On 04/10/2023 03:06, MitchAlsup wrote:
> It appears that this N.G. has been killed
>
> Anything we can do ??

My filter is now set to delete all >8KB and it seems to do what we want.
sorry BGB, some of your posts may be filtered as well :)
__
wolfgang

On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 2:06:24 AM UTC+1, MitchAlsup wrote:
> It appears that this N.G. has been killed
>
> Anything we can do ??

suggestion again for multiple people to report spam/regulated services
that was what got the gg filter's attention last time and they all disappeared.
i've done 40 msgs as "regulated"

l.

On 10/18/2023 12:03 PM, Branimir Maksimovic wrote:
> On 2023-10-18, Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 10/18/2023 7:53 AM, EricP wrote:
>>> Stephen Fuld wrote:
>>>> On 10/17/2023 9:08 AM, George Neuner wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, 11 Oct 2023 10:59:06 -0400, George Neuner
>>>>> <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Now there is spam in Indonesian as well as in Thai.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sigh.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps Eternal September is getting better at filtering, as I haven't
>>>> seen any of it.
>>>
>>> 778 spam msgs last night.
>>>
>>> Until we can get this stopped at its google groups source I was
>>> thinking maybe we could prefix real msgs with AAAA in the subject.
>>> That way they will at least sort together and are easier to spot.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Interesting. Wonder if the spam is backed by a specially trained AI that
>> might be able to pick up on the AAAA aspect?
> I doubt....
>

Perhaps some asshole did it for a pet project?

On 10/26/2023 2:42 AM, Branimir Maksimovic wrote:
> On 2023-10-26, Josh Vanderhoof <x@y.z> wrote:
>> Branimir Maksimovic <branimir.maksimovic@icloud.com> writes:
>>
>>> On 2023-10-25, Stephen Fuld <sfuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> wrote:
>>>> On 10/25/2023 3:20 PM, Quadibloc wrote:
>>>>> On Wednesday, October 25, 2023 at 1:37:15 PM UTC-6, Michael S wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Is your insistence on access through Google Groups a matter of principle?
>>>>>
>>>>> It used to be that access to USENET was routinely provided by ISPs.
>>>>>
>>>>> This changed some years back, due to hosting USENET coming with
>>>>> increased legal risks. So now the only way to access usenet that doesn't
>>>>> cost money is Google Groups that I'm aware of.
>>>>
>>>> Then you need to learn more. Eternal September is free (though you have
>>>> to register and give them an e-mail address to send you the connect
>>>> information).
>>>>
>>>> Others here have mentioned other providers that sound good, but with
>>>> which I have no personal experience.
>>>>
>>> I payed 5$ some years ago for 10GiB of data, and so far
>>> spent 1GiB...
>>
>> Same here. Basically got a lifetime supply of text news for a few
>> bucks.
>>
>> One fortunate thing about the spam is they consistently use non ascii
>> characters. So if you're in Gnus you can just do C-u / / [[:nonascii:]]
>> and the spam disappears.
> Great idea! To filter on ascii. Petty that I miss people that use
> google groups, beause of spammer.
>

Humm... I think I agree.

On 26/10/2023 00:26, Stephen Fuld wrote:
> On 10/25/2023 3:20 PM, Quadibloc wrote:
>> On Wednesday, October 25, 2023 at 1:37:15 PM UTC-6, Michael S wrote:
>>
>>> Is your insistence on access through Google Groups a matter of
>>> principle?
>>
>> It used to be that access to USENET was routinely provided by ISPs.
>>
>> This changed some years back, due to hosting USENET coming with
>> increased legal risks. So now the only way to access usenet that doesn't
>> cost money is Google Groups that I'm aware of.
>
> Then you need to learn more.  Eternal September is free (though you have
> to register and give them an e-mail address to send you the connect
> information).

ES has done a good job at filtering out the spam now. I've still seen a
coupl spam messages, but very few now, while the number of these hitting
Usenet groups currently is in the tens of thousands. That's crazy. I
don't think I've ever seen anything like that before.

Would very much like to know who is behind that and why they are
targetting Usenet, where clearly not all the potential suckers for scams
are.

Also interested in understanding why Google apparently doesn't do
anything about it. Then again, they have also let a known scam flourish
on YT and it still seems to be going on without any change: fake
accounts impersonating the YT channel's owner and replying to many
comments saying to join them on Telegram.

OTOH, they are quick to delete any comment that doesn't quite fit their
line of thought, so I'm sorry to say that it doesn't look like a
technical problem here.

On 2023-10-26, Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/18/2023 12:03 PM, Branimir Maksimovic wrote:
>> On 2023-10-18, Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 10/18/2023 7:53 AM, EricP wrote:
>>>> Stephen Fuld wrote:
>>>>> On 10/17/2023 9:08 AM, George Neuner wrote:
>>>>>> On Wed, 11 Oct 2023 10:59:06 -0400, George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now there is spam in Indonesian as well as in Thai.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sigh.
>>>>>
>>>>> Perhaps Eternal September is getting better at filtering, as I haven't
>>>>> seen any of it.
>>>>
>>>> 778 spam msgs last night.
>>>>
>>>> Until we can get this stopped at its google groups source I was thinking
>>>> maybe we could prefix real msgs with AAAA in the subject. That way they
>>>> will at least sort together and are easier to spot.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Interesting. Wonder if the spam is backed by a specially trained AI that
>>> might be able to pick up on the AAAA aspect?
>> I doubt....
>>
>
> Perhaps some asshole did it for a pet project?
Seems that spam is concentrated on technical news groups, which
was never before. So goal is to disrupt normal functioning,
not to sell something.
It uses both English and Korean, so can't filter on Korean.
Time for Google groups users to switch...

--

7-77-777, Evil Sinner!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/branimir-maksimovic-6762bbaa/

On Thu, 26 Oct 2023 22:32:25 GMT
Branimir Maksimovic <branimir.maksimovic@icloud.com> wrote:

> On 2023-10-26, Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On 10/18/2023 12:03 PM, Branimir Maksimovic wrote:
> >> On 2023-10-18, Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>> On 10/18/2023 7:53 AM, EricP wrote:
> >>>> Stephen Fuld wrote:
> >>>>> On 10/17/2023 9:08 AM, George Neuner wrote:
> >>>>>> On Wed, 11 Oct 2023 10:59:06 -0400, George Neuner
> >>>>>> <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Now there is spam in Indonesian as well as in Thai.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Sigh.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Perhaps Eternal September is getting better at filtering, as I
> >>>>> haven't seen any of it.
> >>>>
> >>>> 778 spam msgs last night.
> >>>>
> >>>> Until we can get this stopped at its google groups source I was
> >>>> thinking maybe we could prefix real msgs with AAAA in the
> >>>> subject. That way they will at least sort together and are
> >>>> easier to spot.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Interesting. Wonder if the spam is backed by a specially trained
> >>> AI that might be able to pick up on the AAAA aspect?
> >> I doubt....
> >>
> >
> > Perhaps some asshole did it for a pet project?
> Seems that spam is concentrated on technical news groups, which
> was never before. So goal is to disrupt normal functioning,
> not to sell something.
> It uses both English and Korean, so can't filter on Korean.
> Time for Google groups users to switch...
>

I don't see Korean spam. All I see is mix of Thai and Latin (ASCII),
sometimes with few funny picture-like characters.
It does not mean that there is no Korean at all, but does mean that
Korean, even if exists, is not problematic.
In few other groups, e.g. comp.os.vms, all spam appear to be 100% ASCII,
at least in headers.

On Wed, 18 Oct 2023 18:57:21 +0300
Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Oct 2023 11:43:01 -0400
> George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 17 Oct 2023 10:22:47 -0700, Stephen Fuld
> > <sfuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> wrote:
> >
> > >On 10/17/2023 9:08 AM, George Neuner wrote:
> > >> On Wed, 11 Oct 2023 10:59:06 -0400, George Neuner
> > >> <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Now there is spam in Indonesian as well as in Thai.
> > >>
> > >> Sigh.
> > >
> > >Perhaps Eternal September is getting better at filtering, as I
> > >haven't seen any of it.
> >
> > Yes, Eternal September seems to be filtering them effectively.
> >
>
> Eternal September does a decent job for comp.arch where we have only
> 25 or so spam messages per hour. Their filter is significantly less
> effective for comp.lang.c where spamming rate almost 10x higher than
> here.
> i2pn2.org is more efficient. So far it is near perfect.
>

Now comp.arch is bombarded at rate of more than 200 spam messages per
hour, but Eternal Septembers copes blilliantly!
Great job, Ray Banana. Thank you.

> >
> > But hundreds more are visible in Google Groups today. I'm reporting
> > them, but I am starting to doubt that it will do much good ...
> >
> > AFAICT whoever is doing it has created hundreds of accounts, each of
> > which has posted just a couple of messages to many different groups.
> >
> > Even if all the messages ARE reported, it takes many reports to get
> > an account banned. If they use each account only once a week [or
> > whatever], or simply abandon them after posting and create new ones,
> > then we'll never be rid of the spam.
> >
>
> Hopefully Thai spammers will eventually run out of motivation.
> Mushroom spammer are another story. They are not going to give up
> anytime soon.
>

needs a threshold of people to report spam.
if enough do so then last time it triggered removal
of the entire lot.

but if nobody also does it then anyone who does it
is wasting their time.

l.

On Fri, 27 Oct 2023 12:14:10 +0300, Michael S
<already5chosen@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I don't see Korean spam. All I see is mix of Thai and Latin (ASCII),
>sometimes with few funny picture-like characters.
>It does not mean that there is no Korean at all, but does mean that
>Korean, even if exists, is not problematic.
>In few other groups, e.g. comp.os.vms, all spam appear to be 100% ASCII,
>at least in headers.

Can't speak to other groups, but I personally have not seen any Korean
language spam in comp.arch. There has been some in Indonesian, but my
rough guesstimate is that 99.9% has been in Thai.

YMMV.

What is is going to take for some clever programmer to take these idiots out--permanently ??

MitchAlsup wrote:
> What is is going to take for some clever programmer to take these idiots out--permanently ??

I'm getting about 200-300 per hour now.

How about a cease and desist court order against the posting host Google Groups.
If gmail was sending out spam like this they'd be shut down immediately.

On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 15:26:41 -0700, Stephen Fuld wrote:

> Then you need to learn more. Eternal September is free (though you have
> to register and give them an e-mail address to send you the connect
> information).

I had heard of them at one time... I hope I am using them correctly.

John Savard

On 10/28/2023 12:52 AM, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 15:26:41 -0700, Stephen Fuld wrote:
>
>> Then you need to learn more. Eternal September is free (though you have
>> to register and give them an e-mail address to send you the connect
>> information).
>
> I had heard of them at one time... I hope I am using them correctly.

I don't claim to be an expert, but it looks like you are. :-)

--
- Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)

On 10/26/23 5:20 PM, Opus wrote:
> ES has done a good job at filtering out the spam now. I've still seen a
> coupl spam messages, but very few now, while the number of these hitting
> Usenet groups currently is in the tens of thousands. That's crazy. I
> don't think I've ever seen anything like that before.

A decade or two back there was a severe sporgery (forged spam) attack on
many groups. Much worse than this. Some users waited it out but many
just gave up.

--
http://davesrocketworks.com
David Schultz

On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 4:06:24 AM UTC+3, MitchAlsup wrote:
> It appears that this N.G. has been killed
>
> Anything we can do ??

test GG => E-S

On Tue, 03 Oct 2023 22:15:59 -0400
George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:

> On Tue, 3 Oct 2023 18:06:21 -0700 (PDT), MitchAlsup
> <MitchAlsup@aol.com> wrote:
>
> >It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> >
> >Anything we can do ??
>
> Find this "ufa" moron and kill them

test E-S => GG

On Sun, 29 Oct 2023 14:30:13 +0200
Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 03 Oct 2023 22:15:59 -0400
> George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 3 Oct 2023 18:06:21 -0700 (PDT), MitchAlsup
> > <MitchAlsup@aol.com> wrote:
> >
> > >It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> > >
> > >Anything we can do ??
> >
> > Find this "ufa" moron and kill them
>
> test E-S => GG
>

atm E-S => GG works but not vice versa.

On Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 2:27:02 PM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 4:06:24 AM UTC+3, MitchAlsup wrote:
> > It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> >
> > Anything we can do ??
> test GG => E-S

test 2 GG => E-S

On Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 2:27:02 PM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 4:06:24 AM UTC+3, MitchAlsup wrote:
> > It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> >
> > Anything we can do ??
> test GG => E-S

test3 GG => E-S

On Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 2:27:02 PM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 4:06:24 AM UTC+3, MitchAlsup wrote:
> > It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> >
> > Anything we can do ??
> test GG => E-S

test4 GG => E-S

On Monday, October 30, 2023 at 10:38:41 AM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> On Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 2:27:02 PM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> > On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 4:06:24 AM UTC+3, MitchAlsup wrote:
> > > It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> > >
> > > Anything we can do ??
> > test GG => E-S
> test4 GG => E-S

E-S still discards all GG feeds.
It looks like setup of new filters takes more time than initially estimated..

On Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 2:27:02 PM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 4:06:24 AM UTC+3, MitchAlsup wrote:
> > It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> >
> > Anything we can do ??
> test GG => E-S

test5 GG => E-S

On Monday, October 30, 2023 at 7:09:00 PM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> On Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 2:27:02 PM UTC+2, Michael S wrote:
> > On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 4:06:24 AM UTC+3, MitchAlsup wrote:
> > > It appears that this N.G. has been killed
> > >
> > > Anything we can do ??
> > test GG => E-S
> test5 GG => E-S

And now GG => E-S works again.

On 26/10/2023 16:00, wolfgang kern wrote:
> On 04/10/2023 03:06, MitchAlsup wrote:
>> It appears that this N.G. has been killed
>>
>> Anything we can do ??
>
> My filter is now set to delete all >8KB and it seems to do what we want.
> sorry BGB, some of your posts may be filtered as well :)

seems they read my lines and now post shorter junk,
what does GG and ES stand for ?
__
wolfgang