Have You Been Friended by a Spambot Lately?
Just wanted to post a heads up to my friends list, because lately I've been getting this weird feeling. In the past two weeks, I've gotten four random friendings. Not counting the lovely foodisverygood, who I remember from the IchiRuki FC of Bleach Asylum, all the rest seem to be spambots. From Russia.
At least I have to assume the spambots are Russian in origin, because the blogs have a few cursory entries using the Cyrillic alphabet. Aside from one or two short entries I can't read, there are also random photos of people gathering to become a giant smiley, and a few pics of cute animals.
I wouldn't be so suspicious if it wasn't for the fact that 1) two out of the four accounts are already suspended, 2)all four accounts follow the same format: [French given name] underscore [surname], and 3) the remaining two accounts have more than 200 listed friends, and yet no posted comments, ever.
I just spent a half-hour filling my first Abuse report, and learning how to ban lj users via console. :D After doing this, I went through the recently resolved abuse reports at lj support and found other complaints similar to mine. So you may just want to check out those who recently friended you -- it maybe a cozy Eastern European spambot with a soft spot for bunnies...
EDIT: The Russian spambot problem is much bigger than I thought! Check out the number of spambot accounts that have been deleted or suspended: http://community.livejournal.com/stopbots/3820.html#cutid1
According to nympholept, the spambots "raid" your friends' list in order to spread itself. It gets pictures, entries, etc. What's the purpose? The only logical crime is identity thief.
SO REPORT ALL SUSPECTED SPAMBOTS NOW. Another one just popped up on my friends' list that needs to be reported.
edited 1/18/09 : Unlocked because I need to link this to a new post. Argh. :(
At least I have to assume the spambots are Russian in origin, because the blogs have a few cursory entries using the Cyrillic alphabet. Aside from one or two short entries I can't read, there are also random photos of people gathering to become a giant smiley, and a few pics of cute animals.
I wouldn't be so suspicious if it wasn't for the fact that 1) two out of the four accounts are already suspended, 2)all four accounts follow the same format: [French given name] underscore [surname], and 3) the remaining two accounts have more than 200 listed friends, and yet no posted comments, ever.
I just spent a half-hour filling my first Abuse report, and learning how to ban lj users via console. :D After doing this, I went through the recently resolved abuse reports at lj support and found other complaints similar to mine. So you may just want to check out those who recently friended you -- it maybe a cozy Eastern European spambot with a soft spot for bunnies...
EDIT: The Russian spambot problem is much bigger than I thought! Check out the number of spambot accounts that have been deleted or suspended: http://community.livejournal.com/stopbots/3820.html#cutid1
According to nympholept, the spambots "raid" your friends' list in order to spread itself. It gets pictures, entries, etc. What's the purpose? The only logical crime is identity thief.
SO REPORT ALL SUSPECTED SPAMBOTS NOW. Another one just popped up on my friends' list that needs to be reported.
edited 1/18/09 : Unlocked because I need to link this to a new post. Argh. :(