Feeling anxious.

Thanks Bunny. That doesn't sound quite as bad as I feared. Still a pain though because people take the time to reply, and it can put people off replying to genuine new posts.

Adding to what other users have said, they tend to be new users and just spam the forum offering 'reduced' subscriptions to services. The links they put in their post look legitimate, but they have re-directed their own spam website with a hyperlink to the legitimate website. I accidentally clicked on the link whilst trying to warn users the other night and it basically just asks you to click again and enter details, lots of pop ups appear saying a device is infected etc. It's just spam. I immediately cleared the cookies and data for Safari on my iPhone. Some others may ask you to input your personal information. The best rule to follow is if someone new links something, search on a web browser for what they're linking to. For example, Peacock TV. Don't click a link, search it on Google. Hope that helps you and others. Overall, nothing major to worry about - just be wary.

They sure are, it's very frustrating. I hope the new community improves some of these concerns.

Mark (formerly Spikey) said:

I don't know how they do what they do, or what their motives are.

Some of them are attempting to embed what's known - in search engine optimisation (SEO) lingo - as a "backlink" (a link to their website from this one). This helps to build their "domain authority" with search engines, which can lead to boosts in the rankings of those websites within search results.

They're not necessarily bothered about any of us visiting or buying anything. The search engine's own web crawlers (which visit this website silently in the background from time to time, for purposes including indexing the content and adding new pages to their search results) will find the links by themselves, which meets the spammer's goals.

As I know you've also spotted, they sometimes don't embed these immediately, but come back later and edit the post to include them. So some posts are just designed to fit in, innocuously.

The same applies when they include links in their forum profiles (as we saw again today, for example). 

I don't know how they do what they do, or what their motives are.

The ones I have seen so far are

• trying to get you to click on a link in their post or reply. Maybe for advertising, or maybe the webpages have malicious software running.
• Strange original posts, that seem to be asking legitimate questions. I don't know the motives behind these, but I'd be wary of friend requests from people who are brand new and never see again.

This is just what I've noticed.

So are we to make sure we don't click on a link in a post?

How do they get personal information, if this site is secure? Does clicking on their link give them access to anything on your device?

You can spot them sometimes. One type gives a response to a post that sounds good (probably via ChatGTP), but then has a link which takes to a dodgy website. They are quite clever. Which is worrying.

I know what you mean, autisticboy. I've reported a few and seen them disappear.

They are getting cleverer and cleverer - even in just these past two months.

I hope that the upgrade helps with this. It's sometime this month.

The problem is that i don't think that it is one user, as such. Even if just one person behind it.

I haven't noticed this - what is the user name?

Thank you, I did do and have had a response which was kind of them. Feeling fragile today. 

I suggest reporting this directly to communitymanager@nas.org.uk