Strange posts

[JAY ZO]

Hi, I didn’t know where to post this, so i decided to ask here. For some time now, i’ve seen that there are guys who post adverts for completely random, off-topic things like ebooks and the security sevices of africa or something. The strange thing is, if you go on their profile on osm, you find out that they have joined osm the very same day as they made that post, and they NEVER log in again. It seems very strange, like they are bots.

[King Awad]

Really?

[King Awad]

I havent seen one in recents.

[FC Eddie_NL]

@JAY-ZO

Hi there,

Those are indeed bots. They have started to target OSM now aswell, sadly.

[JAY ZO]

@FC-Eddie_NL
As i thought. Can we get any more info? Is it possible to stop them? Who sends them? Why?

[JAY ZO]

@FC-Eddie_NL
It makes the game even more deader than the dead it already is. Can those bots be banned? Can they not add that test to make sure your not a bot?

[FC Eddie_NL]

@JAY-ZO

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this. Gamebasics is locking the accounts if they spot them, but new ones comes in their place. Gamebasics doesn't want to make changes in the account creation procedure, so it's something that we will have to accept.

I believe that a lot of places on the internet are targeted. There are also bot accounts in the comment section of YouTube videos for example.

[JAY ZO]

@FC-Eddie_NL
I mean, obviously, bots can’t take over the world by themselves. This isn’t “phase A” of their plan. Who could be creating these bots?