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Competitors Using Software To Mark Each Other's Craigslist Postings As Spam
from the now-that's-impressive dept
One sign of a successful software company is when an ecosystem starts to build around it. We've seen this with companies like Microsoft, eBay and Google of course. And, while there definitely have been some products built on top of Craigslist, I hadn't realized it had gone so far as to include software that will try to trick Craigslist into deleting a post as spam. As you may know, Craigslist has a little link on each post that allows any reader to "flag as spam." There's an automated system that takes note of these clicks, and if enough such clicks come from enough unique users, the post is automatically pulled off the site. For the most part, this system is both effective and efficient. But, according to the linked article above, there's software out there that will let you "flag as spam" any post you want, sending multiple clicks pretending to come from unique users. It's being used by some companies to maliciously pull down perfectly legitimate posts from competitors. Craigslist says it's constantly tweaking its systems to avoid this kind of thing, but why not have a Wikipedia-style setup, where "deleted" spam posts can be reviewed by folks who can "undelete" the not-spam ones? It can use the same basic system, where if enough people vote that a "spam" post is legit, it goes back online. Or if it's really an issue, then certain posts that get jerked back and forth could finally be "locked" by an admin based on their discretion.
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
A decent CAPTCHA ought to go most of the way to fixing it, as well as blocking its use with known proxies like Tor.
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Re:
One man's opinion, but captchas are terrible and inaccessible ways of keeping the bots out. They're also increasingly ineffective and as of late are getting almost completely illegible for humans as well.
The last 5 captchas I've had to deal with I have not been able to use. I'm young, smart and have 20/20 vision. It ain't me.
These things are pure evil.
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Re: CAPTCHA
CAPTCHAs have been pretty handily defeated. There is one company that farms out CAPTCHAs all over the 'net, offering free porn for solving a CAPTCHA. Typical CAPTCHA is solved in about 10-15 seconds with that system.
Even the OCR (and neural net) programs are getting pretty good at solving CAPTCHAs.
CAPTCHA is not the answer. Wish I knew what was.
--
http://www.chl-tx.com Concealed Handgun License Training in North Dallas, Tx.
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Re: Re: CAPTCHA
The best way to stop that is to have several captchas and an instruction on which one to solve
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Re:
good idea
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Captchas are worthless
CaptchaKing is 95% effective as a bot program
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Captchas are worthless
CaptchaKing is 95% effective as a bot program
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why don't you code it for them?
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As a user, I hate CAPTCHA's
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While CAPTCHA may be a minor nuisance it is a small price to pay in the war on bot-tards.
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Don't underestimate the spam
I think you might underestimate the amount of spam that gets removed this way.
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If it's a business that has competitors, what are they doing on Craiglist?
I didn't realize businesses could use Craiglist for advertisement. If they are a company big enough to have competition, wouldn't it be correct to mark their Craigslist ads as spam?
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Re: If it's a business that has competitors, what are they doing on Craiglist?
Why should it be consider spam just because they're a big company? Why don't they have the right to post on Craigslist?
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Re: If it's a business that has competitors, what are they doing on Craiglist?
Why should it be consider spam just because they're a big company? Why don't they have the right to post on Craigslist?
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idea
if companies are doing this, craigslist should permanently ban them, and anyone using the software if there is a way to find it out, and i mean on the FIRST offense, and no recourse.
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It's probably used by competing pimps to remove "erotic services" listings from their competitors...
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Re:
Do you think pimps are this smart!
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CRAPTCHA
It's not the competitors that you have to worry about on Craigs, it's the idiot flaggers that have nothing else to do but maliciously flag other user's posts. It's actually a sport over on Craigs to see how many posts you can have taken down. There are flagger mobs that spend a great deal of their lives just taking down other's posts.
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Perception is part of the problem. Craigslist TOS do NOT allow commercial services or businesses to post in the categories save a very few exceptions. Craigslist is not meant for businesses, it is meant for individuals as spelled out in the TOS. Anything business oriented posted there is spamming if not placed in the SERVICES section unless for a very few exceptions. (car dealers and some Craigslist areas like NY apartments which must be paid for to post) Another thing is that the TOS prohibit selling for third parties, ie...Realtors and consignment brokers. Lastly, the TOS prohibit page graphics which link to the dealers site such as many Realtors use. These are all spam and need to be eliminated as Craigslist becomes to unwieldy to use. I support the individual user concept and do my best to flag dealer ads as spam. I do go to an extreme to assure that it is indeed a business by googling the phone number or name of the person listed but most are so blatant to list the business name. If there is a question, I leave it alone. The magnitude of the dealer/business ads is making Craigslist unusable and everyone should do their part to help out. Yes, there are some Aholes flagging willy nilly but one can find them in everyday life everywhere but if you are a business, READ THE TOS, you aren't allowed so, piss off.
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fuck you fucking looser
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Re:
WHY HAVE A CARS AND TRUCKS BY DEALERS SECTION?
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Escalating war
The problem with your solutions is that there would simply be an escalating war. There are already the bots (or whatever) to nuke posts, so it wouldn't be a huge leap to create one to "un-nuke" a post. I don't think making it a fairer system like Wikipedia would have the intended effect due to the transient nature of Craigslist posts, as opposed to the more permanent articles in Wikipedia.
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I think it'd be interesting to know how this program actually works. I see two possibilities:
1) The maker of the software has some kind of botnet under his control, and the "report as spam" link gets sent to them to "click" - this is obviously illegal.
2) When you install this software, your computer will download and "click" those links sent in by other people every day/hour/whatever. Legally in a grey area, its an opt-in botnet (I would bet the EULA says you agree to have your computer used to report other messages as spam), but likely violation of Craiglist TOS.
Option 1 can be dealt with by law enforcement, option 2 is a technical problem that could be solved with a blacklist of certain IPs from reporting posts as spam.
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Captcha
I have maybe had 2 or 3 problems with the million CAPTCHA's i've done. I dont see the big deal.
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Craigslist Auto Poster
Try the Craigslist Auto Poster, Free Demo, post 1000's of ads, download at: http://www.FreeWebTrafficOnline.com
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Re: Craigslist Auto Poster
FUCKING GOOF ARENT YA
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Help Me!
All I want to do is post 20 ads a day TOPS. I can't now with this new program. I use to just use proxies. That no longer works. What to do?
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It's not right the way people flag things online
I have a business and I advertise on CL, I also use paid advertising. There is a jerk who is flagging everything in the automotive section of Jackson, Mississippi's CL. He has gone so far as to contact us and tell us we have no right to use CL. Is there any software I can use to get around these guys. Thanks.
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Re: It's not right the way people flag things online
Steve... your car lot is spamming Jacksonville. How can you say you're being flagged with software when you have a bunch of repeat ads up for the same cars going back a MONTH?
You spammers and your stupid "flagger software" theories are morons.
YOU are the reason craigslist is becoming more difficult to use. You spam, making craigslist make things harder. Then you COMPLAIN (for no reason) making craigslist "guilty" to make things harder.
98% of problems on craigslist are SPAMMERS' faults.
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Spamming Jacksonville? Never been there, hear it's lovely.
I don't think you know what you are talking about.
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Re: It's not right the way people flag things online
I have news for you, dumbass :
Craigslist is NOT for businesses. It is for individuals. You are WRONG to expect that your business has the right to post spam on CL.
If you were a real business instead of some dumb fucking hick you'd pay for ads like the rest of the world does.
I wish I lived in MI so I could flag you all day long. No, actually I don't.
MI is a shithole. Good place for a cocksucker like you.
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Re: Re: It's not right the way people flag things online
so why did craigslist make a cars and trucks for sales by dealers section if it is not for businesses. at least you can separate this section from owners.
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Flagging
I can sympathize with Steve on this one. There is someone flagging and deleting people's ads in the computer services section here in Phoenix. It's sad when a competitor resorts to such tactics because they can't handle the competition. This person has completely destroyed a section that was once peaceful. A person shouldn't have the right to decide what's best for the customer. The customer should have the right to decide which company is the best for their service needs.
People who flag other business competitors ads because they simply either don't like them or because they don't want any competition whatsoever show not only how unethical they are but it puts the customer at great risk of getting ripped off. Then again, the person that has their competition's ads deleted probably don't care who they are hurting or why. It's a very bad way to conduct business and sooner or later the customer will wise up and choose a competitor anyway.
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i support this , sometimes a bunch of flaggers just sit for fun flagging legitimate posts for nothing ,i dono if they get the ip adress or what but whatever you do they flag it.. even if its some baby item or piece of clothing you want to sell.. craiglist should do something about that other wise soon ppl will be frustated enough to leave the site
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similar issues all over cl
I agree that it is the spammers causing the issues. They don't even bother to read the aups. I also see a lot of employers using the gigs section to post free employment ads that are obviously FT positions offering 401k, salary, etc. I flag them all the time. It's petty that I pay $25 (read: CHEAP employment ad) and these guys spam the gigs section to save $25.
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Re: similar issues all over cl
Are you sick spammer!
Spammers spam because they are getting flaged!
They have a product to sale as opposed to the flaggers what are they selling nothing.
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Software that assists flagging has its merits...
Not for vanquishing competitors ads but for fighting spam and scam artists.
The amount of spam in the electronics, computer and photo sections of NY craigslist is astounding and this is not only spam it's a scam as well. It seems there's a group of folks from China that are generating this using some auto-posting software. I'm talking about hundreds of ads by a single poster.
http://nospam.softmastergeneral.com:81
Helps in the fight against spam/scams of this nature.
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This new phone verification is not working on CL new yorks computer services
There is 1 individual constantly spamming going under many many different business names, one can tell they are the same person its basically the same phone numbers and a flat rate that would be considered a slap in the face to any technical professional, not only that but he uses others ads from around the U.S. as his own, this person could not have an original thought if they were for sale at the 99cents store. He really needs a bitch slap. I won't stoop to that level, but it's ashamed at whats going on. I am only one person but I state my facts to spam@craigslist.org everyday, sometimes it works, other days it's a losing battle.
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I would rather have more ads then more flaggers!
I use the search function anyway.
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Re: Abuse of Auto Flagging Software
Same in Atlanta CL esp under the "Cars for Sale" and and a few other places--talk about your ad getting flagged at the speed of light! Daaaym these greedy scumbag dealers are SCARED TO DEATH of any competition! Add these clowns to the malcontents who just flag ads because the don't happen to like and item and you can pretty much forget about doing any listing--almost sounds as bad as the computer services section of CL Phoenix....
I'm looking into somehow getting the auto flagging software (without spending a ton of dough and one thats Mac compatible)....Only getting to protect myself--they wanna flag my ads? I'll flag their azzez right back ;)
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Craig's List jewelry scam - names/emails
Publishing names/email addresses of recent Craig's List jewelry scammers in case someone (smartly) Googles their names before commencing business with them: Barry Wood - cdulf1234@bestmail.us, Heather Freret - newslady68@gmail.com, Teresa Perez - healmax003@gmail.com, service@paypal.com - this is a bogus address: shipment_status@accountant.com. Most of these are part of the Nigerian Craig's List jewelry scam. Don't fall for the fake payment/shipment authorization emails "from PayPal". Report emails immediately to spoof@paypal.com and press@craigslist.org. Hope this all helps!
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Criaigs Flagging Software is Outdated
Ya, since software was created to flag down ads on craigslist, craigslist has been there to stop those programs using footprints as identification...
Post flagging is now a industry, you can have ads shot down in mass with Craigs Hitmen. You can just go to their site at www.craigshitmen.com to have tons of ads flagged.
Craigslist won't be able to stop that I bet
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Re: Criaigs Flagging Software is Outdated
YOUR A FKN GOOF
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Spammers killed craigslist
The autos for sale on CL is just a mess now with spamming skuzz dealers from all over the United States posting autos in Chicago as well as local skuzz scum bag dealers. They polluted it so much it's no good. A dealer friend of mine received a postal ad from a company that sells the software to list all your cars on CL, I told him many months ago they will just ruin the auto section as they have done. CL should just shut it down.
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Forget about looking for a job on Craigslist now. The New York site has been taken over by Gmail spammers and other creeps phishing like there's no tomorrow.
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flaging
we are constantly flaged by compitetor .what is the best selution?
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Im having this issue right now!
My legit postings are being killed in minutes!
even when i make it very clear im not spam.
its nuts!
all CL has to do is put one of those verification things like they do when you post. if someone wants to flag they can type in a 4 digit number!!
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I have this issue
I have this issue with craigslist.
The only thing that has helped me was a group
I emailed at craigsspamhelp@yahoo.com
Does anyone know of any other groups that spam ads
on a regular basis?
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I tried a lot of software available in the market - nothing works.
Finally, I got an auto-flagger made from an indian coder of getafreelancer.com.
It works great - and it's worth the price!
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Flagging
I found this post searching for answers cuz I am so friggin pissed of right now it isnt even funny. The CAPTCHA isn't the problem, the problem is self-righteous, lazy, losers who have nothing else better to do than flag. I have posted several legit ads today for employment and some idiot keeps flagging them. If you dont know...wake up, one person can flag a post if you know how to do it (which I wont mention here) This is not a one time thing for me it seems to happen more than 50-60 percent of the time and these people are OUT OF CONTROL! There has to be something that can be done to stop these guys???
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flag bots
they are destroying craigslist. they've already destroyed several cities r/r pages - just think what they could do to the jobs sites or the other sites. made numerous complaints to CL to no avail.
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They Got it Coming
I don't mind dealerships posting. The thing I don't like is when some jackass posts his whole damn inventory (this is when most people feel the need to flag). Dealers are getting worse than the scammers there. BTW, if people are browsing CL looking for a vehicle, they probably aren't looking for something in the $20k-40k range.
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Web Scraping
Have a web scraping / data extraction requirement? Visit ITSYS Solutions at http://www.itsyssolutions.com
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Some of these dealers have no fucking clue. They spam the shit out of the car section in my and post in the FSBO section. Yeah, I'm looking for a $25-30k vehicle on Craigslist. These idiots are getting worse than the scammers on there.
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