86ed another 80 signup requests from this ‘Automated protocol deliverability probe’ bullshit.
What’s the game here? What are they getting out of this?
Replying to @fname@kamloops.social
@fname
Are they scraping posts?
Replying to @TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world
@TrueNorthSpice
Unlikely. And unnecessary. You don’t need an account to read Mastodon posts.
Replying to @fname@kamloops.social
@TrueNorthSpice
It seems to be something about generating signup request emails. They’re not having success though so why persist?
Replying to @fname@kamloops.social
@fname
they are bots?
Replying to @TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world
@TrueNorthSpice
Well, yes.
Replying to @fname@kamloops.social
@fname
Mail bombing. Our instances aren't the target, we are the weapons. We produce a flood of spam in mailboxes, so they are unusable.
Replying to @admina@meerjungfrauengrotte.de
@admina
Ok, but who’s getting mailbombed? Are they directing the signup approval emails at targeted inboxes? And do confirmation emails even get sent if an instance is set to manual approvals?
Replying to @admina@meerjungfrauengrotte.de
@admina
This is excellent, thank you.
I wonder if @MastodonEngineering is working on a potential solution?
Replying to @fname@kamloops.social
@fname I suspect it's a scraping bot. We got a ton of those until I just turned off signups and made my instance invite-only.
Replying to @admin@techfieldday.net
@admin
See the below post for a fullsome explanation of what they're up to.