I just witnessed the impossible. Or what I thought was the impossible. A smart bot. (Let that sink in)
It actually succeeded in getting me to click a link (if my account is hacked, that is the reason, but I just changed my passcode, so hopefully it will not be.)
How did it do this? Simple. (Not so simple for a bot)
It typed a message similar to this:
@Bob
Thanks for that, I will try and use it later.
That is how the message looked. Here is where the smartness came in. It replaced bob with a hyperlink. So this is how its message actually was:
[@] (link to add website) [Bob] (link to ad website)
Thanks for that, I will try and use it later.
(Without spaces obviously.)
Because text is blue both when it is a hyperlink, and when it is an actual tag, it was impossible to tell that this was a link before clicking it. I reported the bot, and I hope its message has been removed, but you should all watch out for this type of message from paper ranks. There are two ways to tell if a message is like this. (as far as I know)
The first way is to read all the comments below it, and see if there is actually a message from bob that he is responding too. And the second way is to copy the link that it would bring you to, and then paste it in a new tab, without clicking enter. This will let you see where the link would take you, without actually having to click it.
Watch out for bots!
TheMouse
If you're on a desktop you can just mouse over link and it'll show in the corner.
Here is an example of what I was talking about. I can do this: @Speedhunter, or I can do @Speedhunter. They look the exact same, but one takes you to a rickroll, and the other takes you to speedhunters profile. Its up to you to find out which is which.
@AndrewGarrison
It seems something on them is not working quite right, take a look at this. Something seems not to be working quite right.
@AndrewGarrison yooooo tysm drew for actually trying to prevent spam bots.
@AndrewGarrison
Ok, that should help a lot, as most spam accounts have none, and most real accounts can get over 25 fairly easily. Thanks so much for helping.
@TheMouse 25
@AndrewGarrison
After a brief test, everything seems to be working fine. I did not test fully, but it seems you need 30 points to do a link? Or is it 100?
@AndrewGarrison
Thanks, that should help. I have not noticed anything broken yet, but I will test some stuff with links.
Thanks for letting us know. I just pushed an update that prevents users with very low points from posting inline links. Let me know if you notice anything broken! :D
@Rb2h ah, I was just thinking of a name similarity
@Majakalona oh yep misread his name, its deleted tho.
@LM0418
That is EXCTLY what they did.
@Rb2h Norad?
@Narod ? That person?
@TheMouse thimble you for making me go to a Rickroll link
Very good point, but not as good as @TheMouse. This game is action packed way more than this post, so you should check it out.
hope this scam doesn't spread 👍
no, I have not... interesting
I hope you dont go, you must stay
I honestly thought you were talking about SP AI. Which, yeah, sounded impossible.
I encountered this with "Norad". It's just a bot talking about some environmental stuff I forgot 🤷
mobile users/children: stop clicking links mindlessly
@CrestelAeronautics OH NOOOOO
@TheUltimatePlaneLover
The drones,
THE DRONES!!!
THE DRONES ARE TAKING OVER!!! (<— clickable)
Dang that's scary, thanks for the heads up mate
@Speedhunter
Exactly. I fixed it, and pinned the fixed comment.