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Questions tagged [spam]

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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
  • 46.2k
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 ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.2k
26 votes
4 answers
517 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 ...
Daniel Beck's user avatar
  • 111k
24 votes
4 answers
678 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,...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.2k
24 votes
1 answer
511 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
22 votes
1 answer
474 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
  • 46.2k
17 votes
2 answers
499 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
  • 41.3k
16 votes
2 answers
559 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
  • 62.4k
15 votes
1 answer
266 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 ...
slhck's user avatar
  • 230k
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 ...
nKn's user avatar
  • 5,727
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
  • 4,054
13 votes
1 answer
786 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
  • 4,127
12 votes
1 answer
262 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
  • 2,589
12 votes
1 answer
297 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
  • 10.9k
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
  • 21.8k
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
  • 342
11 votes
2 answers
364 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
  • 1,381
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
11 votes
1 answer
653 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
10 votes
2 answers
97 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
  • 62.4k
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
  • 9,335
10 votes
1 answer
299 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 ...
Gantendo's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
257 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
9 votes
2 answers
148 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 ...
Luke Stanley's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
132 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
  • 61.9k
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/...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 130k
8 votes
1 answer
234 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 / ...
slhck's user avatar
  • 230k
8 votes
1 answer
96 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
  • 46.2k
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
  • 46.2k
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
  • 4,257
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
  • 159k
7 votes
1 answer
128 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 ...
Daniel Beck's user avatar
  • 111k
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 ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.2k
6 votes
1 answer
124 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: ...
Mehper C. Palavuzlar's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
61 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
  • 2,505
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 ...
Simon Sheehan's user avatar
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
  • 4,070
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 ...
Gareth's user avatar
  • 18.9k
5 votes
1 answer
82 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 votes
5 answers
295 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 ...
Josh K's user avatar
  • 12.8k
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 ...
Spedwards's user avatar
  • 292
4 votes
1 answer
48 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
  • 130k
4 votes
1 answer
221 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-...
Indrek's user avatar
  • 24.6k
4 votes
2 answers
151 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 ...
Gnoupi's user avatar
  • 8,138
4 votes
1 answer
63 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
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
  • 56.6k
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
3 votes
1 answer
128 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
  • 1,843
3 votes
2 answers
215 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
  • 1,843
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 ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.2k

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