Have you ever retaliated against a spammer from this site?

Anyone remember Randy? Haha oh my god that guy was nuts.

@Blackberry
FM 105 ? ?
Only nice people . . . . .

No. I’m not a fan of spam, but many of the people posting it are from places where life is pretty desperate (spam for a business in one country is almost always posted from a different country). I can’t really be mad at people who were given a choice between “spam websites” and “starve to death” and chose to spam. I’m not going to leave it up, of course, but I get that some people have no other way to make a living.

I would also distinguish between retaliating against spammers and playing with their posts. Sometimes people post silly things in response to spam, and there’s no problem with that. I used to participate in that kind of thing before I was a mod (now I just take the spam down, of course). But sometimes people post racist, sexist, or otherwise objectionable things despite the fact that only other jellies are likely to see it.

That said, it seems like you might mean the companies that spammers are promoting rather than the spammers themselves. That might seem more reasonable, but just know that sometimes our collective hatred for spam is being taken advantage of. Russian and Chinese spammers frequently register for accounts with email addresses from Company X and then post spam “promoting” rival Company Y.

Also, the links these spammers post are often fake/deceptive, which is probably for phishing purposes. Just one more reason never to click a link you don’t trust.

@SavoirFaire I mostly agree with everything you say, except for the spammer/company differentiation. I’ve seen a fair share of spammer in my own language and it’s hard for me to believe the spammer is from another country, since my language isn’t a common language and is extremely hard to be fluent, and all spammers who write in my language have extremely good command of it. It’s pretty absurd to learn a language just to spam right? This and the fact that I only see them spam on their profiles these days mean that the spammers either come from the companies, or at least know what they are promoting. And also those spammers are pretty loyal to their “products” I’m still waiting with bated breath for a spammer with a profile for X company to suddenly promote Y company :D

This is actually quite consistent with the advertising tactic I see on Facebook. I don’t know about other countries but in my country most online businesses either manage everything or have a small team dedicated to advertising and customer service, be it a Facebook page or their website or other Amazon-ike sites. And those people would do anything to promote their products, as long as the website they’re on have a messaging function. And they are really aggressive on Facebook. I’ve seen literal business pages spam a post about celebrities. I even had a page add me on Facebook to advertise their thing. Now where do I see these before?

Another connection between the Facebook spammers and the Fluther ones is that the Fluther spammers usually sell things few of us here would need. I’ve seen a spammer advertising for a cram class for the entrance exam to college :D If the companies were outsourcing their spamming, you’d think they would at least study their market and give the spammers something that would be appealing to more people. But no, they stick to their language, stick to one product, and just spam regardless of whether it’s the right place for that. I don’t know why they choose Fluther for their spamming, but they are doing things that are suspiciously similar to the Facebook spamming.

And don’t forget the spammers with profiles that go something like “Hi, my name is Sarah. I’m an IT expert and has a passion for AI development ever since I was in high school. Please visit my blog for more info” and vehemently spam their website and their website only. Those spammers do show some kind of… passion for their products. That doesn’t seem like something a starving desperado who would take any spamming offer would do.

So yeah, just a couple of things to show you that sometimes the spammers we see may have a closer relationship with the companies than we realize. There are starving desperadoes out there, but not everyone shows signs on a desperado. There are just too many variables that lead to this spammy post we see. This is the Internet after all.

@Mimishu1995 “I’ve seen a fair share of spammer in my own language and it’s hard for me to believe the spammer is from another country”

Good point! Vietnamese spammers are an interesting outlier. Spam for Vietnamese companies almost always comes from Vietnam.

“Another connection between the Facebook spammers and the Fluther ones is that the Fluther spammers usually sell things few of us here would need.”

Sure, but that’s because spam is rarely targeted. The tactic is to post your advertisement everywhere without regard to whether it will reach an appropriate audience. It’s a game of quantity over quality. Because if they were only posting in places where the advertisement would be welcome, it wouldn’t be spam then would it?

“If the companies were outsourcing their spamming”

I didn’t say they were outsourcing. The spammer/company distinction was meant as more of a distinction between the person who took the spamming job versus the bosses who hired them. When I think of cleaning crews getting locked inside a Walmart overnight, I don’t really identify them with the company regardless of whether they work directly for Walmart or for an outside company hired by Walmart. They are wage slaves who put up with shitty jobs to feed themselves and their families.

That said, most spam (at least, the stuff that isn’t targeted at a rival company) is in fact outsourced. There are a lot of black hat SEO operations that construct spam bots and scripts and maintain lists of targets. And since they can be hired for a relatively low price, few companies employ their own IT departments for spamming purposes. (This also means that most companies probably aren’t fully aware of what is done in their names, but I don’t think that really forgives them one bit.)

“And don’t forget the spammers with profiles that go something like ‘Hi, my name is Sarah. I’m an IT expert and has a passion for AI development ever since I was in high school. Please visit my blog for more info’”

Well, a lot of those are fake (the links either don’t go where they say they go or the “blog” turns out to be a series of paid advertisements). And the ones that are real usually aren’t advertising for a big company. They are spamming for themselves, which is a slightly different matter. And even still, a surprising number of those come from third parties.

Keep in mind that this is not the only site that I have moderated for, and I have access to a lot more information about these spammers than you do. Certain patterns have emerged over the course of my 15 years doing this kind of thing. So while there are certainly outliers and exceptions, what I said above holds true for the vast majority of cases.

I just read all the responses and one main thought comes to mind:
I want to give a big “Thank You!” to @SavoirFaire and the other mods for all you do. You truly make this site special.

@LuckyGuy Savvy deserves a freaking medal. He goes above and beyond with spammers. We do have access to some interesting information, but I’m convinced he has a sixth sense, too. And the dedication to annihilate them all.

@longgone I intentionally did not mention mods by name to protect their anonymity and tip their hand. But you know I love them all.
I wish I had mods answering my home telephone. :-)

@LuckyGuy

I do with my cable company telephone, for phone numbers I have listed as SPAM !

Also have NOMOROBO and can block callers on my Panasonic cordless system up to 100 numbers I think.

No, but I occasionally tease them if I happen to see their spammy post before it gets deleted.

I do this with spam phone calls sometimes too.

@LuckyGuy

But you know I love them all.

Thank you.

I wish I had mods answering my home telephone. :-)

No, thank you!

I just usually flag it or I may write in the comments that I believe it may be spam if I’m not quite sure.