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Tsaiko's post reminded me that I wanted to pass this on.
Info on the Russian journal (bots) friendings. From![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nympholept's journal by way of sansa1970:
What I know:
Info on the Russian journal (bots) friendings. From
nympholept's journal by way of sansa1970: What I know:
*The bots friend add people automatically from community member lists, and user's friend lists. You will often notice other people you know on the friends list of a bot that adds you.
*They have been around since at least April, but I first noticed them in August - so did a lot of other people, that's why you're here.
*A lot of them post the same content - if you take some of their post, and google it, you will find many others journals with identical content.
*I do not know how many variations there are, but after a while you start to recognise them easier.
*They change - they come in groups, updated versions of the bot - the newest ones are very random and very hard to notice - google still helps.
*They almost always use Cyrillic, I'm told it's Russian, and that it doesn't make much sense sometimes (I don't speak any Russian, so i don't know)
*Sometimes, they reply: don't let that fool you.
*It is either automatic, or it is the person controlling the bots. Lately, they have been accusing me of being a bot, because I post the same message telling people to report them to Livejournal Abuse.
*No-one knows what they are for.
*The Livejournal Abuse Team is currently researching ways to automatically identify them, and block them from registering.
*Update: LJ Abuse can now automatically identity bots that are reported to them, but are not able to locate them unless they are reported.
*One theory is that they are saving all your entries, and when people re-friend them, they save all their friends-only entries. Pictures, email addresses, names, street addresses, phone numbers - some people post these things, and the bots want them. 5000 bots friending 100,000 journals = identity theft.
*They have been around since at least April, but I first noticed them in August - so did a lot of other people, that's why you're here.
*A lot of them post the same content - if you take some of their post, and google it, you will find many others journals with identical content.
*I do not know how many variations there are, but after a while you start to recognise them easier.
*They change - they come in groups, updated versions of the bot - the newest ones are very random and very hard to notice - google still helps.
*They almost always use Cyrillic, I'm told it's Russian, and that it doesn't make much sense sometimes (I don't speak any Russian, so i don't know)
*Sometimes, they reply: don't let that fool you.
*It is either automatic, or it is the person controlling the bots. Lately, they have been accusing me of being a bot, because I post the same message telling people to report them to Livejournal Abuse.
*No-one knows what they are for.
*The Livejournal Abuse Team is currently researching ways to automatically identify them, and block them from registering.
*Update: LJ Abuse can now automatically identity bots that are reported to them, but are not able to locate them unless they are reported.
*One theory is that they are saving all your entries, and when people re-friend them, they save all their friends-only entries. Pictures, email addresses, names, street addresses, phone numbers - some people post these things, and the bots want them. 5000 bots friending 100,000 journals = identity theft.
Go to the post linked above for info on how to report the bots.