Question

From a user named aastella:

"""Hi, I'm miss Stella,I have just got through your profile,Well according to your profile, I think I have picked interest on it. We can get to know each other better through this way, my email is ... (stelladesmond55@hotmail.com) Hope to hear from you. Thanks, stella."""

Spambot?

Answer 1

yes, not first time

Answer 2

We'll handle it. Thanks! We're going to implement the ability to file abuse reports on fan testimonials for this very reason. Heh.

Thanks again!

Answer 3

This is some well known scam
The person is listed all over the internet
http://spam-and-world.blogspot.in/2011/09/hi-can-we-be-friends_21.html
http://www.419scam.org/emails/2011-06/24/01030936.13.htm

I received the following message from the user
Hi, I'm miss Stella,I have just got through your profile,Well according to your profile, I think I have picked interest on it. We can get to know each other better through this way, my email is ... (stelladesmond21@hotmail.com) Hope to hear from you. Thanks, stella.

Answer 4

Another account from the same user
http://openstudy.com/users/desmond

Answer 5

I've dropped an IPBan, so they shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Answer 6

Is it a bot or a human?

Answer 7

Human. A bot would have been moving much faster.

Answer 8

ahh great :-D

Answer 9

Bots have become quite sophisticated... will OpenStudy ever have its own bot?

Answer 10

maybe an Owlbot welcoming folks

Answer 11

We do have a bot that sits in our team chatroom. But he mostly does statistics about how many people are online. And puts moustaches on pictures for us.

Answer 12

Behind-the-scenes bots; nice.

Answer 13

Yeah, I want to give him IPBan powers to make my job easier, but we're not there yet. :D

Answer 14

farm...

Answer 15

does this user=candy2012?

Answer 16

i think that was the user name who did similar spammings

Answer 17

mercy something was another name also used

Answer 18

no not same but its same use lol

Answer 19

email had mercy in it

Answer 20

Oh, it might be. I can check.

Answer 21

candy2012
NICE TO MEET YOU my name is mercy i will like to know you more i can send you my picture and my detail's I am waiting for your mail to my email address above. please don't chat me here just send me mail and i will get back to you with love. here is my privet e-mail'(mercysoumah81@yahoo.com )

Answer 22

It's the same user. I'm going to email their ISP and alert them to the abuse. Thanks!

Answer 23

coolness

Answer 24

if it's senegal i dont think they care :D

Answer 25

Is it not possible to block the IP or something of that sort?

Answer 26

We can, but they changed IPs.

Answer 27

So then you can't say if it was senegal or not, right?

Answer 28

I'm sure they could easily link IP address to particular regions...

Answer 29

Trouble with blocking entire IPs is that perhaps the IP is shared by other folks in the region; IP blacklisting is often a last-resort type of thing.

Answer 30

No, the IP is from Senegal. IP Addresses are assigned to organizations in blocks. Both originated from the same regional ISP in Senegal. I doubt it was a proxy.