Spam reporting thread #78

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Spam reporting thread #78

1lilithcat
toukokuu 7, 9:52 am

PROCEDURES FOR REPORTING SPAM

Distinguish between the following, and flag the highest level of the violation:

-- Type 1: Irredeemable commercial spam: make sure to flag the member's profile, as well as the spammy activity. This type includes things selling strollers, pharmaceuticals, live-streaming sports games, porn, and/or trying to create traffic/links to sites for such things. Sufficient profile flags will automatically result in temporary suspension and deletion of the member's activity, so use your profile-flagging powers wisely and carefully.

-- Type 2: Teachable moments: DO NOT flag the member's profile, but DO flag the violating activity (e.g. self-promotional Talk post, group, or local venue). This type includes promotional activity that violates the Terms of Service (TOS), but where the member is potentially redeemable, e.g. overzealous authors, overzealous publishers, or other members with small TOS violations but who are otherwise using the site legitimately. These cases should be reported to staff (by sending a message or email to staff and/or or posting on this thread), so the member can be taught how to use the site.

Specific procedures:
-- Overzealous authors or publishers (these fall under type 2): do NOT flag the member's profile. Report to staff here or privately. You can also send the member a polite message pointing them to the terms, mentioning the "no promoting" language, and pointing them to the Do's and Don't page for authors: http://www.librarything.com/about_authors.php NOTE: Because all profile comments are now private, others cannot tell that you have left a message, so please include that information when you post in this thread.
-- Suspected sock-puppetry to promote a book, write fake reviews, and/or stack ratings: do not flag the profile, but report to staff here or by message, so staff can investigate. This is a serious violation for which members can be permanently banned.
-- Profile flags for commercial spammers only (type 1): On the member's profile page, click on the "report for spam" link, then follow instructions to flag the member. Again, this is only for commercial spam, not for "overzealous" authors, publishers, or booksellers, which should be reported to staff instead. See Talk post: http://www.librarything.com/topic/85810
-- Spam or promotional posts in a Talk topic (type 1 or 2): flag the post as an abuse of the terms of service.
-- Spam or promotional groups (types 1 and 2): flag new groups using the "flag this group" link.
-- Spam lists: report in this thread, and flag the member if it's commercial spam.
-- Spam works (type 1 spam): flag the work as spam on the work's editions page, and then vote on proposed work spam. Make sure to read the guidelines before proposing or voting, especially for what is not spam. Voting page: http://www.librarything.com/spam_works.php
-- Spam in a review (type 1), or an explicitly promotional review (type 2): flag the review as an abuse of the TOS, using the red flag.
-- Spam or promotion in "published reviews," or other CK fields (type 1 or 2): post here and/or delete.
-- Spam or egregious promotion/advertising in venues or events (type 1 or 2): post here and/or delete. Note that authors are permitted to add events for their books.
-- Spam in book links / quick links: post here and/or edit to remove spam.
-- Spam author names listed on a work: No current procedure. Tim has asked us not to change CK to indicate spammers, and not to combine spam authors together.
-- Not sure if it's spam? Post here, and explain why.

Please note that Tim has asked us not to use either CK or the combining system (whether works or authors) for spam fighting.

For more information see these wiki pages:
Procedures for flagging and reporting spam: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Spam
Spam works, guidelines for flagging and voting: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/HelpThing:Spam_works

(A copy of these guidelines, for pasting in new threads, can be found here or at the top of previous threads.)

32wonderY
toukokuu 8, 8:54 am

>2 clamairy: I flagged the profile too.

5clamairy
toukokuu 8, 9:15 am

>4 gilroy: Yeah, already flagged that, too.

7gilroy
toukokuu 14, 5:38 pm

Author Spam
Profile: https://www.librarything.com/profile/Jeb.Smith (Left message, do not flag)

https://www.librarything.com/topic/350859
https://www.librarything.com/topic/350857 (Someone responded to this one so it won't disappear. :( )
https://www.librarything.com/topic/350858

(I'm sure there's more, based on how he posted, but these are the ones I found so far.)

82wonderY
toukokuu 18, 9:49 am

9lilithcat
toukokuu 18, 9:55 am

>8 2wonderY:

But what I want to know is: what is a "a friend reviewed scholarly diary"? And a "first research concentrate "

I really want to "being know about the topic"!

10MarthaJeanne
toukokuu 18, 9:56 am

>8 2wonderY: Gone now, but goodness me, if you want to advertise writing students' papers for them, it would help if you could actually write English.

11MarthaJeanne
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 18, 4:05 pm

https://www.librarything.com/topic/350930#n8147013

https://www.librarything.com/profile/rohit2017

This message tries to have several links in it, but didn't quite succeed.

Gone now.

12gilroy
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 19, 12:51 pm

Author Spam:
(Profile, warned, do not flag) https://www.librarything.com/profile/drayauthor

https://www.librarything.com/topic/350947 (Has a response, thread won't go away.)

17haydninvienna
toukokuu 25, 10:38 am

I'm not sure if this qualifies as spam (FWIW I don't think it does, but ...): https://www.librarything.com/topic/351069#8152374. I flagged it as a branch of the ToS.

18Watry
toukokuu 25, 10:41 am

>17 haydninvienna: There's an extremely similar post by a different user with an extremely similar name, so there may be some sockpuppeting going on:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/351068

19haydninvienna
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 25, 10:46 am

>18 Watry: Here's another: https://www.librarything.com/topic/351068#8152371.

ETA now gone. But that one has a link in it to a paid online course, so clearly spam. In fact now they've all gone.

20gilroy
toukokuu 28, 4:00 pm

26lilithcat
kesäkuu 3, 5:46 pm

>25 FAMeulstee:

Ugh. I flagged the profile this morning and it's still around.

272wonderY
kesäkuu 3, 6:27 pm

I banned him from the group he joined. That might help.

28norabelle414
kesäkuu 3, 9:14 pm

is account flagging broken? the account only joined today so there's no reason it shouldn't be gone after a few flags.

292wonderY
kesäkuu 3, 9:22 pm

It’s probably not broken, just delayed. Sometimes they have to do a manual flush; I’m not sure of the circumstances for that, but Kristi mentioned it once when I wrote to her. There are other profiles that are hanging longer than normal this evening.

30MarthaJeanne
kesäkuu 4, 12:47 am

I'm glad the account is gone now. If they must spam, can't they at least make their own topics and not hijack mine?

31lilithcat
kesäkuu 5, 8:25 am

https://www.librarything.com/topic/341299#8132681

https://www.librarything.com/profile/SemMendes (No message left - this doesn't appear to be an author, just a drive-by spammer).

32MarthaJeanne
kesäkuu 5, 8:32 am

>31 lilithcat: Gone now. Not advertising books, but a service for writing homework. Spam, pure and simple.

33gilroy
kesäkuu 5, 8:59 am

>32 MarthaJeanne: Aren't they a little late? Didn't the school year just end?

34lilithcat
kesäkuu 5, 9:04 am

>33 gilroy:

Planning ahead!

36karenb
kesäkuu 5, 5:33 pm

>35 lilithcat: I always enjoy the user names that include "scam", myself. Postmodern or ironic?

39norabelle414
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 9, 11:46 am

40SandraArdnas
kesäkuu 9, 12:03 pm

>39 norabelle414: Making good counterfeit banknotes is very expensive so you end up paying more than they are actually worth is my guess :p

41Taphophile13
kesäkuu 9, 11:08 pm

42lilithcat
kesäkuu 9, 11:23 pm

>41 Taphophile13:

Love the screen name, though.

43Taphophile13
kesäkuu 10, 10:19 am

>42 lilithcat: It caught my eye as well.

44Taphophile13
kesäkuu 10, 12:22 pm

Update to >41 Taphophile13:: I left the standard TOS comment and places for authors to hang out message for authorofmybook last night and within twelve hours he replied:

"Who is your web developer? Because terms of service and privacy are two different things according to the law, this needs to be addressed properly since you are a handler of public records and are being held accountable. I passed this on to my lawyer. He says this is really open to interpretation because it is not clear, the terms are hidden within privacy where they can only be found upon sign-up, and these rules are not easy to define. Since I did make plenty of attempts to locate the rules before posting to the group and could not find any because they are tucked away in privacy, Assuming you are suggesting that I acted in egregious commercial solicitation, "Egregious commercial solicitation" refers to an act of aggressively and excessively promoting or advertising a product or service in a manner that is seen as intrusive, offensive, or objectionable. It implies a blatant and often unwelcome attempt to sell or promote something, typically through unsolicited or forceful means. The term "egregious" emphasizes the severity or extreme nature of the solicitation, indicating that it goes beyond what is considered acceptable or reasonable.

I believe the law would be on my side that I did not engage in this sort of behavior. If it were to go to jury I believe that my peers would side with me in this case."


Charming. He really ratcheted that up quickly. Sometime late Friday to Saturday morning he was able to contact his lawyer and get an opinion. Should I be afraid? Is he going to sue me? I'm half tempted to escalate and forward to TPTB. Let him argue legal terminology with them.

452wonderY
kesäkuu 10, 12:34 pm

>44 Taphophile13: Oh good! It’s been too long since we’ve had a fractious, offensive author response. Should we all message him?

46Taphophile13
kesäkuu 10, 12:48 pm

>45 2wonderY: Ooh, I like that idea. Maybe it can be a class action suit — in reverse.

47MarthaJeanne
kesäkuu 10, 1:31 pm

He didn't look very hard. If you go to the About page the links to "Privacy and TOS" as well as "It's for you Authors" are very obvious.

482wonderY
kesäkuu 10, 1:58 pm

>46 Taphophile13: This is what I sent:

“ The LibraryThing community has members who go out of their way to assist and direct new authors as to the site guidelines. Your response was confrontational and rude. It’s not a good beginning for you if you are trying to make yourself and your work known to readers.
Just another member.”

49Taphophile13
kesäkuu 10, 2:21 pm

>48 2wonderY: Thank you and very well said.

50lilithcat
kesäkuu 10, 2:29 pm

>44 Taphophile13:

The term "egregious" emphasizes the severity or extreme nature of the solicitation, indicating that it goes beyond what is considered acceptable or reasonable.


Of course, author advertising does go "beyond what is considered acceptable or reasonable" on LibraryThing. Apparently, he doesn't get that.

51MarthaJeanne
kesäkuu 10, 2:38 pm

To use his words, it is "intrusive, offensive, {and} objectionable ... a blatant and often unwelcome attempt to sell or promote something,"

Right. That is exactly what we feel about author spam.

53Nevov
kesäkuu 13, 6:27 am

>52 MarthaJeanne:
Re your comment in that topic, the member's profile page indicates they might have deleted their own profile rather than being flagged down for spam, and it's the latter that would trigger the automatic "user was removed for spam" message. The message is blocked at least now after mine was the 4th flag.

54Nevov
kesäkuu 13, 7:00 am

There's another by the same user at: https://www.librarything.com/topic/35261#8165035

55MarthaJeanne
kesäkuu 13, 7:11 am

>54 Nevov: That one's gone now too.

61jasbro
kesäkuu 19, 2:03 pm

>60 karenb: Messaged, or do we flag?

62MarthaJeanne
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 19, 2:10 pm

>61 jasbro: Flag. This is not author spam. Although it is old (2017) and therefore the member may stick around a while.

64gilroy
kesäkuu 23, 5:49 am

67Nevov
kesäkuu 24, 7:05 am

>66 2wonderY: Now gone. FWIW they had a similar self-promo topic flagged away yesterday, and they have posted asking for how to use the site: https://www.librarything.com/topic/351725 although that was some hours before /351737.

70norabelle414
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 3, 11:16 am

Please flag this account: https://www.librarything.com/profile/RichardRomez
For posting spam in published reviews, such as the one on this work page: https://www.librarything.com/work/39265/summary

ETA: gone

732wonderY
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 15, 11:05 am

I’m seeing a lot of innocuous looking new profiles with a homepage:
https . Me88th . Com

That is a betting site. And when I google it, the SEO boasts that it’s search engine optimization score is 69.
Please consider these profiles to be Spam.

74lilithcat
heinäkuu 15, 9:49 am

>73 2wonderY:

The minute I see something with "88" in it anywhere, I assume it to be spam.

75karenb
heinäkuu 15, 6:10 pm

>74 lilithcat: Er, not automatically spam, but definitely worth checking.

76MarthaJeanne
heinäkuu 16, 7:58 am

I got a spam message from https://www.librarything.com/profile/ENGsellers requesting a review.

77Ignatius777
heinäkuu 17, 8:44 am

https://www.librarything.com/profile/TarotMasterRoger

A modest chap ..... rated all his own books 5* and even writing haiku's about them that came up on my feed.

Maybe not spam? but needs a word in his shell like from da management I think.

78gilroy
heinäkuu 17, 9:56 am

>77 Ignatius777: None of that is spam, nor is it going against the terms of service.
While his reviews should be marked as an author review, I'm not sure it will without the author badge attached to his name.

Now if he starts spamming the forums or sending a lot of personal messages, then we can give him a notice.

79Nicole_VanK
heinäkuu 17, 10:04 am

Not even spam - vandalism
https://www.librarything.com/author/stjeandaniel

(reported to staff)

80lilithcat
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 17, 10:14 am

>78 gilroy:

While his reviews should be marked as an author review, I'm not sure it will without the author badge attached to his name.

Correct. Only LT authors have their reviews so marked. There is no other reasonable way for the system to know that the author wrote the review.

I note that this person IS an LT author, but he had not reviewed his books, only rated them.

81MarthaJeanne
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 17, 10:16 am

>79 Nicole_VanK: Disgusting. I have deleted all the CK and flagged the responsible member, who is now suspended.

82Nicole_VanK
heinäkuu 17, 10:29 am

>81 MarthaJeanne: Thank you (I only left the evidence up for staff to see).

83MarthaJeanne
heinäkuu 17, 10:31 am

>82 Nicole_VanK: You can still see the evidence on History>all. But you have to look for it. The nastiness is no longer easy to see.

84Crutchfield
heinäkuu 19, 3:21 pm

The author and title are reversed for this work: Drury, Allen wrote "Anna Hastings" and not the other way around. Is this spam?
https://www.librarything.com/work/27682954

85MarthaJeanne
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 19, 8:14 pm

>84 Crutchfield: No, someone made a mistake entering and then deleted it leaving a 0 copy work.

86Crutchfield
heinäkuu 19, 3:56 pm

>85 MarthaJeanne: Agree that where the link now points to isn't spam but rather the correct entry for that work. Did you delete the mistaken entry, and the system automatically refers that link to where someone would expect to land if following it? (https://www.librarything.com/work/27682954 now points to https://www.librarything.com/work/549389)

87MarthaJeanne
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 19, 4:07 pm

I cmbined it with the work it obviously belongs with. You cannot really delete any entry. It stays around in the database as a 0 copy edition. Combinng these into their correct works keeps search and similar places cleared up.

88gilroy
heinäkuu 19, 5:25 pm

>85 MarthaJeanne: I think you referenced the wrong message there...

89MarthaJeanne
heinäkuu 19, 8:14 pm

>88 gilroy: Sotty. Fixed.

90hipdeep
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 24, 1:41 pm

Not necessarily spam but I'm not clear where else to put it. There's a user who seems to be adding an X to the end of all the author Canonical Names in his catalog. (And maybe elsewhere; I didn't review all his CK edits.) Sent a message to ask what he's up to and suggest there must be a better way to do it.

(link removed; he fixed it and I don't see a need to name-and-shame.)

91lilithcat
heinäkuu 23, 12:09 pm

>90 hipdeep:

Not spam.

Let us know if he responds. I'm curious why he's doing that!

92hipdeep
heinäkuu 23, 12:16 pm

>91 lilithcat: He responded, saying he wasn't aware and will take it back out. Just a mistake.

Is there a better place I should have listed this?

95norabelle414
heinäkuu 26, 9:47 am

96gilroy
heinäkuu 26, 9:52 am

>96 gilroy: He started on his reading journey of 2023 by . . . reading his own book.

97norabelle414
heinäkuu 26, 9:55 am

>96 gilroy: TWO of his own books, one of which he got the title wrong and didn't bother to add to LT. Inspirational!

982wonderY
heinäkuu 26, 10:06 am

>97 norabelle414: I’d call it “impressive and shocking.”

100gilroy
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 26, 10:50 am

>99 lilithcat: Another one:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/210#8195383

Honestly, reading their "sales pitch" makes me feel like mine was semi competent because ugh.

101lilithcat
heinäkuu 26, 10:51 am

>100 gilroy:

Thanks, I'd looked at that group, but she must not have posted there yet!

104gilroy
heinäkuu 30, 7:02 am

1052wonderY
elokuu 5, 5:13 am

Interesting new Spam technique. Several profiles opened the same day (July 22, in this case) and totally blank of any data. Start an innocent conversation in Talk:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/352766#

106gilroy
elokuu 5, 7:32 am

>105 2wonderY: I missed where they had actually spammed, I guess?

107gilroy
elokuu 8, 4:29 pm

110gilroy
elokuu 16, 10:35 am

>109 lilithcat: OMG, just read his profile. That was so written by him. "Sometimes called the 'Banksy of Books'"
Ew.

111lilithcat
elokuu 16, 10:38 am

>110 gilroy:

According to a message he sent me, he also seems to think that saying "read my books, here's the link to buy them at Amazon" is not promoting his books. Sheesh.

112MarthaJeanne
elokuu 16, 10:49 am

Well, if he tries again, we will flag again.

For all his long list, only one has been entered by anyone else.

113Taphophile13
elokuu 16, 9:04 pm

He just recommended one of his own books in a Pro and Con thread

https://www.librarything.com/topic/350764#8210179

114ExVivre
elokuu 16, 10:02 pm

"ExVivre has proposed marking Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals as spam." Please vote AGAINST this proposal. This was an accident on my part and I'm struggling to un-flag it. It's very much NOT spam. My apologies!

116jasbro
elokuu 17, 12:00 pm

>114 ExVivre: It looks unflagged to me! Thanks for the heads-up.

1172wonderY
elokuu 17, 5:13 pm

Review:
http://www.librarything.com/work/30763148/reviews/

Member profile:
https://www.librarything.com/profile/nishadubey

I’m not flagging the profile, but I will be watching it for additional activity. All books by an author no one else has added.

118lilithcat
elokuu 17, 6:17 pm

>117 2wonderY:

Despite the different names, that member is apparently the author: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B074DHPTBC/about

1192wonderY
elokuu 17, 6:27 pm

120gilroy
elokuu 17, 6:51 pm

That entire profile looks geared to push people to their blog.

121lilithcat
elokuu 17, 9:24 pm

>120 gilroy:

It does, indeed.

122gilroy
Muokkaaja: elokuu 21, 8:46 am

Author spam
https://www.librarything.com/topic/353123
https://www.librarything.com/topic/351403#8212914
(There was an earlier thread in Book Talk that I think already got flagged into oblivion.)

https://www.librarything.com/profile/citizen021 (Already messaged)
(They also aren't reading instructions, it seems. I spotted a thread started in the 75 book challenge group, but have not posted here, because it seems innocuous. Their post in the welcome thread, might be more of an issue. But I leave that to the group.)

123clamairy
elokuu 21, 12:14 pm

>122 gilroy: Thank you. I was just coming into report the same user.

124gilroy
elokuu 21, 1:10 pm

>123 clamairy: I'm guessing they got more annoying and past the point of just new author, since they are now kicked out as spam.

125MarthaJeanne
elokuu 21, 2:01 pm

If they continued to spam after first warnings, then they are not teachable. (I only flagged the book talk post.)

126amanda4242
elokuu 30, 11:36 pm

128amanda4242
syyskuu 6, 2:43 pm

133SandraArdnas
syyskuu 14, 5:24 pm

Author spam https://www.librarything.com/topic/353609

https://www.librarything.com/profile/kelseycarlee

Haven't left a message, hoping someone has a copy/paste one with all the links and info for such cases

134Taphophile13
syyskuu 14, 5:50 pm

135Taphophile13
syyskuu 14, 11:20 pm

>133 SandraArdnas: Since sending the usual message to kelseycarlee she has messaged me thanking me for the information, even asking how she could delete her post. A polite author who is willing to learn the site. Nice.

136karenb
syyskuu 15, 4:42 am

137gilroy
syyskuu 15, 2:48 pm

>133 SandraArdnas: - One additional thread:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/353610

Unfortunately, someone responded to it so only the primary message will be killed.

138SandraArdnas
syyskuu 15, 4:55 pm

>134 Taphophile13: Thank you, and thumbs up for her reaction

143karenb
syyskuu 18, 12:47 am

>142 2wonderY: Good catch

148Taphophile13
syyskuu 24, 2:26 pm

>147 2wonderY: In Author and Venue Pictures of all places, and she replied to her original post to add where her book is available. Ugh, now the thread won't disappear. I doubt she read your message.

149MarthaJeanne
syyskuu 24, 2:48 pm

ablachly is the admin of the group. She could deal with it.

150MarthaJeanne
Muokkaaja: syyskuu 26, 7:46 am