Same Spam, New tricks.

[D]

We have been hit with all the usual types of spam since our forum opened. Fake Sig Spam, Mass link spam, PM spam etc; But it seems these spammers have learned a new trick.

Over the last few days I have noticed a handful of odd looking posts that have invisible images in them that display as broken images for a few seconds then go under the radar, I clicked the edit button to see what was wrong with the image and to clean it up and guess what I found in there:

See Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/7nAWP.png

There is obviously something odd happening here, The image link you see redirects through a PHP script then displays a transparent image to avoid detection.

They are posted by the usual culprits with wacky usernames and posts with broken English.

This is either a new way to get spam backlinks or something malicious, Has anybody seen this before? If so a little insight to what they are up to would be great 🙂

 

[AnAccount]

First time I've ever heard of this happening. Nothing like teaching an old dog new tricks, right? All pun aside, though, I really couldn't tell you how to handle this situation at all. That's going to get to be quite the handful if you have to check these links yourself!!!!!

 

[D]

Well I just got to the bottom of this, They were stuffing webhosting affilate cookies to make a quick buck. This isn't something I have come across before but both members have been banned and the url blocked.

 

[AnAccount]

Well I just got to the bottom of this, They were stuffing webhosting affilate cookies to make a quick buck. This isn't something I have come across before but both members have been banned and the url blocked.

That explains why the url's weren't visible or however you were explaining it.

 

[D]

They were transparent/invisible images served by a PHP script alongside affiliate cookies so people wouldn't be suspicious.

 

[AnAccount]

They were transparent/invisible images served by a PHP script alongside affiliate cookies so people wouldn't be suspicious.

This kind of like that one incident we were discussing on phpBB Communities where the owner of DP had gotten sued by eBay for "cookie stuffing" members? Sounds like a very similar situation to that almost.... only I understand it's not your fault, Shady, it's the members' who are posting the malacious links fault...

 

[Black Angel]

Wow, they really are getting crafty aren't they?

Well, I guess it is time to up the ante.. restrict BBCode for new members and members with 0 posts..

 

[AnAccount]

Wow, they really are getting crafty aren't they?

Well, I guess it is time to up the ante.. restrict BBCode for new members and members with 0 posts..

This can be done just through the ACP, right? If so, how does that work?

 

[SpacewardAsh]

Last time it was hiding links using the color BBCode, etc. now they must be trying something else will keep an eye out on this.

Thanks!

 

[etc]

this give me a reason to check my users signatures 😀

 

[Kaynil]

I will check every new posts by new members or guests for this malicious hidden stuff. Thank you for making us aware of this.

 

[kavin]

Had seen some people(spammers) doing this in MyBB community, and reported few.

Whenever i see a nonsense post, with no links(like normal spammers), I try selecting (click and drag) them. if there is a hidden image, then we can see it as selected part turns blue. But yeah! its the hard way to do.

Maybe a plugin to list image links from posts of newbies would help.

 

[AnAccount]

Last time it was hiding links using the color BBCode, etc. now they must be trying something else will keep an eye out on this.

Thanks!

Face it, spammers will try anything to get the attention they crave from angry forum owners/webmasters. You never know what they'll come out with next.

 

[etc]

Had seen some people(spammers) doing this in MyBB community, and reported few.

Whenever i see a nonsense post, with no links(like normal spammers), I try selecting (click and drag) them. if there is a hidden image, then we can see it as selected part turns blue. But yeah! its the hard way to do.
Maybe a plugin to list image links from posts of newbies would help.

highlighting can be a good way to spot them.