#spammers — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #spammers, aggregated by home.social.
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They arrive through your inbox, phone, and messages.
Their tactics:
• Unwanted communications
• Suspicious links
• Attempts to deceiveBut every scheme leaves clues.
The investigation begins at High Noon.
Join Broadband Breakfast on July 29 as we explore phishing, robocalls, and spam.
#tech #technology #law #justice #spam #spammers #cybercriminal #cybersecurity #technews #news #live #livestream #internet #security
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Bot Scrapers!
(Ha! I thought that’d grab your attention! 😉🤣)
Has anyone else noticed a recent, and rather alarming rise in the number of ‘re-posts’ their blog entries have been receiving?
Initially I was well chuffed. Wow, if those blogs are re-posting my pieces, then my hits and ‘likes’ are going to go through the roof. Woo hoo! I’ve cracked it!
Perhaps this was a knock-on effect of recently being featured on ‘WordPress Freshly Pressed.’
Ah. Not so. Despair followed disappointment when over the course of the next few days, there was no discernable increase in traffic to this blog. Zero, in fact.
Still, blogging isn’t a numbers game (he lied 😉) and I’m more than happy that you, dear reader, and another thirty or so evidently bored individuals check in daily to read the nonsense I write. So, I carried on regardless. And yes, more and more re-posts. And yes again, my numbers remained constant.
It looks like the re-posts are somehow linked to the hashtags I use when publishing the article.
So what the heck is happening?
I asked my pal, AI.
Now I don’t pretend to understand all this, but here goes. It seems some bad people, let’s call them ‘spammers,’ build automated software programs called ‘scraper bots.’ The moment a targeted blog updates (in this case, mine) these nasty wee bots grab my content and automatically publish it to their own low-quality, automated blogs (often called “splogs” or spam blogs).
I don’t believe this harms my blog, and certainly there’s no financial repercussions for me, but the aim seems to be to populate their ‘site’ load it with adverts and make a bob or two from advert revenue. Or, they use my content to build networks of sites that link to each other (or to a client’s site) to trick search engines into thinking a specific page is highly popular.
I checked my WordPress settings, and I’m already taking steps that would normally guard against this type of content rip-off. So now I need to do more.
Now, as mentioned, these bot scrapers or whatever they are, don’t affect my daily numbers – even if my content is being read elsewhere. I get no ‘credit.
So what I’ll be doing is hide a ‘ghost disclaimer’ at the start of new posts mentioning to regular readers that I know these ‘bots’ are at work and then link that sentence back to THIS post.
My pal AI thinks this is a great idea:
That is actually a brilliant, proactive way to handle it. It turns a frustrating tech headache into an engaging moment with your audience, while simultaneously setting a trap for the bots.
Here is why your idea works so well, along with a clever way to pull it off without cluttering your blog for real human readers.
It Preserves Your Brand & Authenticity: Regular readers who might accidentally stumble upon a copied version will instantly know what’s going on. It shows you’re on top of your tech and fiercely protective of your writing.The SEO “Booby Trap” Multiplier: By linking that disclaimer to a dedicated post explaining the scraping practice, you ensure that every single scraper site automatically links back to your “Stop Stealing My Content” page. It forces them to advertise their own theft.
If I work this correctly, you shouldn’t see any reference to this on future posts. But then, I’m a writer, daahrling, not a tech geek … don’t hold your breath.
I’d love to know if anyone else is being targeted this or any other sinister way.
Interesting, though, eh?
OK, perhaps not.
#author #bots #DailyBlog #DonaldTrump #humor #humour #literature #Poetry #scraperBots #spam #spammers #splogs #Writing -
Security Experts: We implemented these checks to prevent bots from hackers and spammers from accessing our system.
Corporate Executives Everywhere: Can we remove those checks so my “artificial intelligence” agent can access the system?
🤷🏼♂️
#AI #Hackers #Spam #Spammers #PEBKAC #CTO #CEO #ArtificialIdiocy
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How to Block #Spam Calls and Spam Texts on #iPhone and Android (2026)
Fight the scourge of unsolicited rings and pings from #spammers , #scammers , and #telemarketers.
#privacy #securityhttps://www.wired.com/story/how-to-block-calls-and-spam-messages/
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#spammers are getting more creative. they realised an LLM-generated "reason to join" doesn't work, so now they're seemingly stealing people's bios (talking about your profile pic and pinned post doesn't make sense in "reason to join", and saying you're a horny guy from the UK doesn't make sense in a not-against-horniness-but-still-generalist *Hebrew* speaking server).
oh and the email domains are disposable. the IPs might be too but I'm redacting just in case. -
For those who are tired of #AI, just wanted to let you know I’ve been using #DuckDuckGo for the past 6 years or possibly longer, and they have the ability to disable AI answers, hide AI images in search results and even protect your #email from #spammers. Give them a try if you are tired of #Google
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@TuutW : zoals ik eerder schreef: blokkeren heeft nauwelijks tot geen zin. De meeste spammers gebruiken gehackte e-mailadressen of beschikken over een mailserver met een steeds wijzigende domeinnaam en/of wijzigend IP-adres.
Technisch: zij zorgen er tevens voor dat zaken als SPF, DKIM en DMARC correct zijn geconfigureerd. Veel mensen denken dat dit antispam-maatregelen zijn, maar dat is onjuist. Als al die mechanismes correct zijn opgezet, verzekert die combinatie dat een e-mail met als SMTP afzender:
daadwerkelijk is verzonden door een mailserver die e-mail mag verzenden namens "example.com".
Voorbeelden van afzenders van recente phishingmails die ik ontving in het plaatje hieronder.
Een m.i. groot probleem is dat e-mail-apps op smartphones (vanwege de beperkte ruimte op het scherm) het SMTP-adres niet tonen (vaak zijn er meerdere kliks nodig om het SMTP-adres te zien te krijgen). De meeste mensen doen dat niet.
Ik probeer straks nog een vervolg-antwoord te schrijven over gratis domeinnamen eindigend op (onder veel meer):
.ns01.info
Het zou mij niet verbazen als er elke dag meer dan 1 miljoen unieke domeinnamen worden gehuurd (nieuw of opnieuw in gebruik genomen).
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Oh wow, Terence Eden unlocked the Da Vinci Code of blog spam! 🎉 Turns out, some #spammers have evolved to the point where they can unleash a whole "conversation" in the comments section. Surely, this groundbreaking revelation will shake the foundations of #WordPress 🤣.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/04/sneaky-spam-in-conversational-replies-to-blog-posts/ #TerenceEden #DaVinciCode #BlogSpam #Evolution #GroundbreakingRevelation #HackerNews #ngated -
→ Email obfuscation: What works in 2026?
https://spencermortensen.com/articles/email-obfuscation/“Here are some of the best techniques for keeping email addresses hidden from spammers—along with the statistics on how likely they are to be broken.”
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EasyMyTrip, ClearTrip and all, if you do not have unsubscribe, I am marking you as spam.
#spammers #unsolicitedmails -
My biggest political regret of all time is using Act Blue to make donations.
The endless text and email spam generated by that decision is literally unstoppable.
There's no universal opt out option available, and they claim zero responsibility for the actions of any entity that uses the data their platform provides to its users.
This should be illegal in all contexts, but data brokers are immune from all consequences.
Act Blue is a data broker, über alles
DO NOT USE THEM
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I've been getting this spam, twice a week now. It's sent via email, to the illumos.cafe domain, and clearly written by an LLM. What are they offering? A hand selling "my" software product - namely, the illumos operating system (!!!) - and maximizing the profit from it, claiming it's 'new, revolutionary, and AI-based'.
Congratulations, spammer. You're more ridiculous than when you guys used to offer me erectile dysfunction drugs twenty years ago.
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I wish @michiganpublic.bsky.social wasn't being run by #SPAMMERS. Every few years since becoming a member the 1st time in ~2008 they have forgotten that I have explicitly requested to NOT be spammed, and so they send me #spam asking for money. Note that every month, they already get my money. 1/x
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It appears that someone here in Massachusetts found my unused domain BostonSocial.online a tempting domain to use for spamming Massachusetts people. But because I have my unused domains protected from being spoofed, they failed.
Spoofers constantly try using all my domains. I guarantee it's happening with your domains. If your domains aren't protected from it, people are getting emails that appear to be coming from you.
Here's a report sent to me by one of the larger email providers (mail.ru) informing me of a spoof attempt. They tossed the email.
Only a very few larger email providers will provide notifications. I appreciate the notifications when I get them.
Protect your domains, unused or otherwise, from spammer takeover!
https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/dns-records/protect-domains-without-email/
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CW: Malware & Spam Wave - Notice
We are blocking the malicious fake admin account posts on the fedi as we see them.
So far, most of the spam posts we've seen are coming from mastodon(dot)social and mas(dot)to. That doesn't mean that's the only source or that it's their fault, it's just what we've seen show up.
@Mastodon & @trumpet ... it kind of looks like old and inactive accounts are being used; would it be possible to disable / delete super old accounts?
It might also help to curb spam if you're willing to disable open signups temporarily? The volume is taxing mid-size instances terribly. Not pointing fingers, you're just the literal mastodons of the fedi.
*** For Our Members ***
If you're on the instance naughty list, we'll contact you via Signal. All other mod warnings for your account should be considered fake.
(If you're getting mod messages from a remote instance, let us know and we'll investigate.)
*** For Remote Frens ***
If you get a mod action message, email us at circular file(at)bardicperspiration(dot)com and we will investigate.
#fediblock #fediadmin #fediadmins #spammers #mastodonsocial #masto #mastoadmin #mastoadmins
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#BBC reveals web of #spammers profiting from #AI #Holocaust images
The BBC has found an international network of content creators profiting from AI generated posts on #Facebook.
#contentcreatorshttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4xjk1g1xo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
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pixelfed.social seems to attract quite a few #spammers doesn’t it? Perhaps the young lady who started following me that doesn’t appear to be able to afford many clothes should get in contact with the Azerbaijani who wants to give me $250000. Maybe they could help her expand her wardrobe.
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I got a phone call from a number I did not recognize. I waited, then heard the pause and click that let me know it was an auto caller.
I spoke excitedly with a strange, made-up accent.
HEY-LOW???
Yes. This is KW air duct...
WAIT. YOU HAVE DUCK?
...yes
I LOVE DUCK. YOU HAVE ONE THAT LAY EGGS?
...
IT NOT LAY EGGS? THAT OK, I LIKE BOY DUCK TOO.
*click*
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In certain countries one has to submit proof of id to obtain a mobile or landline #phone number. So why #telemarketing #spammers can rent numbers by the thousands without being identified?
