Join date spoofing

cml387

Is it just me, or is this a thing.

Ii've just today noticed some accounts which have been active just in the lastfew days, but have join dates of a year ago. One I saw is an obvious shill for a dental practice in Tennessee which appeared today but has a join date of August 2024.

MrMusician18

It's not spoofing, it's dormant accounts being brought to life. Bots, account trading and the like.

The idea is that old accounts are less likely to be automatically flagged as spam. Of course on this site there is no automation like that so it doesn't matter.

28064212

Doubt it's spoofed. More likely scenario:

• Botnet A registers hundreds of accounts across thousands of forums.
• Owner of Botnet A holds onto accounts for a year or more, then sells these "established" accounts to owner of Botnet B
• Botnet B starts spamming using those accounts, circumventing any "new account" protections that the forum might have

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123379502#Comment_123379502

Interesting. Very poor behaviour of a dental pratice to indulge in that sort of thing. Shocked, I am.

Spear

Yes, we've seen bot accounts sit dormant for years before springing to life. And as mentioned above, it gives them more credibility than some brand new account.

We've also seen a small number of legit but old accounts be compromised, e.g. using passwords from various leaks on other sites re-used here or other such poor practice, then used to go on spamming sprees.