LJ annoyance

[lagilman]

The spammers have discovered a way to get around the account-holders-only filters. I've been spammed in the past few days by 'ghost' accounts that are nothing but placeholders for a business (most recently a payday loan company, which considering my stated-here opinion of those places is...kinda funny).

Thanks, LJ. /sarcasm

Comments

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

I just received one now, dammit. I've changed my settings so only registered users can comment in my LJ. Not a huge inconvenience, considering the only time I've gotten anon comments it was because someone forgot to log in. But I know that Dennis sometimes comments in yours, so that wouldn't help you....unless we could convince him to get an account!

[lagilman]

Registered as in, people you specifically register as being allowed to post? Because these spammers HAVE accounts, that's how they get around the filter (I have to personally unscreen anyone who posts without an account).

I have a bad feeling this is part of LJ 'corporate account' welcome mat, wherein we're the mat....

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

Oh, crap. Mine was anonymous, so I just assumed. So yours come from LJ accounts? Damn. I don't want to limit comments to friends-only, I get few enough comments as it is!

I tried backtracking the IP address, but it led to a cable company in Ontario. Dead end.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

FYI to anyone interested - it's possible to delete comments as spam, so that (I assume) someone who makes a habit of it will have their account suspended.

More here: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=201

[lagilman]

Been doing that, yeah. But once LJ welcomed corporate accounts, I suspect they lost the ability to completely ban this kind of behavior, because the poster is making a pretense at commenting in reference to the original post (however inane the comment, and obvious the comemrcial URL placement). And anyone suspended can still come back with a new account and the same spam-spew.

Spammers are always a pest -- like having ants in the summer. But this is a new and particularly annoying evolution.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

I find myself less irritated with the spammers than at the people who respond to spam/telemarketers and make it worth the spammers' while to send out the stuff. I've found I get fewer calls from telemarketers since I started telling callers that I have a personal policy of never buying anything over the phone.

However, I am about at the end of my rope with a bunch called "Faxline" that has a machine looking to send junk faxes and has gotten hold of Dale's special ring number. Said machine isn't happy to just call once in a while, it calls on a daily basis, and calls back three or four times when it doesn't get a fax machine. And there's no way for me to call them and tell them they're never going to make a sale to me.

There are also companies who think that dialing machines don't count regarding the rules about time of day an unsolicited call can be made.