votes
1 answer
94 views

How should we handle spammers who recreate accounts after deletion?

I've got a spammer by the name of Jesse who just keeps coming, even after several account deletions: https://superuser.com/users/162151/jesse https://superuser.com/users/162150/jesse https://...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
7 votes
2 answers
382 views

Circumventing spam filters (and deceiving reviewers) by taking part of a legitimate post and adding a spam link--possible solutions?

Users have found a way to circumvent spam filters and deceive reviewers with less-than-keen eyes for spam, by copying part of a legitimate post and adding a spam link. Can we better control this kind ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
1 vote
1 answer
138 views

Spammers exploiting the URL in the user profile to bypass spam protection

It seems spammers have found a way to work around spam filters using the URL in the user profile. This can come from the Home Page field in the form that unregistered users must fill out (the ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k