OT: On-Rev antispam (& reCAPTCHA)

[Nonsanity]

I think it's a case of poor quality control on the part of the spammers. The
operate in such volume, and often use trojans to make unwitting accomplices
of other victims, that one mistake in setting up their system can have vast
consequences.

If you forget to load your URL into the trojan, or it gets stripped out
somehow when duplicating itself to another patsy that "clicked here for
naked pictures", then you're going to see lots of activity with no real
point.

Of course, evolution operates in any forum that has replication, variation,
and competition. So a trojan that isn't putting out a working link to the
trojan download page isn't replicating itself successfully, and therefore
isn't being selected for in future generations. It's a non-viable mutation.
:)

You might be getting a lot of these at the moment because the current
non-viable mutation is active. Later, you won't get any. I've had bouts of
similar pointless spam-postings in the past, though none currently.

Right now I'm getting the "hey, I just took an IQ test <here>, you should
too!" instant messages from a few of my contacts. I could block them, but
its fun to use this as a sort of mentalist trick with my friends. "My friend
is IMing me about an IQ test he just took. I know it's the middle of the day
but *rub temples mystically* I BET he's about to take a shower..."

(If you respond to the bot, it eventually says it's going to jump in the
shower, to end the conversation. It also will respond to the word "hacked"
by claiming it isn't. :) Eliza, eat your fiscal heart out.)

 ~ Chris Innanen
 ~ Nonsanity




On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 11:34 AM, Tiemo Hollmann TB <toolbook at kestner.de>wrote:

> Hi Björnke,
>
> the business with email harvesting and nasty links are of those business
> models I know. But just entering a stupid (probably not working) email
> address into my newsletter database or entering senseless entries (without
> links) in blogs or guest books - I can't see any sense. Are these
> "collateral damages" of their bots or do you see any model of value they
> take out of these entries?
> Tiemo
>
> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > Von: use-livecode-bounces at lists.runrev.com [mailto:use-livecode-
> > bounces at lists.runrev.com] Im Auftrag von Björnke von Gierke
> > Gesendet: Montag, 7. März 2011 15:39
> > An: How to use LiveCode
> > Betreff: Re: OT: On-Rev antispam (& reCAPTCHA)
> >
> > They make a lot of money. Normally there's some url hidden in the crap,
> and if
> > people go there they make 2 cents from google adverts. If they spam 2
> million
> > per day, and the turnaround is 0.1 percent, then they get a good income.
> > Sometimes they also harvest email replies, and working email addresses
> can
> > also be sold to other spammers and scammers for about 5-10 cent per
> piece.
> >
> >
> >
> > On 7 Mar 2011, at 12:05, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > > what I would like to know is what intention do have bots (the humans
> behind
> > > the bots) to make useless entries into  blogs or - in my case - in
> signing
> > > on to get a newsletter with non existent nonsense email addresses. The
> only
> > > sense in that behavior I can think of is that there must be any kind of
> > > forms where robots _do_ have any advantage from and all the other
> entries
> > > (like in my newsletter) are just "collateral damages"
> > > But up to now I couldn't imagine any sense behind that and couldn't
> find
> > > anyone who could tell me. But I am sure you can!
> > > Tiemo
> > >
> > >> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > >> Von: use-livecode-bounces at lists.runrev.com [mailto:use-livecode-
> > >> bounces at lists.runrev.com] Im Auftrag von Keith Clarke
> > >> Gesendet: Sonntag, 6. März 2011 21:39
> > >> An: How to use LiveCode
> > >> Betreff: Re: On-Rev antispam (& reCAPTCHA)
> > >>
> > >> ...I concur, what great ideas:
> > >> a) language-independent, random simple maths questions that humans
> need
> to
> > >> understand;
> > >> b) deliberate hidden password field to capture bots;
> > >> c) obscure names for login fields to confuse bots;
> > >> d) simple validation repeat fields.
> > >>
> > >> I've learned so much about programming and logic from the creative
> bunch
> > > of
> > >> people on this list!
> > >> Best,
> > >> Keith..
> > >>
> > >> On 6 Mar 2011, at 13:54, Medard wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Medard <liste.revo at medard.on-rev.com> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> What are your thoughts about that?
> > >>>
> > >>> Thank you for all your responses!
> > >>>
> > >>> Me too, i dislike Captchas, and I am glad of your suggestions!
> > >>>
> > >>> Medard
> > >>>
> > >>> --
> > >>> lectures.medard.on-rev.com
> > >>>
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