The Great Spam Profile Hunt #6

Esto es una continuación del tema The Great Spam Profile Hunt #6.

Este tema fue continuado por The Great Spam Profile Hunt #7.

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The Great Spam Profile Hunt #6

1karenb
Editado: Ene 10, 2020, 7:18 am

(Though used/needed much less often than in the past....)

As previously:

Text modified from this post.

By popular demand, a new thread for the Great Spam Profile Hunt that spontaneously erupted the 1st of September 2016 (in Spam Reporting Threads #52 & 53).

You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, I will rout you out! -- U.S. President Andrew Jackson

To avoid false positives, here are some proposed general guidelines.
Concentrate on accounts with 0 listed books. (It is the rare spammer that bothers to list any books at all, and the even rarer spammer that lists more than one or two)

ALWAYS avoid flagging accounts of LT authors

ALWAYS avoid flagging accounts which are members of the Librarything Early Reviewer's Program

ALWAYS avoid flagging accounts associated with bookstores, publishers, or libraries

As a rule, avoid flagging accounts which are members of LT Groups

As a rule, avoid flagging accounts which belong to authors of any sort whose works are published -- self-published or otherwise. (Spammy e-books which exist primarily as marketing vehicles would seem to be the main exception)

In all cases, abide by the established spam reporting guidelines on the main spam reporting thread.

Additional tips:
In general (and in the absence of other signs of overriding spamminess), if a profile links to a website with a URL which mirrors the personal name listed on the profile (e.g. "joesmith.us" for Real Name = "Joe Smith"), the site should be considered personal rather than commercial, even if the website does make reference to commercial or professional services provided by the person.

METHODOLOGY

Searching:
Search (in the main site search box, top-right) for keywords commonly associated with spam that you expect would be found in spam profiles' names and/or descriptions. Geographical place-names are also worth a shot.

Select "Members" under "Social" on the left-hand panel to select member profiles as the scope for the search.

Sort the results by "book count" (top right).

The zero-book accounts matching your search will be at the bottom of the results list; start investigating from there and continue until you've opened all of the zero-book accounts matching the search.

Flag spam profiles, and post results in this thread.

2karenb
Editado: Ene 11, 2020, 3:20 am

Este mensaje fue borrado por su autor.

52karenb
mayo 21, 2020, 7:46 pm

95HannahGibson
Ago 28, 2020, 7:30 am

Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.

122karenb
Nov 13, 2020, 10:07 pm

Does anyone know why LT staff don't remove these? Aren't simple searches easily automated?

https://www.librarything.com/profile/fhookuptoronto

132davidgn
Dic 15, 2020, 8:49 pm

>122 karenb: Probably not worth the time/bandwidth. Though I do see there's a new technical hire pending...

133karenb
Dic 18, 2020, 10:19 pm

135karenb
Dic 24, 2020, 10:46 pm

136karenb
Dic 26, 2020, 10:53 pm

191karenb
Editado: mayo 18, 2021, 10:54 pm

>188 karenb:

All those profile pages have clean About sections, but the Comment Walls have commercial info and links (in self-comments). Yet no one seems to be marking these accounts as spam.

Is commercial spam allowed on one's Comment Wall? What am I missing? Please let me know.

192FAMeulstee
mayo 19, 2021, 5:00 am

>188 karenb: Yes I did check the comments and flagged them.
The only ones I don't flag are "unconfirmed members", as I can't see their profile at all like: https://www.librarything.com/profile/Allredcasinos

193karenb
mayo 19, 2021, 7:20 pm

>192 FAMeulstee: Thanks for the feedback!
Argh, a cut-and-paste error.

194spiralsheep
mayo 20, 2021, 7:03 am

>191 karenb: Yes, I've checked every profile posted here from >186 karenb: onwards and flagged them because karenb is correct they're all commercial spam (yes, I google translated all the text I couldn't read and also read the comment walls for spam).

Good work karenb!

196karenb
Editado: mayo 25, 2021, 1:20 pm

>194 spiralsheep: thank you for checking my work by reading it all!

(It's always okay to contact me about stuff, incidentally.)

Member search is more limited again (ETA: okay, user error, never mind), but two newer accounts are noteworthy:

https://www.librarything.com/profile/Europeescortgirls
https://www.librarything.com/profile/webgirlsofau

219FAMeulstee
Ago 21, 2021, 4:27 am

>218 karenb: And is the work the last one has listed also spam? I don't know how to mark it as spam.

https://www.librarything.com/work/26806089/203060716

220karenb
Ago 21, 2021, 4:30 pm

>219 FAMeulstee: It's on the work's Editions page.

Marked as spam. Click the link in >219 FAMeulstee: to vote on it.

254haydninvienna
Nov 2, 2021, 4:08 am

>253 karenb: Re the immigration one: since I happen to know a bit about Australian migration law, I passed the details on to the relevant Australian government department, just in case they’re crooked as well as stupid.

255karenb
Nov 2, 2021, 10:30 pm

>254 haydninvienna: Excellent! Thanks.
Este tema fue continuado por The Great Spam Profile Hunt #7.