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Is it possible to edit the spam to check for phone numbers? This black magic guy who keeps spamming always uses phone numbers, is it possible to check for this and try to block him?

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    Checking for the words baba ji or babaji is also an option..
    – Aditya
    Jan 3, 2014 at 17:07

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Just flag as spam, there are some automatic mechanisms that will automatically block spam network-wide if enough posts are flagged and/or the users destroyed as spammers by mods.

Trying to detect phone numbers sounds like it would be too dangerous, the chance of false positives would be too high.

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  • Depends, I think he is reusing the same ones? We can specifically block them? Jan 3, 2014 at 20:23
  • @JulianStirling We can but it is a lot of work. For now, lets just flag them and see what the system does. SE recently got a new spam prevention system.
    – Seth
    Jan 3, 2014 at 20:41
  • @Seth, what language are the checks written in? PHP? Is this the work you speak of or is getting it implemented/checking the hard part? Jan 3, 2014 at 20:47
  • @JulianStirling I personally don't know. You'd have to ask the SE developers, but I rather doubt they'd tell you. Most of SE is written in C# however.
    – Seth
    Jan 3, 2014 at 20:48
  • @JulianStirling The blacklist that could be used to block such phone numbers uses regular expressions. So it would certainly possible to block them, but I can almost guarantee that SE would consider this too risky. They occasionally use more drastic blacklists that could cause false positives, but only if there is a whole flood of spam. The blacklisted terms that stay for longer have to be very conservative. Jan 3, 2014 at 20:50
  • Thanks, I see the issue. Flagging and cleaning is better than false positives, and it isn't like we are flooded with it. Jan 3, 2014 at 20:56

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