New spam bot technique on forums

[Aki1024]

Really really cool spam bot idea going on on the forums. The spam bot (second to last post of this thread at time of writing) first post something that makes sense, then when it sees a thread go dormant, it edit's it's text to do it's original SEO purpose. B-e-a-utiful design.

From a forum runner's perspective this is a pita though. Likely everyone with sub 10 post would need to be examined to be sure that there isn't spam everywhere. It is unlikely this was the only user that has altered post.

The long term fix might be to disallow edits to post after x time old if the user either hasn't posted over y amount (showing actual membership) or perhaps a users get added to a group of proven users by mods over time (must be over x post to be considered). The first is still jack-able by persistent cloak bots, the second has a costly human component.

Does vBulletin provide any tools to guard against this?

If others find more, please post a link to them in this thread for the moderators.

1) http://altitudegame.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=62 via http://altitudegame.com/forums/showt...?t=7692&page=2
2) http://altitudegame.com/forums/showp...8&postcount=18 via http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7831

[CmdrNoval]

That is wild... Some bot creator has far too much time on his/her hands...

[Aki1024]

People get paid wild amounts of money to SEO. When you can get an income working from home, interesting things can get accomplished.

[RedLight]

Seems that all the spam bots so far have been linking to their ICQ profile. Perhaps a filter could be added that select people with ICQ profiles, and under 10 posts.

Not sure if vBulliten supports that though.