This seems like it should be blockable. Or slightly less easy to publish world wide. Or proof that AI is useless if it can't at least figure out to charge money for the advertising.
4
-
I have flagged as SPAM a lot of posts which claim to have helpline phone numbers of loan, travel, internet service provides or airline companies. While I don't know how to prove it, my assumption is the posters are actually fraudsters and anyone attempting to use the helpline phone numbers will be asked for details to enable their bank account to be emptied. Perhaps any post from a new user which contains a phone number should be blocked. Not sure how easy that would be for Stack Exchange to implement.– Chester GillonCommented Mar 23 at 9:41
-
The amount now is plain silly, and it's even sillier that SE is not able to come up with some kind of filter that's effective against this spam...– vidarloCommented Mar 25 at 8:12
-
@ChesterGillon we don't need to block EVERY phone number, just the ones that show in these posts, and those filter lists can be SE-wide. There is a finite number of phone numbers available, and it should be relatively easy to capture phone numbers used in spam posts and turn those into a filter. Not that a wise asker would put a real phone number in their question, but plenty of legit questions may include phone numbers. But I agree, such a filter should not be difficult to employ (says someone who doesn't have much experience building filters).– music2myearCommented Mar 25 at 13:46
-
the loan profile spammers surprisingly is a different and older problem. I do some cleanups on my site but I literally could be doing some of those cleanups all day and not make a dent.– Journeyman GeekCommented Mar 25 at 16:08
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
Charcoal is doing a good job of catching these, so you're not just correct that it can be detected; it's been proven.
But I agree that too much is getting to the site, and relying on busy work from site visitors and volunteers to remove. To some extent, spam will be an eternal cat and mouse game with no 100% solution. But as you say, those mice are not particularly hard to catch. (There are some tactics they are using, with limited "success". Those tactics are not rocket science and aren't stopping the spam from being cleared. Just creating more busy work.)
And it's a larger issue than just this site's visitors, in the age of AI. Who wants to ask important questions to an AI trained on that crap? (Not to say we're responsible for it; blame can lie firmly with anyone spamming, training on spam, or unquestioningly relying on the results. But it's still a negative impact on our world.)
I know at least four people who have been victimized by telephone scammers. They're not just scams; the tactics are scummy and include emotional abuse. And I've heard a number of people working in the "industry" are themselves in abusive conditions. No one needs this crap.
-
1Thanks for the response. This particular offender has vandalized numerous forums, and seems curiously proficient at getting their information characterized and rated by Google. Almost like it's a canary SEO gauge Commented Mar 23 at 23:26
-
@GregAskew I agree it's a bit weird how much "success" they're having with something that's not at all subtle to the human eye.– Dan GetzCommented Mar 23 at 23:28