Just a quick post to inform you of a scheme used by spammers lately on the Related sites.

Here's the scheme:

They create an account on one of the Related sites and then they use the forum to post a question that looks legitimate.  Because the question looks legitimate, I approve the post and then the community starts responding.  After a few days or weeks, once the thread isn't active anymore, the spammer edit their post and add a spam link in the hope that the addition won't get noticed.

Case in point: https://www.embeddedrelated.com/thread/8528/choice-of-microcontroller-for-a-project

You'll notice a 'diceus' link that was just added this morning to the top post (I will delete the link soon).

I did a search on google and found out that the question had been copied from another forum:

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/help-choice-of-microcontroller-for-a-project.54899/

The good news is that our community did a way better job at answering the question.  The bad news is that this is an 8 years old question and the poster is fake and isn't interested in your answers.

This isn't the first time that this happens and I will need to be more vigilant when a new user starts a thread.  I could certainly use your help in detecting any suspicious activity, like spammy links added to a post or questions that are copied from other sites.

Thank you!

Now we know. 

appreciate your diligence. I expect one or two might slip past you (they are fiendishly clever), but just do your best.

Good job Stephane!!

Stephane-

After deleting the link, can you "lock" the thread ?  And maybe add a little "info" icon explaining reasons why threads get locked.

Spammers get more sophisticated, so does Boucher, hehe.

-Jeff

Thanks for your findings and in-depth explanation! 

just one idea that came to my mind:
change the forum so that the edit of the first post goes to moderation -
eventually that helps ;-)

sunny greetings
stefan