# How to properly identify a spammer?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-properly-identify-a-spammer/228103>\
**Category:** Community Building\
**Created:** [May 25, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-properly-identify-a-spammer/228103 "2022-05-25T18:30:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![Canapin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/canapin/32/119591_2.png) [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2022, 6:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-properly-identify-a-spammer/228103/1 "2022-05-25T18:30:01Z")

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Hey guys.

I have several spammers a day on one of my forums.  
Most of them (95% at least) are recognized either by Discourse, or by Akismet, or are flagged by users when the post is obviously spam.

But some spammers look legit and/or harmless.

Two similar examples:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/a/5/5/a55c66c4fdaecd9c073c68c11fd39545cbb736ee.png)

This one was quickly suspected to be a spam account.  
The username is random, but the bio is empty, and there is no brand, logo, or label of any kind so… What’s the point of posting here?

Follow-up:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/7/0/0/700a0d5717006031a862839afbafb1f66c951d25.png)  
 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/f/4/2f4aad2512bdaa4f57be3fe8a9dbfdb671d19f11.png)

The user never came back.  
So, what do you think is up here? If it’s a spammer, what’s the logic behind this behavior There’s no ad at all?

* * *

Another one:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/3/d/c/3dc093ed1cd6cc933099f72511607d75a264c219.png)

The account is active, but I wonder how it got these 1.5k posts read?

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/f/7/6/f76be2cd0de5c6925b2f800af3b4988634b69575.png)

* * *

So, for the first one, the registration and last IP were from different European locations, not near Houston as the poster said they have a shop.

For the second one, their email is present with many entries in `stopforumspam.com` with various usernames, but I don’t know if this website is legit. Do some of you use it?

Do you know any public database that helps detect potential spammers based on information like email addresses?

How do you handle and identify accounts to be sure they’re spammers or not?

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