mitodl/open-discussions

remove spammy user profiles

Opened this issue · 4 comments

It seems some users have created accounts on MIT Open solely to populate the user bio with spam.

IS&T shared this google search query to find advertisements for online gambling, which we can use to detect who is spamming us:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aopen.mit.edu+%28%22IDN+Togel%22+OR+%22TERBAIK%22+OR+%22Klik+disini%22+OR+%22NinjaHoki%22+OR+%22Situs+Agen%22+OR+%22maltcasino%22+OR+%221xbet%22+OR+%22Jenis+Taruhan%22+OR+%22Mata+Uang%22+OR+%22Game+Favorit%22+OR+%22Togel+Online%22+OR+%22betboo%22+OR+%22Linkaja%22+OR+%22Terpercaya%22+OR+%22Slot88%22+OR+%22Slot88star%22+OR+%22INFORMASI+SITUS%22+OR+%22judi+bola%22+OR+%22bahis-siteleri%22%29&newwindow=1&sxsrf=ALiCzsa9VNFtC8r5OeaNtsJQhopYVtd-ZA%3A1672928071130&source=hp&ei=R9u2Y7GwBd6hptQP4oaI2AI&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAY7bpV35rBfrXVF0l1cy8TpKIa6TioEuR&ved=0ahUKEwjx76XbzrD8AhXekIkEHWIDAisQ4dUDCAk&uact=5&oq=site%3Aopen.mit.edu+%28%22IDN+Togel%22+OR+%22TERBAIK%22+OR+%22Klik+disini%22+OR+%22NinjaHoki%22+OR+%22Situs+Agen%22+OR+%22maltcasino%22+OR+%221xbet%22+OR+%22Jenis+Taruhan%22+OR+%22Mata+Uang%22+OR+%22Game+Favorit%22+OR+%22Togel+Online%22+OR+%22betboo%22+OR+%22Linkaja%22+OR+%22Terpercaya%22+OR+%22Slot88%22+OR+%22Slot88star%22+OR+%22INFORMASI+SITUS%22+OR+%22judi+bola%22+OR+%22bahis-siteleri%22%29&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EANQAFgAYIcEaABwAHgAgAEAiAEAkgEAmAEAoAECoAEB&sclient=gws-wiz

Acceptance Criteria:

  • retire the accounts of any users found by this search

Related issues

  • To get out ahead of this problem, we're going to stop allowing new registration unless the user is already in an MIT community: #3781
Ferdi commented

Not great. how does IS&T comes up with this search term(s)?

using a search string handed to me by an outside security researcher, who compiled a list of Turkish and Indonesian phrases that seem to crop up often in spammed sites. It's a bit of a game of whack-a-mole taking down compromised or spammed things.

The original query they sent me was for all of .mit.edu which included profiles on other sites that we don't control.

@rhysyngsun do you think we can close this?

I'm reopening this because we've had many more spammy profiles created in the time since February.