145

Usernames using randomized nonsense (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Burstar@sopuli.xyz to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

39 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've been noticing an influx of users with anonomized usernames (ie: fjdasklfpudiosa722104891fdaf20j.srv.us).

As a moderator this concerns me because it immediately triggers a 'this is a bot or nefarious actor' instinct. Is there any reason not to be wary of these accounts?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Zero22xx 13 points 5 days ago

The problem is that most of the 'spam' comes from official things like websites that you've signed up to and didn't realise would also include dumb fkn emails periodically. And they don't always do it right away either. I've had emails suddenly start arriving from somewhere that I signed up to like a year before.

Personally, my spam mitigation is to have one email address for signing up to shit with. Then these assholes can email me until they're blue in the face and I don't care because the only time I ever visit that inbox is for verification. And then I have another email address for personal use that never gets used because who uses email for personal use these days?

In conclusion. Email is for signing up to things and collecting trash that I'll never look at.

[-] death@infosec.pub 13 points 5 days ago

That's probably just mail that lands in your spam folder without being entirely blocked. According to Microsoft and Google approximately 99% of incoming spam (of the ~160 billion spam emails sent per day) never even reaches their users mailboxes. I assume that's roughly standard across email providers. I am concerned comparably sophisticated filtering may become necessary on the Fediverse eventually.

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 2 points 4 days ago

My Google and Microsoft accounts are the only ones I ever get random spam on, tbh. I've never had any amount of unasked for mail with a paid provider or ISP's email.

[-] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 3 points 5 days ago

I get the concern but I don't think you need to be as concerned as with email. Email is a lot simpler without a lot of validation. On the fediverse, HTTP Signatures are used to verify requests, so you can't spoof stuff as easily.

That said, spam mitigation will probably still be an issue that continuously needs to be dealt with.