Forum admins warned on new wave of spam
by Brian Turner
Forum admins are today being warned of a new wave of spam coming to forums.
It comes after Russian hackers developed a script to auto submit spam posts to a wide range of forum software – and released it onto the open markets.
The script is able to post to forums even when email validation is required – a common anti-spam tactic used by forum admins.
Targeted forum software claimed open to attack includes vbulletin, phpbb, Invision Power Board, PHP-Nuke, yaBB, IconBoard, UltimateBB, exBB, phorum.org, wiki, different types of bulletin boards and even custom-written code.
Forum admins are advised to follow basic anti-spam procedures, and ensure they have common Russian email addresses blocked, such as mail.ru, inbox.ru, cashette.com, and gawab.com.
For those tempted to use high volume forum spamming, it needs emphasising that forum spam rarely lasts more than a few minutes on valuable forums, and the returns are likely miminal.
However, damage to reputation and standing could be considerable, and may additionally subject the user to legal proceedings under the Computer Misuse Act.
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[...] For those that are thinking that spamming forums may be a good way to get some business, Platinax says it best: For those tempted to use high volume forum spamming, it needs emphasising that forum spam rarely lasts more than a few minutes on valuable forums, and the returns are likely miminal. [...]