| | Chatbots.....Page 1 of 1 | I was reading an article last night about Chatbots (also referred to as "Silicon Sirens" which I though was "cute").....I am not a “techy” but was aware of the “automated programs” – hence the distorted text you have to copy when registering on most sites now – but never realised just how widespread it was... and I thought about a few posts/threads that have been on here about “fake” accounts.
My understanding of “fake” accounts (clearly naive), and it has been mentioned on several occasions in the forums, was that it was researchers - maybe married people and idiots can also be entered under that category.... Whatever the intent, I believed the ultimate goal - even if not necessarily pleasant if you are on the other end of the conversation – certainly wasn’t malicious.
Yet, according to this article, Chatbots are now highly sophisticated as they can now recognise the “distorted text” to register and can hold a “normal” conversation – apparently 85% of participants in Yahoo chatrooms are chatbots... – but their purpose is to spread computer malware (by getting people to click on links), access to personal details in the view of identity theft and of course obtain bank details.... Needless to say that Facebook is one of the prime target, but dating sites too since at least 2007 (well, date of discovery, so could be years before that) and by the sound of it, pretty much all “social sites”, instant messaging etc....
Anyway, I thought about a few people that have posted here about chatting to someone, accepted them on Facebook without meeting them (no comment!!) and then the “someone” had disappeared very soon after from both here and Facebook......
I was just wondering if I was part of only a few (I am confident I am not the only 1!!) that did not realise the extent of the possible deception of “fake accounts”?
And apologies in advance to the more “mature” users (as in length of registration that is...not actual age :-) ) if this has been discussed before...I did ponder a long time about checking out the 936 pages worth of threads but then decided that maybe undertaking household chores would be more exciting! ..... and I am not even thinking about the actual deletion of the thread altogether as I am guessing this could be a delicate subject..... Freedom of speech hey!! | |
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Posted: 7/1/2012 5:11:47 AM | Interesting (and disturbing) post Freya - I've never been a fan of social networking sites - it's all too 'look at me' for my taste, but I'd not even considered the Chatbot angle. It's yet another reason for not joining Facebook.........
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Posted: 7/1/2012 6:08:15 AM | “If this thread is spam, a self pity thread, or any other type of thread that is against the rules request to have it deleted.”
Ahhh, it wasn’t long then.....I wonder if it’s a chatbot that requested that on the thread :-D ... maybe the mods are chatbots???
If thread is a spam: Does it look like it??....No
Self pity: I am not a chatbot so.... No
Against the rules: well, no idea....but if information is against the rules then yes it might be!
Lightstar1...yes, disturbing....especially as a few people on here, and I mean in the forums, regularly share links.....I can assure you it is an article from a serious scientific weekly paper magazine – the online version exist too....but I wouldn’t want to put a link on here in case it was seen as a scam/advertising/chatboting!! :-D | |
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Posted: 7/1/2012 6:12:36 AM | | Hmm very interesting.. no I hadn't realised they were actually "chatting". At least that would explain some of the conversations I've had recently. | |
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Posted: 7/1/2012 8:53:09 AM | Furyanbabe.........well..... that would depends what kind of conversation you got yourself into :-D.... I am going to quote their way of operating, for the dating sites and chatrooms market (they are cleverly programmed – actually they are self learning program - they are “written” for specific audiences :) ... step aside Cameron!!! Sorry different issue and wrong site! ;) ) “Provocative sexual seduction to elicit personal details”
Not starting a controversy here, but I am guessing that men are probably the main targets on this type of targeting... | |
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Posted: 7/1/2012 9:11:24 AM | | Actually I take that back Freya.. it sounds as if these chatbots have better conversational skills than the men I've talked to recently :) | |
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Posted: 7/1/2012 9:18:47 AM | I'm far from an expert on the subject but i do know a little about chatbots.
They were originally designed as online customer service aids. They have a database of stock questions and answers that is also "intelligent" in the sense that they can adapt to language use and phraseology. An example would be the online chatbot on the Ikea website for example.
Obviously, certain industries have adapted their use and especially in dating and porn industries chatbots are used as a means of enticing potential users onto the site. Furthermore, if someone is silly enough to divulge any personal details, these can be stored on the background databases and presumably used for nefarious purposes.
That's all i know. Apologies for a dull and sterile post! | |
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Posted: 7/1/2012 9:29:19 AM | Justforaminuteor2.... I am definitely no expert either..... just read 1 article!!! But indeed the article does mention that they were invented for the “good”, big companies such as HSBC and Toys R us are using commercial chatbots on their websites...better customer service and cheaper - now that’s a surprise! - but didn’t think it would be relevant to this site....
As for giving away your personal, bank details etc... away...well...what can I say!!!
FuryanBabe.... ha ha ha ha | |
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Posted: 7/2/2012 9:37:03 AM | People, chill. It is not like that. It is not like robots are taking over the humans.
A 'chatbot' or a shorter version a 'bot' is a software that appears like a normal user. I personally designed few of them when I was younger (really simply stuff), in chatroom are useful cause you can set them with few function, the one I designed where to avoid 'swearing', so it recognised a list of word, give the warning to the user and if he carried on for more then 3 warning it was an automatic ban.
But there is always a human that designed them so, no. Fake profile here or on Facebook are actually create by real human beings and not by software. People have a lot of spare time to kill. To avoid this sort of things they invented the captcha (you know the picture you get that ask you to recognise the letters and to write them in the box and press send).
They are useful in big chatroom (like yahoo as mentioned) for monitoring but manly for other reasons that I am sure you aren't interested.
On pof, were you have single user chat are pointless. You get them in porn website but they are like FAQ. Just think that is a set of usual questions with a set of usual answers.
If you get someone reply to your chat almost immediately and you are worried that they could be a bot ask them something random, something less conventional.
Hope this clarify and I tried to made it simpler as possible. | |
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Posted: 7/2/2012 4:20:40 PM | Just on the subject of captchas, did you know that by completing them you're actually helping Google to digitise books when you're completing them. Briefly the guy who created the concept started a company called ReCaptcha, which is now part of Google.
When you're presented with 2 words from ReCaptcha then you're really only being tested on one of the words - and it's the easier of the 2. As long as you get that one right, it doesn't matter what you submit for the 2nd, more difficult to decipher word.
The difficult to decipher word is taken from one of the books that Google is trying to digitise but can't work out what it is, e.g. because the ink is smudged or the page is torn, etc... So they instead ask us lot to do the work for them. As I said earlier, it doesn't matter what you type for the word because Google doesn't know what it is (you can test it yourself next time you come across one) but eventually enough people will type the same word so Google 'learns' what the word is, and can then move on to getting other undecipherable words translated. | |
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Posted: 7/2/2012 8:54:06 PM | | er you don't get chatbots in forums. take that from an IT engineer | |
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Posted: 7/3/2012 3:21:33 AM |
er you don't get chatbots in forums. take that from an IT engineer
Sorry but that's incorrect, there are loads of plugins for importing chatbots into forum scripts. I personally have worked with mchat for phpbb, I've also used alicebot with vBulletin. | |
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