# Spam alert: sneaky spammers

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/spam-alert-sneaky-spammers/319044>\
**Category:** Community Building\
**Tags:** spam\
**Created:** [July 29, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spam-alert-sneaky-spammers/319044 "2024-07-29T14:52:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![hellekin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/hellekin/32/51636_2.png) [@hellekin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/hellekin)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spam-alert-sneaky-spammers/319044/1 "2024-07-29T14:52:18Z")

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Hear, hear!

Some spammers found a sneaky way to bypass Discourse security. But not for long. Here’s what community moderators need to watch for:

1. New users with proper profile, three legitimate but low quality posts (or AI-generated content) with autobiographer, first like, first emoji, first reply badges
2. Next post is longer, seemingly more elaborate, and contains at least two links: _one of them is legitimate_ and _one of them is SEO spam_.
3. The SEO spam link has a short anchor that is hidden next to the legitimate link.

In other words, be watchful about seemingly enthusiastic new users who post short first contributions, and watch out for obfuscated links.

One of the trigger warnings is the discrepancy between email username (at usually some large provider) and the actual username; profile picture looks legit (and was probably stolen from an actual account.)

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spam-alert-sneaky-spammers/319044)._