Account farming. Allowed?

[A!]

This accounts are created by a bot called xrumer. This software has capacity to create up to 10,000 accounts in one hour. This software can solve captha, it has built in captcha solver. It can solve 500 different kinds of captcha even recaptcha. It can also answer textual captha, the program has 170,000 answers. Their goal is only to get backlinks to their website/clients.

[1714655455]

1714655455

[1714655455]

1714655455

[LoyceV]

There are one thousand, one hundred and seventy-three pages of members with the "website"

Code:

MMM Global

in their profile...

((1,172 X 30) + 22 = 35,182 )

Those were (or are) spam and were usually nuked on sight (after they posted). After realizing that, some probably kept registering without posting. If you can compile a list of links, we could nuke them relatively easy[1] (even though they aren't/won't cause harm).
Update: [1] Re-read the post and realized it's 35 thousand.

I can do this, if you can nuke that many accounts at once. Do you have cluster-nukes to nuke'm all, or would you have to do them one by one?

but 30k accounts is overkill for a single patroller.

So no cluster nukes

[Timelord2067]

OK, so thinking caps on...

I searched the "Website" of users with

Code:

html

and got 300 pages (say nine thousand UID's)

Just the first page I spotted a repeating pattern "444" and found the html

http://www.r4card.org/r4-card-ds.html

so I stripped it down to

Code:

r4card.org

and searched "websites" and got

Code:

Offline 	nancygree444 				nancygree444 	nancygree444 	GladysCaultongr@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-24 	0 	
Offline 	hildaflan333 				hildaflan333 	hildaflan333 	WendieMackeywb@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-24 	0 	
Offline 	renekerber444 				renekerber444 	renekerber444 	ConcettaRafertyya@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-27 	0 	
Offline 	carmwells333 				carmwells333 	carmwells333 	MauricePutnoioz@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-27 	0 	
Offline 	CandyGhoul 				CandyGhoul 	CandyGhoul 	ConcettaRafertyya999@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-03-30 	0 	
Offline 	Roder347 				Roder347 	Roder347 	ConcettaRafertya347@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-17 	0 	
Offline 	Alice346 				Alice346 	Alice346 	LashellTennydm346@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-17 	0 	
Offline 	Brant133 				Brant133 	Brant133 	ConcettaRafertyya133@yahoo.com.au 	Brand new 	2011-06-12 	0 	

Four of the eight have

Code:

ConcettaRaferty

in their MSN section...

searching with all options we find a total of eight UID's that have concettaraferty in their MSN

Code:

Offline 	renekerber444 				renekerber444 	renekerber444 	ConcettaRafertyya@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-27 	0 	
Offline 	CandyGhoul 				CandyGhoul 	CandyGhoul 	ConcettaRafertyya999@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-03-30 	0 	
Offline 	Roder347 				Roder347 	Roder347 	ConcettaRafertya347@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-17 	0 	
Offline 	Souza357 				Souza357 	Souza357 	ConcettaRafertya357@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-21 	0 	
Offline 	Willoughby367 				Willoughby367 	Willoughby367 	ConcettaRafertya367@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-25 	0 	
Offline 	Steven903 				Steven903 	Steven903 	ConcettaRafertya903@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-30 	0 	
Offline 	Brant133 				Brant133 	Brant133 	ConcettaRafertyya133@yahoo.com.au 	Brand new 	2011-06-12 	0 	
Offline 	Heather155 				Heather155 	Heather155 	ConcettaRafertyya155@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-06-15 	0 	

Searching the other four emails we find

Code:

GladysCaulton

Offline 	nancygree444 				nancygree444 	nancygree444 	GladysCaultongr@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-24 	0 	
Offline 	Tube123 				Tube123 	Tube123 	GladysCaultongr345@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-04-16 	0 	
Offline 	nancygree117 				nancygree117 	nancygree117 	GladysCaultongr117@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-04-18 	0 	

Code:

WendieMackey

Offline 	hildaflan333 				hildaflan333 	hildaflan333 	WendieMackeywb@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-24 	0 	

Code:

MauricePutno

Offline 	carmwells333 				carmwells333 	carmwells333 	MauricePutnoioz@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-02-27 	0 	
Offline 	carmwells117 				carmwells117 	carmwells117 	MauricePutnoioz117@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-04-19 	0 	

Code:

LashellTenny

Offline 	earllmoran999 				earllmoran999 	earllmoran999 	LashellTennydm999@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-04-11 	0 	
Offline 	Alice346 				Alice346 	Alice346 	LashellTennydm346@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-17 	0 	
Offline 	Scott356 				Scott356 	Scott356 	LashellTennydm356@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-20 	0 	
Offline 	Stephen333 				Stephen333 	Stephen333 	LashellTennydm333@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-23 	0 	
Offline 	Hoffman366 				Hoffman366 	Hoffman366 	LashellTennydm366@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-25 	0 	
Offline 	Bishop901 				Bishop901 	Bishop901 	LashellTennydm901@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-29 	0 	
Offline 	Erin456 				Erin456 	Erin456 	LashellTennydm456@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-05-30 	0 	
Offline 	Chad912 				Chad912 	Chad912 	LashellTennydm912@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-06-02 	0 	
Offline 	Nicholas932 				Nicholas932 	Nicholas932 	LashellTennydm932@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-06-06 	0 	
Offline 	Daniels689 				Daniels689 	Daniels689 	LashellTennydm689@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-06-09 	0 	
Offline 	Harms567 				Harms567 	Harms567 	LashellTennydm567@yahoo.com 	Brand new 	2011-06-09 	0 	
Offline 	Coppola132 				Coppola132 	Coppola132 	LashellTennydm132@yahoo.com.au 	Brand new 	2011-06-12 	0 	

Searching

Code:

444

Nets 18 pages ( ~ 540 UID's ) nearly 2/3 on the first page are "brand new" going back to 2010

Code:

333

Nets 33 pages ( ~ 1,000 UID's ) same again nearly 2/3 on the first page are "brand new" going back to 2010

Almost all have email details in the MSN section that fit into the same pattern as above, so they haven't been "Nuked" - I'd prefer it if they were all deleted which is an option in "Simple Machines Forum"

[Lauda]

Almost all have email details in the MSN section that fit into the same pattern as above, so they haven't been "Nuked" - I'd prefer it if they were all deleted which is an option in "Simple Machines Forum"

This option is not available to any kind of moderator I believe. The administrators are likely the only one with access to it (if it exists). The best that moderators can do is 'nuke' and that seems pretty adequate.

[Timelord2067]

Almost all have email details in the MSN section that fit into the same pattern as above, so they haven't been "Nuked" - I'd prefer it if they were all deleted which is an option in "Simple Machines Forum"

This option is not available to any kind of moderator I believe. The administrators are likely the only one with access to it (if it exists). The best that moderators can do is 'nuke' and that seems pretty adequate.

I don't feel killing a cancer one cell at a time is going to fix the solution, but I'll continue my efforts to find the other 95% of Alts, I think the 9,000 to 10,000 ( 1% of the 900,000 + registered users ) UID's in my last post plus the other 3.9% of all UID's in the previous posts is not a bad effort for one afternoon.

*edit* ported info to Spambots thread)

[Timelord2067]

*edit* Post moved to Spambots thread - will remove this post in a couple of days .

[Lauda]

down to

Code:

fiza

Code:

Tampa

Handled both of these. I think that you should create your own thread as this is different than the intended accounts being reported. These are usually spambots (backlink spam and whatnot), while OP started reporting sig. spammers and heavy account farmers.
This thread is too big as it is.

[rizzlarolla]

down to

Code:

fiza

Code:

Tampa

Handled both of these. I think that you should create your own thread as this is different than the intended accounts being reported. These are usually spambots (backlink spam and whatnot), while OP started reporting sig. spammers and heavy account farmers.

This does look like 2 different issuues. We are on a learning curve here.

From bbb.reporter thread,

In Oct 2015 (rough figures as guide, impossible for me to study properly) created accounts consist mainly of (or i was just very lucky to "hit" target)
Accounts between 572000 and 575000 are "btcRDkill_"
Accounts between575000 and 600200 are "MrFudged1_"
Accounts between 600200 and 625000 are "KNC_areThief"

That was a wave of spam accounts by the same person. We have been manually banning them back then (I remember having a 5 second refresh timer on the member page) and then the situation started to calm down as we've started using a bot to do it for us. They are a thing of the past (for now).

I can assure you that those accounts have been banned. Only the staff can see if a user is banned or not.

Anyway, moderators cannot ban members (because of how SMF ACL's system is build), only global moderators can, so we, as normal staff, really can't do anything. There is just one exception: Newbies. Those members can be nuked (but not banned) by Patrollers, which we have done with those MMMGlobal and KNC accounts (and of course the bot helped a great deal).

So am I assured "they are all banned"? No, they clearly weren't/aren't.
Can we have a serious explanation on "nuking" being different to banning?

We (researchers) really need to be able to see who is/is not banned.

... while OP started reporting sig. spammers and heavy account farmers.

Nearly correct. OP does not report sig spammers here, only heavy account farmers.
Heavy account farmers by default turn into sig spammers. I am not interested in non farmed sig spammers - different issue.

[Lauda]

So am I assured "they are all banned"? No, they clearly weren't/aren't.

The bot is based on account creation patterns and posting patterns. Obviously there are going to be patterns that haven't been discovered/added to the bot.

Can we have a serious explanation on "nuking" being different to banning?

Again, nuking (only applies to newbies or brand new): Permanent ban + IP ban + deletion of all posts + clearing of profile. Ban: Permanent ban + clearing of profile.

We (researchers) really need to be able to see who is/is not banned.

You'd have to take that up to Cyrus and Theymos.

Heavy account farmers are by default sig spammers. I am not interested in non farmed sig spammers - different issue.

Which is a bigger issue IMO and that's why the other reports should be moved onto another thread, as they tackle a different issue. Dormant backlink bots aren't causing any *real harm*.

[rizzlarolla]

Thanks Lauda,

We (researchers) really need to be able to see who is/is not banned.

You'd have to take that up to Cyrus and Theymos.

Do I really have to do that? it is pretty clear they dont give a crap, or they have me on ignore.
Seem's a bit daft creating another thread, just to be ignored again.

Those spreadsheets i asked for would cut my work time down my 100x, but no interest from admin so far.
User search disabled...
Cant see who is banned...
No input from admin/global's...

How little interest do admin have here, they couldn't make it any harder for us

[Lauda]

Thanks Lauda,

You're welcome.

You'd have to take that up to Cyrus and Theymos.

Do I really have to do that? it is pretty clear they dont give a crap, or they have me on ignore.
Seem's a bit daft creating another thread, just to be ignored again.

Theymos is usually too busy and overwhelmed by PMs to respond. You should try discussing the situation and options with Cyrus.

User search disabled...

Search for members work, just the 'display all members page' isn't.

No input from admin/global's..

There's only 1 active global moderator at this time (hilariousandco) and they did respond here I think? They are also helping tackle spam elsewhere. I respond here often as I'm very strict regarding spam and as a patroller, there's only so much to do during the day.

[Timelord2067]

down to

Code:

fiza

Code:

Tampa

Handled both of these. I think that you should create your own thread as this is different than the intended accounts being reported. These are usually spambots (backlink spam and whatnot), while OP started reporting sig. spammers and heavy account farmers.
This thread is too big as it is.

Done.

Have created a thread: Spambots (backlink spam and whatnot) - ie Zombie Accounts ^TM over yonder: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1660106.0 and will work on listing there the ones identified and nuked.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[rizzlarolla]

You should try discussing the situation and options with Cyrus.

Er, not being funny but...  shouldn't Cyrus be trying to discuss this with me?

I don't mind entertaining the last few real members with this thread.
Making a mockery of admin/global mods abilities...  mockery of bitcointalk.
400 accounts so easy to spot, a child could find them. (if they had the tools theymos has, but wont help us with)
400 more farmed accounts yet to be published? Growing by the day.

I'm doing Cyrus/theymos work here despite them.
While you and hilarious (and us members) have to "fight spam" with one arm tied behind our backs.

Just thought they might have been interested. hey-ho.

-----

Edit,
Changed that line Lauda, any better?  vvv

[Lauda]

While you and hilarious have to pretend your "fighting spam".

I can't talk for hilarious, but I do not *have to* do anything, nor am I doing what you're accusing me of. That's the thanks that one gets.
Update: That makes *more sense* now.

[PantminerS7]

Yes, it is allowed.

Like vague rule number 1, "1. No zero or low value, pointless or uninteresting posts or threads."

That's the thing. People with multiple account or even just one account in a sig campaign creates a lot of these posts.

You see it almost every time there's a new topic: entire pages filled with one-/two-liners, all adorned with a lovely little signature advertising some gambling/trading/ponzi site. And all of hem are usually iterations of the one guy that actually posts an answer to the OP's question.

[rizzlarolla]

I received an email...
---

I have been observing the posting behaviour of certain active posters, and it looks like these 4 accounts belong to the same person. I am sure this person has much more accounts.

Perhaps that you can dive into it if you have the will and time to do so.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=641334 HilbillyFred
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=642825 rektDude
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=642849 Legasean
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=642933 Ybalevia

---
The first 3 are already on my main farmer list. (page 10)
The farmer registered HilbillyFred Nov 9 2015, along with 8 other accounts in that session,
The same farmer registered rektDude and Legasean the day after on Nov 10 2015 along with 9 other accounts in that session.

I'm sorry I missed Ybalevia! (and Adrayrd)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=642924  Adrayrd (270)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=642933  Ybalevia (243)

That is 22 accounts created in 2 days, (+ 4 others listed from earlier in the day on nov 9 = 26)

So yes, you are exactly right. They are the same person - the same farmer.
And he does have hundreds more accounts (listed p10) and many more (not yet listed)

[Wendigo]

There is one specific guy who has been quoting and replying to his own posts in such a flagrant behavior that it makes me sick. I wonder if you could find him on your own. If not I could give you some joker to make it more entertaining for you.

P.S. It's not me but he frequents a sub-forum I am active in.

[minifrij]

There is one specific guy who has been quoting and replying to his own posts in such a flagrant behavior that it makes me sick. I wonder if you could find him on your own. If not I could give you some joker to make it more entertaining for you.

P.S. It's not me but he frequents a sub-forum I am active in.

Hey guys, there's an account farmer on the forum! Can you believe it?! I'm not going to help at all by telling you who it is, but I assure you that there is one!

[Wendigo]

There is one specific guy who has been quoting and replying to his own posts in such a flagrant behavior that it makes me sick. I wonder if you could find him on your own. If not I could give you some joker to make it more entertaining for you.

P.S. It's not me but he frequents a sub-forum I am active in.

Hey guys, there's an account farmer on the forum! Can you believe it?! I'm not going to help at all by telling you who it is, but I assure you that there is one!

Because I am too busy spamming my signature for the weekly pittance obviously 

[rizzlarolla]

November 29, 2015, 12:17:14 PM - November 29, 2015, 02:07:58 PM
Time scale 2 hours. 23 farmed accounts, 1150 spam posts
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669117  Kepariy  (20)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669119  Lavavest (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669122  Mulzatas (85)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669123  Nadicona (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669124  Pasutinmeur (22)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669128  Ruhtilg (89) ***
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669131  Sidtamfia (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669134  Tafbiat (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669137  Vixmore (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669140  Washika (303)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669141  Xavofat (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669142  Yauthitdar (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669143  Zivdafast (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669144  Auponef (181) ***                            
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669148  Beparanf (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669150  Cacapzarg (17)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669152  Dodnastes (19)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669156  Ekanenf (20)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669157  Fappanu (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669159  Gotomoon (20)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669161  Haruderty (136)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669163  Jukagid (21)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669167  Ketariz (17)

That is the "alphabet" list from Nov 29, found in 2 different posts,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1597201.msg16056149#msg16056149
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1597201.msg16077156#msg16077156

I have now got a third alphabet list from Nov 29, 2015. It carry's on alphabetically from above (2) list, about 3 hour 20 min later.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669236  Lavander (77)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669238  Mulsters (13)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669241  Naficopa (130)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669246  Patusinmod (13)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669247  Rukusilf (23)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=669248  Siftanfib (20)

That is 29 active farmed accounts on Nov 29.
I don't have the "still active" figures for this days registrations, but going by previous days in Nov, These 29 still active famed accounts will outnumber real "still active" members more than 2 to 1.