Monument ([info]marnanel) wrote,
@ 2008-07-15 22:32:00
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What is it with the users who sign up to LJ and leave one comment
often with no relevance, on public posts, and then leave again? Very often by the time you reach the comment, the accounts's been deleted.

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[info]desh
2008-07-16 03:56 am UTC (link)
Deleted or suspended?

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[info]padparadscha
2008-07-16 05:03 am UTC (link)
My guess would be it's spam spam spam spam spamitty SPAAAAM.

I've gotten some wonderfully surreal ones before.

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[info]zaitcev
2008-07-16 05:27 am UTC (link)
No need to guess, it is spam. Every one of those I caught were spammers.

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[info]marnanel
2008-07-16 10:34 am UTC (link)
It's spam all right, but *why*? Spam exists in order to do something in the real world, like scam you or sell Viagra. Leaving comments in my LJ isn't going to do that. It makes no sense to me.

Examples from today:
http://community.livejournal.com/marnanel_joule/1522.html?thread=98546

http://marnanel.livejournal.com/1079601.html?thread=6228273

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_nifty/55392.html?thread=4909920

http://marnanel.livejournal.com/1047754.html?thread=6229450

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[info]davyd
2008-07-16 10:46 am UTC (link)
I've received a lot of this today. I suspect its purpose is to deprogram the spam filters.

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[info]marnanel
2008-07-16 11:04 am UTC (link)
Oh, that makes sense-- good idea. They have a rather obvious fingerprint, though, so if SUP are on the ball at all it won't last long.

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[info]dglenn
2008-07-16 02:23 pm UTC (link)
Ah! I'd assumed they were either pre-spamming test runs, or incomplete spam due to a bug in the spamming software. Your answer is a better fit for how long it's been going on though.

I've also gotten plenty of, y'know, properly spammy spam, occasionally with a pitch but usually just with URLs in it (trying to raise their search engine ranking, I guess), but that's mostly been anonymous comments, not one-day accounts.

I've finally started getting spammed here at LJ; if it continues, I'll make anonymous coments default to screened here, as I've done at the other sites where it's been a problem. *sigh*

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[info]marnanel
2008-07-16 02:25 pm UTC (link)
The thing is, anonymous users can't post links. The spammers spent years posting comments with attempts for links in them, apparently without noticing this. Dumb as a box of hammers.

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[info]dglenn
2008-07-16 02:32 pm UTC (link)
Doh! I'd wondered why the URLs were always bare or the HREFs were screwed up, but it didn't occur to me that the LJ software was doing that; I figured it was just spamers who couldn't get their HTML right. Doh! Yeah, that would certainly motivate the throwaway-account approach.

But the admins can delete all the comments from one user at a single blow, right?

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[info]marnanel
2008-07-16 02:54 pm UTC (link)
I believe so, and anecdotal evidence points that way, though I can't confirm it (no word from admins, haven't checked the code).

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[info]cdk
2008-07-16 11:43 am UTC (link)
For the examples of this I've seen, the way it's supposed to play out is this:
1) set up a livejournal account with a not-obviously spam username
2) populate the livejournal with posts and userinfo that seem innocuous but lead to malicious websites
3) post lots of innocuous comments on marks' journals
4) mark looks at comments, think "hm, I wonder who this guy is?" and click through to the journal or userinfo
5) mark clicks through links to malicious sites

I have no idea if this ever actually works, but any time I've seen a random comment like that, it's been from a journal that appears to follow that pattern.

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[info]sneakums
2008-07-16 10:04 am UTC (link)
I haven't had that problem since I deleted all my posts.

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