Spam, Spam, Beans, and Spam

[billroper]

So it appears that the latest technique for spamming your LiveJournal is this:

You'll get a comment from a user that you've never heard of -- assuming that you allow comments from someone who is not on your friends list and the post isn't locked. And it'll say something innocuous like "I like your blog."

When you go to look at the poster, you'll find that they have no friends. And no posts. Today's spammer was created on February 25th of this year, so they clearly get generated in advance of use.

And then you'll get a barrage of anonymous spam posts to random posts in your LJ within the next day or two. Of course, you've screened anonymous posts, so you'll be the only one to see them. And you'll delete them as spam.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Comments

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I periodically get comments from people I've never heard of, and they often say things like "I like your blog" or "I will come back" and I delete them straight off, because real people comment on the actual blog entry.

I hadn't made the connection with the anonymous spam, though. I wonder if I can change my settings to screen that, since what I've been doing is deleting it as fast as I can check my e-mail, and that is getting old.

Thanks for pointing this out; I will see if I can set "screen anonymous posts" as a global thing.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm getting close to not allowing any non-friends to post, as I'm getting so many spam posts.

What I find interesting is that seem to fixiate on a small number of my posts. Most recently a 2 year old post about a local high school production of RENT that I recommended.

[sraun]

I just had one of those random replies ("I really appreciate the information" as a reply to a Happy Birthday post?), and - after investigation - deleted it as spam. It looks like LJ has changed their system - I got asked "this will disable the account, do you really want to?" I said yes.

I'll have to watch for the follow-up anonymous spam.

[madfilkentist]

I have anonymous posts blocked and non-friend posts screened, and haven't had any spam problems on my own LJ.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Do you mean to say that just LOOKING AT THE POSTER'S INFO will trigger spam posts?

[billroper]

No. You'll get the spam whether you look or not.

[billroper]

It's a bot, so it's not that bright.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

A while back, I was having problems with a certain person on LJ. I banned anonymous posts (as well as that person) and a lot of my posts are friends locked so I haven't seen this.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

There is also the CAPTCHA option.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Implying that it doesn't even matter if you go to look at the poster. The first one ("I like your blog", in your example) is only the first ant on the countertop (to make a metaphor from recent household experiences). More will follow whether you smash it or not.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

I got a "you have one serious fan" on an unlikely post recently. I deleted it as spam once I saw that they had one post (which I couldn't see) and their only friend was themself. So far I've not been hit by the post barrage, though.