Fake members. There was a strange fraud go on, on a site I was posting on.
One person was posting as a couple and nether was who they said they were?
They put a lot of work in to this masquerade. They had me fooled.
I Guess they thought it was great fun fooling us.
Some member on the site did some hard work and discovered the masquerade.
It happens all the time when administrators don't screen new members.
The type you describe are sometimes called "sock puppets".
We've been lucky here and haven't had that kind of nonsense. We do have a Stop Forum Spam add-on which checks username, IP address and email address for spam. Although there was one false/positive recently that was fixed, it has been a good tool. At SNF (Scot's Newsletter Forum), all new members are carefully vetted.
I used to see something similar at forums. One person would ask for a program to help do something. That person would register as a different poster and post a link (usually for nefarious purposes) to a site or a program.
I am always suspicious of a first time poster posting links so I usually report and ask that the link be removed or at least made unable to be clicked.
We've run into that scenario at Sysnative, plodr. Obvious spam and both quickly removed.
Quote from: plodr on February 23, 2020, 10:39:33 PM
I used to see something similar at forums. One person would ask for a program to help do something. That person would register as a different poster and post a link (usually for nefarious purposes) to a site or a program.
Astroturfing. MS sites (used to be) full of it - so if someone links there as an 'answer' - that needs checking out too.
Quote from: plodr on February 23, 2020, 10:39:33 PM
I used to see something similar at forums. One person would ask for a program to help do something. That person would register as a different poster and post a link (usually for nefarious purposes) to a site or a program.
I am always suspicious of a first time poster posting links so I usually report and ask that the link be removed or at least made unable to be clicked.
One of the add-ons at
North Eastern Fly Fishing forums puts a new member's post in a moderation queue if it contains a link, no one can see it until approved by a moderator. It has other "spammy" triggers, but the inclusion of a link is the most frequent cause.
BUT
A vBulletin with all the bells and whistles added crashes frequently.