Spammers - Do YOU click their links?

[AGBeer]

I ask this because of the fresh influx of spam we have this fine Monday AM. Take a trip over to the Vaporizer (specific) Discussion and we have an advertisement of "Dresses for Mom" or something to that effect. Of course this thread is chock FULL of hyperlinks to his wares, as well as a bunch of broken English nonsense that has nothing to do with vaporizers (or dresses for that matter)

So my question is, on your way down to the 'Report Post' hyperlink, does your curiousity get the best of you, and find you clicking on one of THEIR links? (Just to see what sort of shit they are peddling)

 

[WatTyler]

So my question is, on your way down to the 'Report Post' hyperlink, does your curiousity get the best of you, and find you clicking on one of THEIR links? (Just to see what sort of shit they are peddling)

It did on yesterdays nudie one

 

[SmokingElectricity]

never.

 

[Lo]

Never EVER!!

 

[weedemon]

i try not to because that is what they want. but we had one a few weeks ago that was about an escort service and i had to click that one

my gf and I watch a show called "secret diary of a a call girl" and curiosity get the best of me. not a lifestyle for me, but how fascinating to observe from a 3rd perspective.

so no i try not to click any links. who knows also there could be viri or malware hidden in those links.

 

[djonkoman]

not even a bit curious, my instincts are to never click a link that I don't trust
and it has worked so far, I don't use a virusscanner or firewall(they always annoy me) and since I have this laptop I've only had a virus 2 times, the 2nd time possibly a revival of the first(was a rootkit that was burried pretty deep into the system, managed to get it running again tough and was able to save all my files that I wanted to keep, then I gave the laptop to a friend who reinstalled windows for me, he also helped getting the system running again to save my files, altough my instinct to jank out the internet wire as soon as I suspect a virus has probably helped also)
*knock on wood*
I also used to never get spam, on both my emails(one is for friends etc, the other I use for online registering etc and other things that have more risk for spam)
only recently I started getting some spam, I receibed about 10 mails once but after that nothing again
*again kock on wood*

 

[momofthegoons]

They are such a pain in the ass. I reported several of those this morning, but then got frustrated because of the 60 sec wait for reporting another post and gave up. But I never link into any of them. Don't want to encourage them in any way with a hit to their site.

 

[aesthyrian]

No, I will however take the time to report any obviously bullshit post I may come across.

 

[vtac]

I'd avoid clicking the links as they could lead to malicious websites.

Believe it or not we have multiple anti-spam protections in place here and new registrations are watched. Our system blocks most of the automated spam but human spammers are harder to deal with. Short of blocking traffic geographically and/or making it really difficult to register there's no easy way to stop them. If it gets really bad sometimes we'll disable registrations for a day.

The reports are very helpful, and much appreciated.

Even if a spammer is posting like crazy it's only necessary to report one of the posts because when the account is deleted all the posts are trashed as well.

 

[VapeOnline.com]

not even a bit curious, my instincts are to never click a link that I don't trust
and it has worked so far, I don't use a virusscanner or firewall(they always annoy me) and since I have this laptop I've only had a virus 2 times, the 2nd time possibly a revival of the first(was a rootkit that was burried pretty deep into the system, managed to get it running again tough and was able to save all my files that I wanted to keep, then I gave the laptop to a friend who reinstalled windows for me, he also helped getting the system running again to save my files, altough my instinct to jank out the internet wire as soon as I suspect a virus has probably helped also)
*knock on wood*
I also used to never get spam, on both my emails(one is for friends etc, the other I use for online registering etc and other things that have more risk for spam)
only recently I started getting some spam, I receibed about 10 mails once but after that nothing again
*again kock on wood*

You really should have some sort of virus protection on your laptop, especially if your using windows. The average time it takes an unprotected fresh windows machine to be hit with it's first virus attack is like 40 seconds. most virus' are take over type in which you would never know you've been attacked. DL AVG free, its free and it's better than nothing.

 

[djonkoman]

not even a bit curious, my instincts are to never click a link that I don't trust
and it has worked so far, I don't use a virusscanner or firewall(they always annoy me) and since I have this laptop I've only had a virus 2 times, the 2nd time possibly a revival of the first(was a rootkit that was burried pretty deep into the system, managed to get it running again tough and was able to save all my files that I wanted to keep, then I gave the laptop to a friend who reinstalled windows for me, he also helped getting the system running again to save my files, altough my instinct to jank out the internet wire as soon as I suspect a virus has probably helped also)
*knock on wood*
I also used to never get spam, on both my emails(one is for friends etc, the other I use for online registering etc and other things that have more risk for spam)
only recently I started getting some spam, I receibed about 10 mails once but after that nothing again
*again kock on wood*

You really should have some sort of virus protection on your laptop, especially if your using windows. The average time it takes an unprotected fresh windows machine to be hit with it's first virus attack is like 40 seconds. most virus' are take over type in which you would never know you've been attacked. DL AVG free, its free and it's better than nothing.

I know, but virusses that go unnoticed bother me less then virusscanners, virusscanners just annoy me too much
used to have norton, the earlier versions were ok but the newer versions sucked balls, at least the earliest versions you could shut off when you wanted to play a game online or offline and you didn't need a scanner
the next version shutting off became harder(harder to find, had to go trough more windows and confirmations), but still possible
then it became only possible to shut down part of the scanner and the automated backgroundscans were initiated, wich are a major PIA(you're just playing a game, suddenly everything freezes you loose all progress and it turns out norton started a backgroundchecl and using the computer would be impossible for the lenth of the scan, and the nwest version scanned even more often with no method to control when it scans)
and the last version I couldn't shut down anything but the firewall if I remember correctly

so then I rather go without, really happy with my choice, have this laptop for 2 years or so now and still happy I choose to not use a virusscanner, it's worth it

 

[steiner666]

Get NOD32 (a really good, light AV) and use firefox w/ noscript and web of trust addons. Between the active scanning of all traffic with nod32, the script blocking of noscript, and the website reputation ratings of WoT, it's a pretty worryfree browsing experience, and its just as fast as without any protection, if not faster because of Noscript blocking all the unnecessary flash content on untrusted sites by default, and nod32 adds maybe 3-5 seconds to my boot time but uses practically no resources really after initial bootscan.

 

[SmokingElectricity]

can't rely on just one program these days because there is so much shit out there. it's like going into a football game only wearing elbow pads. avg free is a great anti virus. free for life updates. spybot works great against maleware, if you have never run an anti-maleware program, 99% chance you have some already on your computer. registry defense is a great program to repair errors in your registry such as blue screens [BSOD] , pop ups and other errors that will slow your pc down to a chug [not free]. finally peer block. a must have if you download from p2p sites but also blocks unwanted access to you and your computer. you would be shocked if you saw who's trying to communicate with your pc. this program shows who's trying to communicate with your computer, blocks them and also shows you who it is. also free.

every situation is different but unless you are a pc guru, it's foolish to be out there with zero protection.

 

[pakalolo]

every situation is different but unless you are a pc guru, it's foolish to be out there with zero protection.

Anyone who connects to the internet without protection is not a PC guru.

 

[AGBeer]

every situation is different but unless you are a pc guru, it's foolish to be out there with zero protection.

Anyone who connects to the internet without protection is not a PC guru.

I beg to differ

Most Linux gurus dont have native AV protection. Viruii are typically geared towards Windoze.

 

[pakalolo]

every situation is different but unless you are a pc guru, it's foolish to be out there with zero protection.

Anyone who connects to the internet without protection is not a PC guru.

I beg to differ

Most Linux gurus dont have native AV protection. Viruii are typically geared towards Windoze.

Before I posted that I debated whether I should head that one off at the pass. It's more fun this way

First, I have never met the Linux guru user who would claim to be a "PC" guru. (Same goes for you smug Mac people.)

Second, I agree that virii are primarily aimed at Windows, but virus protection is only one line of defence. You need a lot more than that on the internet, and no guru of any persuasion sallies forth without. Linux is definitely vulnerable if it isn't properly locked down and maintained. Just ask Sony. Or, let's ask the US-CERT National Vulnerability Database: in the past three years, there have been 1304 Windows vulnerabilities, 1176 for Apple, and (ta-da!) 960 for Linux. That's not exactly air-tight.

 

[lwien]

First, I have never met the Linux guru user who would claim to be a "PC" guru. (Same goes for you smug Mac people.)

What about non-smug Mac people? :/

 

[pakalolo]

First, I have never met the Linux guru user who would claim to be a "PC" guru. (Same goes for you smug Mac people.)

What about non-smug Mac people? :/

All Mac people are smug. It's in the shrinkwrap agreement.

 

[djonkoman]

every situation is different but unless you are a pc guru, it's foolish to be out there with zero protection.

I sometimes run hitmanpro to clean up my comp
alsdo have peerguardian but never use it anymore(maybe it's even gone, could be I had it before that reinstal of windows)
I'm not a pc guru myself, only know the basics that I have needed myself in the past, but I know 2 people who can help me in the case of problems, a friend that is quite knowledgabe on computers and an uncle that works with computers(he and some others created an OS, altough it was already an existing project they took over, not linux/unix based, I would use it if it had more aplications but sadly there aren't many aplications for it yet, but it's fast, seen it on a very old laptop 2 years ago, never seen such an old laptop before but it booted in 6-7 seconds from turned off to completely booted and ready to use)

 

[wunderkind]

All Mac people are smug. It's in the shrinkwrap agreement.

 

[vtac]

As you may have noticed we've had some spammers hitting the site lately. We already have multiple barriers in place but last night I caved and put a captcha on the registration page. Not a big fan of them but hopefully it's a minor inconvenience that will help keep the site clean.

A huge thanks to all the members who have been so great at reporting spam posts. That is the best line of defense and very much appreciated.

 

[OhTheAgony]

I was afraid the reports were becoming spam themselves, will proceed then. Thanks for the feedback

 

[AGBeer]

As you may have noticed we've had some spammers hitting the site lately. We already have multiple barriers in place but last night I caved and put a captcha on the registration page. Not a big fan of them but hopefully it's a minor inconvenience that will help keep the site clean.

A huge thanks to all the members who have been so great at reporting spam posts. That is the best line of defense and very much appreciated.

Reported

 

[aesthyrian]

As you may have noticed we've had some spammers hitting the site lately. We already have multiple barriers in place but last night I caved and put a captcha on the registration page. Not a big fan of them but hopefully it's a minor inconvenience that will help keep the site clean.

A huge thanks to all the members who have been so great at reporting spam posts. That is the best line of defense and very much appreciated.

Captcha's aren't that bad, and if its only to register than it's nothing to complain about. I just hate the ones that warped the letters so you cant read them... ughhh

 

[StickyShisha2]

Spammers links, I don't click on links from people I know.


did the Captcha seem to help over the past week?