[macfantn]

a friend of mine joined something called Rovia. Host your own travel site and make money doing nothing. Sounds like a scam to me, anyone know anything about this company?

[RAILhead]

Let me google that for you

[Spheric Harlot]

That would appear to be a "duh".

[OldWorldRover]

Sorry, it is impossible to make money doing nothing regardless of what company you may assoociate with.

However if you want to WORK to sell a few vacations Rovia is a reasonable deal. You can do the networking thing if you want & get others to sell trips for you or you can just sell trips yourself, but that requires you to know people who will buy from you instead of going to one of the big online travel sites.

You can't expect to put up a web site and magically have people show up on your site to buy vacations, you have get people you know to use your site.

Or you can just use them for your own travel, you can save money if you go on a vacation every year, especially if you have a family, if you're just one person you would need to do a couple of trips a year to save money.

[CharlesS]

^ Sorry, but I think that's:



edit: never mind, the spam post seems to have been deleted

[Spheric Harlot]

I've *so* stolen that Spam image from you, Charles!

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

^ Sorry, but I think that's:



edit: never mind, the spam post seems to have been deleted

IQ = -1? Only? I think it'd be funnier if it was "IQ = -75" or something...

[CharlesS]

Glad you like it. It's a variant of my old "Sorry, a stupid thread error occured." graphic from way back.

Also, you have to hand it to the mods here, who deleted the spam post I was responding to before my post even went up.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

IQ = -1? Only? I think it'd be funnier if it was "IQ = -75" or something...

No, it wouldn't.

ID = 1 was the most common error ID in the latter days of Classic systems, IIRC.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

No, it wouldn't.

ID = 1 was the most common error ID in the latter days of Classic systems, IIRC.

I suppose, but he did change it from ID to IQ, so I assume it was a comment on the Intelligence Quotient of the spammer, and (my opinion only) I think the majority of spammers have IQs less than -1.

[CharlesS]

Well technically it's impossible to have an IQ less than zero, which is why I changed the ID of 1 to -1 in the first place - it seemed funnier that way.

I suppose I could make a version based on the System 7 bomb box that said "short bus error" if you like.

[reader50]

Since most spammers are bots, I would assume an IQ of zero. Although a few try some AI tricks to look more normal. They range from copying earlier replies in a thread (then insert spam links) to trying to post legit short replies around the board. Anything to appear to be a normal member.

I eventually built an identify-spammers profile list for internal use. We've since seen so many new tricky types that I have to wait for multiple examples before adding new profiles. The list was threatening to get too long.

For anyone interested, here is the excerpt for the AI Spambot type.

Originally Posted by reader50

The AI Spambot

This is a chat program rolled into a spambot. It tries to construct on-topic posts within regular threads. Every now and then, it posts helpful spam links, to various stores or products. It tries to look like a regular user while posting the links, and to create a "normal-member" history with the non-spam posts.

In theory, it's a good sneaky idea. In practice, the chat part of the program isn't up to snuff. It creates posts that are light on details, somewhat incomprehensible, and apparently written by a non-native English speaker.

Originally Posted by niceday12 

Pretty nice photos .
{pictues thread}

Originally Posted by niceday12 

Oh that's very kind of you to share the links .
{business cards online, some users posted helpful links}

Originally Posted by niceday12 

Just go www.Newegg.com or the Welcome to dealstudio , they are good I usually shopping in these two store ,Newegg is quite a popular store for electrics always the price is good also, and deslstudio is quite a new store but they offer some good items with low price sometiems good coupons .you can find what you need there .
{hit the jackpot, the thread is asking where to buy video cables}

Originally Posted by niceday12 

I jsut more familiar with the Western Digital .
{thread asking for HD recommendations. Hitachi got mis-capitalized in the title as "HItachi", which apparently threw the bot off. Generic response instead of a dealstudio link.}

Originally Posted by niceday12 

I think if I were you I will jsut wait for the Leopard .
{Buy iMac now, or wait for next month, after Leopard comes out. The bot doesn't know what product they want to buy.}

Originally Posted by niceday12 

You can have a look at the Gateway FHD2400,it's specifications are very good and with the signal inputs you need :
Gateway? FHD2400 24" Widescreen HD LCD Display
Right now it is on sale for $500 in dealstudio.com ,you can have a look at it .
{Jackpot again, the OP is looking for a 22" monitor for his G5. The bot upsold him to a 24" monitor.}

Originally Posted by niceday12 

I like mac mini, they are good , I had no experience with the mac nano , but it is said taht it is good also.
{The OP is talking about rumors of new Macs.}

You have to spot this charming member by noting posts that make no sense. If you have a hunch about it, search the user's other posts. Watch for the pattern.

AI Spambot Example: niceday12

[CharlesS]

What's with the Newegg link in the third post? Is that just to throw people off that he's spamming for dealstudio?

[reader50]

This bot was willing to spam for multiple advertisers. Also, I suspect newegg links are thrown in to look more legit. If it really wanted to look legit on cables, it ought to throw in some monoprice links. But I've never seen a bot do that.

[- - e r i k - -]

I suggest you lock this thread as it will become a honeypot for agents from this MLM*-scam defending their jackassery.

* The constant rebranding from pyramid scheme to multi-level marketing to network marketing reminds me all too much of when creationists tried rebranding themselves as intelligent design and anti-abortionists as pro-life. Seems to be a popular tactic amongst the weasels of the world.

[reader50]

Honeypots are good. Places them right where we expect them.

Hey guys, anyone know where I can get a cool iPhone case? I don't own an iPhone, but am desperate to see a wide selection at high prices. And a timeshare would fit nicely into my DVD ripping plans in order to fill the iPhone that I don't have.

[besson3c]

Hey guys, anyone know where I can buy some sort of drug that will give me erections? I like erections.

[AKcrab]

I like this thread. It makes me want to post my social security number, and my checking account number.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Hey guys, anyone know where I can buy some sort of drug that will give me erections? I like erections.

They help me satisfy your Woman with never again the embarrassment!

[edmax]

This is no scam I joined and my airfare is about 2/3 of the price that I could get it

[mattyb]

Amazing, a spam bot that looks for three year old threads and resurrects them !!! I'm impressed.