WrongPlanet is UNDER ATTACK! You may get DDoS warnings.

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Dox47
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25 Jan 2013, 6:28 am

I can log in and post just fine from my desktop. but my mobile is completely blocked and gets a "site not available" message when I attempt to load. I'm using a Windows mobile 8 phone; any relief in sight?


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Fnord
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25 Jan 2013, 9:02 am

I've been getting the DDoS/Cloudflare notice every other log-in for a day or so.

No worries; I know that there is good reason for it.

What I can't figure out is why someone would target WP for attack.



TallyMan
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25 Jan 2013, 9:06 am

Fnord wrote:
What I can't figure out is why someone would target WP for attack.


Spammers swamping the site with fake member signups linking to their spam sites.


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Cornflake
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25 Jan 2013, 10:09 am

^ This.
WP is used as a handy resource for pumping URLs into Google on behalf of the bot's "clients", who doubtless paid someone to set this up.
Many of the linked sites I checked appear to be quite genuine (some were clearly dubious porn sites though), but this URL-stuffing technique is just a really crappy and lazy way of bumping up the hit count for those sites and therefore increasing their ranking in Google searches.


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Northeastern292
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25 Jan 2013, 5:11 pm

First Flightsim.com and now WP??? What next? Facebook? NO ME GUSTA!! !



FMX
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25 Jan 2013, 7:08 pm

FMX wrote:
1) Yesterday, the first time I saw it, I got the "Checking your browser before accessing www.wrongplanet.net" page and after 5 seconds I was redirected to http://www.wrongplanet.net/jquery/js/jq ... 4.2.min.js instead of the actual page. Refreshing seemed to fix that one.


Happened again, but I got redirected to http://www.wrongplanet.net/javascript/dropdown.js this time



Inferno87
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26 Jan 2013, 1:21 am

Impressive to hear that you guys are so hot on the protection of the site, with things like this Cloudflare checking and manually blocking the bots and such.

Hopefully they'll give up eventually.



BlueMax
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26 Jan 2013, 3:34 am

I wondered what that screen was about... any way to trace the source and bust the guy?



Cornflake
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26 Jan 2013, 8:53 am

I suspect that's being investigated at the hosting network level - but that might prove fruitless or legally complex and expensive if (as is probably the case) it originates from another country or worse, launched from a botnet of several machines in several countries...
It would be very nice if someone could be nailed, though. :x


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Verdandi
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27 Jan 2013, 4:40 am

Rather deal with a loading screen than not being able to access the forum at all.



TallyMan
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27 Jan 2013, 5:06 am

Cornflake wrote:
... originates from another country


Most of the usual spam comes from organised spammer organisations based in India and Pakistan. I've blocked the IPs of many of them; but this latest massive attack is much more elusive to pin down.


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The_Walrus
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27 Jan 2013, 8:46 am

TallyMan wrote:
Quatermass wrote:
The ironic thing about them is that they're just a [EFF!]ing nuisance. More often than not, they don't post, although some that do the Nigerian romance scam do PM people.


I'm managed to track down and block the IP addresses of most of the Nigerian romance scammers (many originate from Senegal).

Do the romance scammers PM and ask for further contact via email, or do they ask for the contact to remain on WP?



Cornflake
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27 Jan 2013, 2:06 pm

^ Those types generally join to PM members directly and they either ask for the member's EMail address - which should never be given - or invite the member to mail them directly (usually at a free, throw-away EMail address), or to "check out my picture" on some dubious website link.

Once found or reported, they suddenly have no further choice on any matter involving WP... :twisted:


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blue_bean
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28 Jan 2013, 5:15 am

Here I was thinking it was a new "feature" Alex installed while I was away for the weekend...



Tequila
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28 Jan 2013, 5:22 am

Cornflake wrote:
^ Those types generally join to PM members directly and they either ask for the member's EMail address - which should never be given - or invite the member to mail them directly (usually at a free, throw-away EMail address), or to "check out my picture" on some dubious website link.


I'm amazed that Mamadou, Vladimir or Raj seriously think that people will fall for that kind of crap any more.

Perhaps they think that there might be 1 person out of 500 that is that desperate that they'll answer or something.

It must be very cheap and painless to do that kind of spam.



TallyMan
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28 Jan 2013, 7:28 am

Tequila wrote:
Cornflake wrote:
^ Those types generally join to PM members directly and they either ask for the member's EMail address - which should never be given - or invite the member to mail them directly (usually at a free, throw-away EMail address), or to "check out my picture" on some dubious website link.


I'm amazed that Mamadou, Vladimir or Raj seriously think that people will fall for that kind of crap any more.

Perhaps they think that there might be 1 person out of 500 that is that desperate that they'll answer or something.

It must be very cheap and painless to do that kind of spam.


From the feedback we get now and then, some WP members ARE naive enough to send the scammers an email and get into dialogue with them; though most (as far as people have admitted) quickly realise it is a scam; but by that time they've given them their email address so continue getting spammed directly. There are some real horror stories associated with these people.


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