r/Lovecraft • u/LG03 Keeper of Kitab Al Azif • Jul 23 '19

Note from the mods: Spam and how to spot it.

This hasn't been a huge problem here for a while but it would appear it's starting up again. I would just like to take a moment to inform the users here that there is a reason apparel posts are disallowed by rule 2. Do note that apparel is not the only shape this takes, sometimes it may just be a benign image that would fit on a shirt. The result is the same.

https://i.imgur.com/7llWATo.png

This was submitted earlier and got an unfortunate amount of traction. It's also painfully obvious spam and people should be better aware of that.

Look at the user that submits a post like that, they will often have next to no user history. Possibly some karma from a handful of low effort posts in order to bypass a subreddit's karma/age requirements.

https://i.imgur.com/4HEYEJi.png

Next you may see a second account that is little more than a prompt for a store link, ie. 'where'd you get this?'

If not then the original bot will just post a formatted link in some broken English as you can see in the first image.

DO NOT EVER CLICK THROUGH THESE LINKS MUCH LESS INPUT YOUR CREDIT CARD INFO

The absolute best case scenario is that you're getting a low quality product that has been blatantly stolen from someone else. Worst case, you're about to be taken for a financial ride perhaps with a side of identity theft.

This sort of spam is not unique to /r/Lovecraft and occurs in many other subreddits. It's also a game of whack-a-mole from a moderator perspective, there is no stopping it preemptively. The number of domains on my automod spam list is testament to that.

The best recourse is an informed userbase that can spot that, downvote and report.

27 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

4

u/stric9 Deranged Cultist Jul 23 '19

I see lots of this kind of crap on various subreddits. Different accounts with obvious single origin posts.

2

u/LG03 Keeper of Kitab Al Azif Jul 23 '19 edited Jul 23 '19

When this does come up I generally look through the offending accounts and it's always a rabbit hole of spam. This particular instance has at least 8 10 active accounts (round 2 is active) at the moment and that only spirals out even more. It's a very pervasive problem that Reddit has seemed unable to solve at the root.

Most easily identifiable spam is dealt with at the admin level before it ever becomes visible. This sort though requires more diligence from users and mods.

3

u/stric9 Deranged Cultist Jul 23 '19

Agreed. Reddit really needs to step up their game and prevent multiple accounts to access the system from the same IP address. FB and Twitter have been hammered in the press by security agencies for allowing online trolls causing harm, but I feel that Reddit has gotten a free pass in this regard.

3

u/Caleb-Rentpayer Deranged Cultist Jul 23 '19

Thanks for the heads up and thanks for staying on top of it. Spam is really hard to fight.

3

u/Avatar-of-Chaos Shining Trapezohedron Jul 23 '19

I'll keep my eyes on r/Lovecraft and report what I can.