Forum:String of numbers type vandalism


 * Examples:

We've been getting vandalism on sca21: which is just a string of numbers (around 24 ?) from different addresses. Is this something just to revert or is it useful to do anymore or know anymore about this? I see it's happenning here (central wikia) too. Thought I'd seen something about this before, but can't find it now. Philralph 07:48, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm very interested too in knowing what that strings are. There are straaange. Szoferka 07:55, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Me too. I don't quite know what purpose it serves anyone to post that... Mindspillage (spill yours?) 17:38, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Here on the Central Wikia now too. --CocoaZen 21:33, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * They've also appeared on the Film Wiki here and elsewhere. Without explanations, I am assuming they are vandalism. - Nhprman 22:31, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Numbers stations, anyone? &mdash;Silly Dan (talk) 02:46, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm guessing it's a spam bot running a test before they start actually spamming. Angela (talk) 07:25, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I found a way to block it. Any 24 digit string is now blocked. The user will told the number is in the spam filter. Angela (talk) 07:20, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I got em too on MetaCollab. Weirrrd. Mark Elliott 08:31, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Ok... For the past hour and a half I've been searching and searching and searching for what the danged numbers mean, and apparently... NOBODY knows. Well, I'd assume the creators of this new spam-type do, but yeah... Here are some interesting links concerning the digit-spams: Peter Kaminski blog, Another blog thing and a TechWeb article on the email digit-spam. Basicly, this type of spam is everywhere. As can be seen in the TechWeb article, Symantec theorizes it's the spammer checking if harvested emails are valid or not, but that wouldn't explain the blog and wiki spams... Personally, I would think it's more of a tag/trojan combo. The number would be easy to retrace, whilst the IP that placed it would have passed the spam-filter. --MoneySign 10:15, 25 June 2006 (UTC)


 * found a 23 digit one ...
 * see:
 * http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Spam_Blacklist#Possible_Bots
 * -ts-talk 23:58, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I had a string of numbers on a newly created page called Help:Reader I deleted the numbers and and then deleted the page. Now all my edits are prevented from saving by the spam filter, but when I look for the number on the page I cant find it. will continue to work out what is happening .Lifeartist 08:22, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't understand that at all, as far as I can see, these are just numbers... is it just on that page? or on all pages?  I tried editing it and didn't have a problem... it's strange -- sannse (talk) 08:58, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Sannse helped to sort me out (thanks) and the difficulty seemed to be the result of a previous attack being picked up by the spam filterLifeartist 09:53, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Looks like they are getting shorter: -- sannse (talk) 12:39, 28 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm blocking 10 digits for a while. If it's a bot, it'll probably stop after a few hours and then come back another day, so this block should only be needed temporarily (assuming it is a bot like that). Angela (talk) 13:27, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 10 digits and even 14 dogits is too restrictive. Now it's unpossible to save or rewrite page with link to earlier version of Special:Newimages where date is 14-digit long. Szoferka 16:02, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry about that. It turns out it was blocking ISBNs too so I put it back up to 20. Angela (talk) 16:48, 28 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm making another adjustment to block certain lengths. Let me know if it causes any problems. Angela (talk) 00:34, 29 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Seems good! --Splarka (talk) 01:55, 29 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Another block of 21 numbers on w:c:psychology:Category talk:Evolution and human behavior Lifeartist 11:45, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
 * It's now unpossible to save spam blacklist becouse of 11-digits name of some website. Szoferka 12:01, 29 June 2006 (UTC)


 * So, would blocking 20-24 digits be best? Angela (talk) 12:22, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes I think. We got more problems with these string than their autors. Szoferka 12:27, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

got this 12 digit 292184543777 ... from 85.137.50.105 creating a new page: http://peace.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Troubleshoot_Wiki deleted the page, blocked the IP. -ts-talk 11:30, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Been getting them over at the radio control wiki via the Asia Pacific network. I remember the idiocy we used to get over at Wikipedia from this happy little group of open proxies. I'm blocking the whole range. Nothing good ever comes out of that provider. Lucky 6.9/PMDrive1061 at work via 74.62.5.240 00:04, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Whats the right procedure for dealing with these now? Delete the numbers, and any page created and report it back here, or is it best to preserve the evidence and let you deal with it?13:23, 2 July 2006 (UTC)


 * It's best to revert or delete it as soon as possible since that will hopefully discourage them from doing it. Angela (talk) 13:44, 2 July 2006 (UTC)


 * We've been getting this type of vandalism as well on Shetlopedia.com. 24 digits.  We only launched the site a few days ago, so whatever the cause is, it hasn't taken long.  Nothing else changes, no text is vandalised, just the addition of these numbers.  Sometimes completely new pages are created with the numbers.  Strange.