So much SPAM recently. My sympathies dealing with this scourge. Like to check new threads in the morning but it’s been rough last several days. Keep up the good works.
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Sympathies dealing with SPAM
- Thread starter Bigwaff
- Start date
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MBAir2010
macrumors G3
yes, too many stupid headlines are blatant as a nude streaker on the pitch at Anfield.
How do i reach REAL NEW POST instead of a C̳ustomer S̳ervice P̳hone N̳umber scam?
yes they were fired/lay'd off from spamming us with election notifications on our phones,
now they do this?
How do i reach REAL NEW POST instead of a C̳ustomer S̳ervice P̳hone N̳umber scam?
yes they were fired/lay'd off from spamming us with election notifications on our phones,
now they do this?
Cobalt Blizzard
macrumors 6502a
How exactly does that scam work? They post a phone number over and over, what’s supposed to happen if you call/text it?
MBAir2010
macrumors G3
probably robots take you data and sell or post that to evil databases.
people fall for these scams way too much!
BrianBaughn
macrumors G4
I'm tempted to get a temporary number to see.
I would not be disappointed to see the site go offline for a few hours to deal with this.
Basic75
macrumors 68030
Why not suppress sending your number on your mobile? GSM codes still work, don't they?
S.B.G
Moderator emeritus
I don't know how or what can be done with Xenforo, but there ought to be a better, more effective way to verify a legitimate human is registering accounts.
MBAir2010
macrumors G3
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
MBAir2010
macrumors G3
or maybe a questionnaire, like "what Mac do you own?
or something were the type why they want to be here.
or were newbies must pass a test or human vitrification pop-up as other sites have
im sure the bots will find a way around this in time, but that could stop the CALL posts
back in the day while interning for a website we would apply code not to publish many words.
perhaps double underlining the first letter on a title in a sentence would be not allowed?
dmr727
macrumors G4
On the board where I moderate, we have to approve the first five posts of any new user. So we see all the spammers and have to manually zap them, but the membership doesn't see any of it.
Unfortunately MR is likely too busy for that to be a workable solution. I bet the mods here are busy enough as it is. 🙂
Unfortunately MR is likely too busy for that to be a workable solution. I bet the mods here are busy enough as it is. 🙂
It's moot now, but, yes.. temporarily until it can figured out how to block the spammer(s).
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
I think that's a rather poor option, because we really don't want any person looking for support or wanting to talk about apple products to be prevented from joining.
I've said this before and at the risk of beating a dead horse, MacRumors relies inordinately on two moderators, a site as large as this needs more then two active moderators.
If there was someone in an appropriate time zone to cover early morning, these issues would be less visible and/or handled so effectively most of us wouldn't notice.
You are mistaken. Some of the mods have their account set such that you can't see when they are online.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
Ok
So there are moderators online actively doing duties from 5:00am through 9:00am? Given that my reports in the early morning seem to suggest otherwise. Not just today but generally speaking. If I submit a report late at night, or early morning, I don't see resolution until after 9:00am if not later. While I'm not suggesting they see my report and jump on it instantly, seeing a trend where submitted reports are not processed for several hours can be an indication that the site has a lack of coverage.
Perhaps if a moderator is doing their duties, they should not hide their status, so as to give the wrong impression. Either way, those hidden moderators were not really that active under the spam onslaught were they. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
dmr727
macrumors G4
I wonder if there's a way to make the permissions such that you can have a team of volunteers able to zap spam without having to make them full fledged mods. Something like a volunteer being able to zap accounts (and posts from that account) that are less than a day old - with the understanding that you'd have to trust that user to not zap legitimate new accounts.
For example my job has me occasionally awake when the majority of people on MR are presumably asleep - I'd be happy to clean up spam if I noticed any.
For example my job has me occasionally awake when the majority of people on MR are presumably asleep - I'd be happy to clean up spam if I noticed any.
I was simply pointing out your comment that there are only two active moderators was incorrect.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
No worries, I also didn't mean to come in hot. I was only trying to be helpful - you and nobomac are largely the only ones moderating - Its pretty much the consensus amongst the membership that they/we only interact with you two
MBAir2010
macrumors G3
aha, a perfect MR questions
Will 4+4 GB of RAM be sufficient to for use daily tasks on the MacBook Neo in 2026?
I think one advantage of a moderation queue would be that new users' posts wouldn't go active until times when there is a Moderator on duty. It's obvious spammers and scammers are taking advantage of unstaffed periods.
It is also obvious that MR gets hit really hard by these criminals during peak travel periods, when a lot of stressed, tired people are facing delays and use the first customer service phone number that pops up in a Google or ChatGPT search. When coupled with how rapidly new MR Forum posts are scraped by search engines and generative AI bots (minutes, not hours or days), I think it's clear MR needs to revisit the balance between new user access and stopping people who make MR unusable for everybody, including new users. Perhaps stricter new user rules can be in effect during major holidays and times when a lot of people are at airports, train stations, and on the road, similar to how drunk driving checkpoints are set up on New Year's Eve.
The same goes for times of year such as Back To School and popular gift-giving periods when a lot of people will be setting up new phones, tablets, and computers.