Anyone else getting dozens of rogue likes from what appears to be bots? I have 10 this morning from "members" that are inaccessible.
Rogue likes
Started by
milestone 11
, Aug 30 2024 10:05
5 replies to this topic
Advertisement
#2
Risil
-
- 65,196 posts
- Joined: February 07
Administrator
Posted 30 August 2024 - 16:27
Interesting, this does happen from time to time. Especially to topic OPs. Could you PM me the names of the suspected bots so I can take a look at their bona fides (or lack thereof)?
#3
milestone 11
-
- 18,170 posts
- Joined: April 09
Member
Posted 30 August 2024 - 20:16
Interesting, this does happen from time to time. Especially to topic OPs. Could you PM me the names of the suspected bots so I can take a look at their bona fides (or lack thereof)?
Screenshot sent though it's not visible in my PM's. There whilst creating post and in preview then vanishes when posted. As admin, you may be able to see it I assume.
#4
messy
-
- 7,839 posts
- Joined: October 15
Member
Posted 05 September 2024 - 18:11
The 'accidentally rating threads' topic I started fairly randomly months ago still gets regular likes and when I look it's always from users who've either never posted, don't have their accounts activated etc. Damn, I liked feeling like literally the only thread I've ever started was doing well!!
#5
BRG
-
- 26,533 posts
- Joined: September 99
Member
Posted 06 September 2024 - 09:08
The 'accidentally rating threads' topic I started fairly randomly months ago still gets regular likes and when I look it's always from users who've either never posted, don't have their accounts activated etc. Damn, I liked feeling like literally the only thread I've ever started was doing well!!
I took a peek at that thread, and it is intriguing. About 40 "new members" all recently joined and all with similarly constructed usernames. Very clearly bots, but why? What possible benefit is gained from liking your thread (excellent though it obviously must be!)
#6
Vitesse2
-
- 42,583 posts
- Joined: April 01
Administrator
Posted 06 September 2024 - 12:22
This should cease in future. When the likes system was introduced, nobody apparently thought to prevent newly registered - but not yet approved - members from using it. A lot of bots are what I would define as 'stage one drive-bys', which never get as far as confirming the registration. The 'second-stage drive-bys' do confirm, meaning they visit the site again; that's probably when this happens, as some sort of test to see if the account is active, but if we still had automatic approval (as was once the case) then they would be free to try to sell you all sorts of stuff like viagra, Australian breakdown services and dodgy crypto schemes.
That has now been fixed - we hope - so if it continues, please let either Risil or me know by PM, naming the 'likers' concerned, so we can investigate further.
We have had a few instances of long-dormant accounts which have been hacked as well. If you spot these - they generally post about dating services - then just use the report function and we'll zap them ASAP.
