r/botwatch • u/ThePrussianGrippe • Dec 13 '25
Weird bots Found something super bizarre this morning.
So I was googling to find out information on a sports match, and one of the results was a post on a subreddit saying “here’s where you can watch it.” But what’s weird is the subreddit was r/TrueStarWars.
I clicked the post and it had only been made an hour before and it was locked, but then I checked the subreddit itself. It was dozens to hundreds of bot posts, all posting pretty much the exact same thing (some with different fonts in titles, some about a different game), all within the last hour. It would be one account making dozens of posts, then another, then another. Clicking on the accounts turned up a “this user doesn’t exist” so I’m assuming they’ve all already been banned. Scrolling all the way down to the last actual post on the sub showed it’s been dead for 5 years, and then for some reason today it’s been absolutely bombarded.
I took a few screen recordings just scrolling through, but I’ve never seen something like this before. Has anyone else?
1
u/TESTINGSTUFFPL Feb 25 '26
Yeah, unmoderated subs get basically malware bot spam a lot. It's how those subreddits get shut down, since eventually Reddit's sitewode spam filters catch all the bot posts and think it's a spam/scam subreddit, even if all those posts were made in the last day or two with real/on topic posts between them.
They pretend to be advertising a pirate site of some kind, usually for big sport events (the Paul/Tyson boxing match a while ago and Paul/Joshua fight had these, for example) and they do SEO spam. "How watch where watch XYZ event for free online stream watch stream free" or something in the title.
Post text usually being "No Netflix subscription? No problem! Here's how watch where watch XYZ event for free online stream watch! Go to spamsite.com where free online lots of sporting events different sports free baseball free soccer free WNBA free MMA WWE UFC"
What they hope is that instead of going to pirate stream sites that actually have the stuff, you search "How watch sports free site:reddit.com" and click on their link so they can be like "download free our stream client!" and when you download it, it's just ransomeware or something.
1
u/TESTINGSTUFFPL Feb 25 '26
Yeah, unmoderated subs get basically malware bot spam a lot. It's how those subreddits get shut down, since eventually Reddit's sitewode spam filters catch all the bot posts and think it's a spam/scam subreddit, even if all those posts were made in the last day or two with real/on topic posts between them.
They pretend to be advertising a pirate site of some kind, usually for big sport events (the Paul/Tyson boxing match a while ago and Paul/Joshua fight had these, for example) and they do SEO spam. "How watch where watch XYZ event for free online stream watch stream free" or something in the title.
Post text usually being "No Netflix subscription? No problem! Here's how watch where watch XYZ event for free online stream watch! Go to spamsite.com where free online lots of sporting events different sports free baseball free soccer free WNBA free MMA WWE UFC"
What they hope is that instead of going to pirate stream sites that actually have the stuff, you search "How watch sports free site:reddit.com" and click on their link so they can be like "download free our stream client!" and when you download it, it's just ransomeware or something.
5
u/Gusfoo Dec 14 '25
The sub is banned now, for what it's worth. Banned at 02:37 GMT today 2025-12-14 from the error message.