Huge Uptick in Spam Accounts – Is There a Better Way to Limit This?

Hey everyone,

I’m not sure if others have noticed, but the amount of brand-new spam accounts popping up in the forums has skyrocketed lately.

Just today alone, I’ve personally reported over 50 accounts that were created minutes before posting, and already they're filling up the forums with totally irrelevant or outright spammy content. I’ve been reporting both the posts and the accounts, but honestly, it's feeling a bit like a game of whack-a-mole at this point.

It’s starting to seriously clog the forums and makes it harder for genuine discussions to take place.

Surely there must be a better way to filter or slow this down?

Maybe something like:

• 2-Factor Authentication is required before your account can post in forums

• A waiting period (e.g. 24 hours after account creation) before posting privileges unlock

• A "first few posts must be reviewed/mod-approved" system for new members

• Or even just a stricter CAPTCHA on signup?

I get that the site wants to stay open and welcoming to new players – but at the same time, this wave of spam is really starting to undermine the community vibe.

Anyone else seeing the same thing? And mods/devs – is anything in the works to curb this?

Thanks!
@JosephReidNZ

yeah, I have seen this problem before, but not nearly as much as you. I understand how fustrating it is.

I completely agree with you. I can't understand why bots come on chess.com only for spamming advertising.

agreed

I 100% agree, spam forums can be quite the nuisance although there would be some people (myself included) who would be uncomfortable with 2-Factor Authentication (:

Something should be done about this issue.

Yeah, just look at the number of Indian spam accounts promoting sites like "KuKu Fm" and disgusting addiction-forming sites.

EDIT: nah, according to Martin Stahl, all new "premium" accounts get posting privileges immediately the minute they join. Thats #1 loophole of spam.

(Source: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/site-feedback/bug-profile-editing-tools-not-available, post #11 and other posts by him)

#2, the no. of new members joining are huge, around 10000 per hour (correct me if I'm wrong) and it's not possible for the limited no. of moderators chess.com has to view 'em all. Therefore all of the spam just passes unfiltered.

A stricter CAPTCHA on signup would be a nightmare, obviously, not only for spammers, but also for normal ppl like us. Imagine on logging in, you suddenly get bombarded by "Choose all images of traffic lights to be a human" captcha, and the grid resets itself even after we select all of them is intensely annoying. I'm saying this because we had a scenario like that once when we had to do the same on logging in, and entering captchas of characters. The character set would reset because they don't allow all letters to be lowercase-written, which further increases our frustration.

Thanks.

They go to Facebook and other social media sites too for advertising.

If chess.com wanted they would have already implemented restrictions and checks for new accounts but it seems that the easiness of making new accounts here is held intentionally, and we all have the privilege to report spammers etc and wait until the small team of moderators will review the reports and maybe do something

Anyway, have a great weekend

"If they ACTIVELY wanted" . Giving half-hearted reforms doesn't do anything.

> If they ACTIVELY wanted

Actively, not actively... They just dont want

I've noticed the same thing. I've reported maybe 7 in the past week and a half for advertising some debt hotline, something about help(they didnt even say what the help was for but whatever-), and free VBucks. I can't remember all the details. Honestly though (#1), that's a crazy amount of spammers you have found so far. Salutations.

Edit:

Make that eight in the past week.