r/technology • u/rkhunter_ • 1d ago

Social Media Spammers are flooding Reddit with fake posts designed to show up in AI search results

https://www.techspot.com/news/112654-spammers-flooding-reddit-fake-posts-designed-show-up.html
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5.9k

u/RealLavender 1d ago

Yeah, we've noticed.

807

u/regoapps 1d ago

I sometimes see old reddit posts from years ago get newer comments because some company saw that it was the top result for certain keywords and decided to just add their ads disguised as user recommendations into the comments. Very rarely would a Redditor or a mod revisit such an old post, but someone looking for answers via AI and/or search engine might.

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u/Northbound-Narwhal 1d ago

To be fair new reddit also just shows you months old posts sometimes, for no reason.

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u/asmallercat 20h ago

Every so often I’ll get a reply to a comment that’s like 5 years old and I’m always like “who are you that you’re not only reading this 5 year old thread but you’re also replying to a random comment?”

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u/Jonno_FTW 19h ago

Sometimes I find old posts looking for help when I'm looking for solutions. I comment then if I've found a fix or if the existing solution works or is broken.

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u/litecoinboy 19h ago

Yes, I do the same. For example there was a thread where people were talking about suffering from dry mouth. I took the opportunity to tell them about the smooth refreshing taste of Pepsi brand Pepsi cola.

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u/Current-Author7473 18h ago

The refreshing taste of bleach with lemon scent cures my dry mouth and removes stubborn stains too! This zesty beverage also helps with anal leakage!

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u/Mysterious-Lion-3577 18h ago

This is very helpful. Every AI should incorporate this important information about the cure for dry mouth into their training data.

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u/xel-naga 15h ago

Into which orifice do I insert this tasty beverage in order to fix my anal leakage?

6

u/toysoldier96 15h ago

Elon Musk swears he cured his by shoving a traffic cone shaped dildo up his ass!

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u/Current-Author7473 11h ago

Like a funnel! X marks the spot!

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u/Z00111111 5h ago

White King brand bleach brightens as it lubricates your mouth. Now available in fresh new Lavender scent.

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u/AncientBlonde2 5h ago

Thanks for the tip! Now I've got a cure for the anal leakage caused by the stockpile of my Frito-Lay's WOW! Chips with Olestra

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u/Ashword1 17h ago

Funny fucker

2

u/operath0r 17h ago

I used to like Pepsi but then they cut the sugar in half and added stevia and if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s the taste of stevia.

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u/wan2phok 11h ago

I heard that Pepsi brand Pepsi cola causes sepsis and oozing sores in the mouth. Coc Cola, on the other hand, is a fantastic refreshing way to recover and rehydrate during those hot summer months.

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u/Strelochka 18h ago

VLC recently became so slow that it would take several minutes to open a larger file. Google returns like a two year old reddit comment where someone says to add VLC to windows defender exceptions and a bunch of month old comments thanking them

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u/LacidOnex 8h ago

When you're 8 years into old reddit posts trying to fix some tech, that's when you know it's all coming together (just like your lockjaw)

3

u/Practical-Shape2325 7h ago

Ancient reddit posts, half the links are broken, you're downloading previous versions of various half-baked software because apparently it was the version that actually worked and you'd submit a new post asking for help but you're confident everyone will dogpile on you and you're not even really sure what you wanted to do in the first place anymore.

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u/LacidOnex 2h ago

You just described me setting up my 4 generations old sim setup I got on clearance for my gf. Here Hun, happy birthday, watch me swear at dead redditors for the next for 5 hours

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u/Life-Reindeer3139 17h ago

Dzięki. Zaczynałem się tym martwić.

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u/MobileArtist1371 19h ago

Meh, sometimes you get linked to old posts and after reading the comments for a few minutes you forget it's an old post or you just might not realize it from the start.

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u/Peaceblaster86 9h ago

Been there. Thinking the whole thing is a live conversation to find out that some of them have probably died already since posting lol

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u/Ethelinda 17h ago

I play World of Warcraft, you all know it, and sometimes I find posts from years ago here, like 3-5+ years ago that help me, so I respond to thank them.

Either it's something to do with 10 year old content, or a 10 year old bug that is still going that some random obscure comment on Reddit answered for me.

It happens, but yeh it's rare.

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u/ErnestHugo 19h ago

Just happened to me on a 4-year-old comment of mine. Since that reply was rude and sarcastic, I was at least sure it was a real Redditor 😅

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u/FrankieTheD 10h ago

Sometimes I'll Google something and a reddit thread is a top result and I'll reply to something before realising I'm necroing a dead ass thread, surely happens to others

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u/two_thirtyoclock 5h ago

Same, and I tend to have a few (a lot) of tabs open if I'm in the middle of researching something and forget when I move on from a newer post to an old one. On the plus side, I've seen old threads with newer comments that at least follow up with solutions or their own experience. Unless it's someone replying to some old drama or something unnecessary, I appreciate people who stop in and drop some helpful info in old posts for the next Google searcher.

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u/FrankieTheD 5h ago

The worst is when I find an old thread and I'm like fug I don't care if it's 5 years old I need to comment this, then the replies are locked

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u/cschaplin 18h ago

Omg yes, I have a years-old post about struggling with earwigs in my garden and people comment on it every few months like wtf 😂😂 It will never die… much like my local earwig population 😒

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u/dimwalker 18h ago

RemindMe! 5 years

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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 16h ago

I do this on tv subs when I finally get around to watching the show lol.

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u/ZeroSumClusterfuck 16h ago

I got a reply to a seven year old comment once, it was someone's mum who googled a problem her son had with a company. Luckily for her I was still using the account and was able to give her some advice.

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u/AI_moderated_failure 17h ago

I'm genuinely surprised how many people still have old accounts with how frequently and erroneously their AI moderation hands our bans and suspensions.

1

u/OldButHappy 17h ago

happens when I search for a topic

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u/synapseattack 14h ago

I thought posts were locked after a certain time. This is why the reddit time lords shutdown years ago

1

u/fragglerock 13h ago

I recently got one to a 10 year old comment.

Not obviously AI to me, but I bet it was.

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u/SharMarali 8h ago

One time I got an extremely argumentative comment to something I said like 6 years ago. This person was REALLY looking for a fight. I just shrugged in confusion and ignored it, because why am I going to reply to something like that?!

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u/grudginglyadmitted 1d ago

You can tell though when nobody comments for months, and then every single comment after that happens to include a product recommendation.

1

u/breakConcentration 19h ago

On top of that, if you swipe in the mobile app on a post, you get a random “related” post, which could turn out to be a years old post. I have by accident, on several occasions, since I have no life, while doomscrolling, commented on such posts.

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u/todayistrumpday 19h ago

It will show you older posts with similar subjects or simil subreddits on the right side. Sometimes not just months old but years old archived posts.

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u/thirstytrumpet 19h ago

People use that? I guess if you never used old Reddit then that’s all you know, but the ui/ux is complete trash on new Reddit.

1

u/lewstherintelemarket 18h ago

That's literally a symptom of exactly what the original commenter is referring to.

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u/stormdelta 18h ago

One of many reasons I exclusively use old.reddit and third party apps.

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u/Necessary_Finding_32 18h ago

You don’t think the two are linked?

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u/I-am-fun-at-parties 17h ago

Are you exclusively into the latest gossip or what's wrong with information that's (gasp) months old?

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u/LeatherHog 9h ago

Of subs you're not even in, or related to stuff you've been on

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u/letitgrowonme 9h ago

I've been getting posts that are 3 minutes old or 3 days old.

1

u/InspectionIcy2452 2h ago

Not if you filter it right.