Questions tagged [spam]
The spam tag has no usage guidance.
64 questions
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 ...
32
votes
1
answer
21k
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 ...
26
votes
4
answers
520
views
Recommending own products
What's our stance on relevant product recommendations? The paragraph in the FAQ is clearly not enough in this case.
As a recent example, a developer of an Outlook plug-in/addon started answering ...
24
votes
4
answers
685
views
Should we edit out spam from spam posts?
An established user had edited a blatant spam post (10k-only), replacing it with the following content:
UTTER SPAM
Please delete me.
I feel that this is superfluous and masks the actual spam content,...
24
votes
1
answer
513
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 ...
22
votes
1
answer
475
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 (...
17
votes
2
answers
501
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 ...
16
votes
2
answers
566
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? ...
15
votes
1
answer
267
views
Can we block [bigasoft.com] from spamming our site?
I'm sure I've flagged at least five answers from spam users trying to promote bigasoft.com. They post nothing useful per se, but include links that look like tutorials, but in the end they always tell ...
14
votes
1
answer
287
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 ...
14
votes
1
answer
198
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 ...
13
votes
1
answer
788
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 ...
12
votes
1
answer
266
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 ...
12
votes
1
answer
299
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 "...
12
votes
1
answer
137
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 ...
12
votes
1
answer
98
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 ...
11
votes
2
answers
365
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’...
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 ...
11
votes
1
answer
666
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 ...
10
votes
2
answers
102
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?
...
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 ...
10
votes
1
answer
336
views
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 ...
9
votes
2
answers
149
views
Suspected spam on remote support software question
2 user accounts have been created and all they have done collectively is redundantly suggest TeamViewer here, which is only a half valid answer given the full scope of the question:
OS X: What remote ...
9
votes
1
answer
134
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+ ...
8
votes
1
answer
268
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 ...
8
votes
1
answer
191
views
Really cool spambot behaviour
We have a series of spambot questions
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/42353/automate-mac-app-store-installs-upgrades legit question off apple.se
https://superuser.com/questions/435721/...
8
votes
1
answer
237
views
Can we please blacklist the computersight.com Spam (if possible)?
As most of you will have noticed, the last two days brought us enormous amounts of spam from computersight.com – more specifically the following link:
computersight.com / communication-networks / ...
8
votes
1
answer
99
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 ...
8
votes
0
answers
67
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 ...
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 ...
7
votes
1
answer
167
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?
7
votes
1
answer
130
views
Advertisement answers and company references
What is the proper way to handle
Answers that specifically mention a company's products in a way that obviously is more an advertisement than a real answer
Answers that refer to a (company's) weblog ...
7
votes
2
answers
383
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 ...
6
votes
1
answer
125
views
I found a 3-day-old spammer
He answered one of my questions and then I browsed his answers only to find out that he is a spammer. All answers are the same and are commending a shareware. I demand deletion of his account.
name: ...
6
votes
1
answer
66
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 ...
6
votes
1
answer
95
views
Spam from Webupon
We seem to be getting an increasing amount of answers linking to the following page:
http://webupon.com/web-talk/yahoo-messenger-problem-solution-to-the-blank-im-screen/
The actual link appears to ...
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 ...
5
votes
1
answer
95
views
Request: make spam flagging more descriptive (optional)
I've recently been on a bit of an anti-spam rampage on Super User. Have you posted a plug for a product you work on but haven't been clear about that relationship? Flagged! Are you linking to spammy ...
5
votes
1
answer
85
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,...
4
votes
5
answers
299
views
User spamming - intentional or not?
I feel that a user is asking questions without the purpose of gaining an answer, but to rather link to several other sites. Multiple links in almost all of his / her questions with less then half of ...
4
votes
1
answer
104
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 ...
4
votes
1
answer
57
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 ...
4
votes
1
answer
222
views
Can the spamming user Victor be dealt with?
Victor seems to keep posting links to Groupdocs.com on every question even remotely related to PDFs or document management. Some recent examples:
https://superuser.com/questions/43321/document-...
4
votes
2
answers
152
views
Request: cleaning Super User from a particular spam for password recovery tools
This morning came an advertising user for some password recovery products for Windows. It was obvious spam, and was reported as such, and deleted.
However, searching for their "product" shows that ...
4
votes
1
answer
65
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
3
votes
1
answer
135
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 ...
3
votes
2
answers
216
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. ...
3
votes
1
answer
151
views
Possible spam user "myopic.bones"
A large number of posts from myopic.bones seem to be spam. They include answers to the following questions:
Does e-mail address obfuscation actually work?
Limit Chrome's bandwidth
how to limit ...