Social Media spamming?

ExpertVM

We had a client who always request for new IP address for their new server. Our inital red flag for such request is email spamming but it is not.

They had been our client for quite some time for now. They always mention that they need new IP address for their social media.

Could they be using our IP address to perform spamming in social media platform?

We want to know more before this issue gets out of hand and even social media network blocking our netblock.

Thanks in advance

Nekki

Client should be justifying IP use and 'for social media' is too vague, ask them to fully justify the usage.

VortexMagnus

@Nekki said:
Client should be justifying IP use and 'for social media' is too vague, ask them to fully justify the usage.

This, I'm pretty sure that justification doesn't in any way meet ARIN, RIPE, APNIC or anyone justification guidelines.

For us, the only justification is game servers, VM's and SSL. Flexibility on other requirements but every request is manually reviewed.

You should only really issue multiple IPv4 in a circumstance where:
A) IPv6 cannot be utilized.
Cannot be achieved from one IP address.

ExpertVM

Yes they are using VM on our end. Each VM has only 1 IP allowed.

ExpertVM

@Nekki Yes we asked for this. They mention they are marketing company dealing mainly on social media.

Thats why this got us puzzled. Unless they are using to spam social media otherwise we cant think of anything else.

datanoise

Maybe they run bots and those get banned for "automated activity" or something similar after a while. How often do they need a new IP address?

Scottsman

could be running account creator bots, could be using the vm's for facebook ads cloaking, could be running a social signal service.
could be anything, only the customer can tell you what exactly they got going on.

GoatSeller

They are running bots, since you only provide 1 IP per VM and their request isn't justified and is their responsibility, they should cover the costs of the IPs = get a new box or set them up with multiple IPs (Make it an annual offer). Either that or they make a more optimized/stable bot and take easy not to get their IP banned. It seems they want you to cover the cost of them not having a proper bot (or not paying enough for one) + not wanting to use proxies...

impossiblystupid

There may be some confusion here on what "new IP" means. Does it mean they want additional IPs, or does it mean they want to swap their current IP for a different one?

Short of inspecting their packets and/or examining what's running on their VM, you have to assume they are dirtying up your IP space and act accordingly. The details don't really much matter, though; if you gave them a clean IP, they should be able to just keep using the clean IP. If they're ruining your reputation through abuse, they are a bad client and you should get rid of them.

ExpertVM

Thanks guy. They went silent after asking them more information.

copperhost

If you suspect something fishy is going on its always good to ask them what they are using it for.

GCat

@ExpertVM said:
@Nekki Yes we asked for this. They mention they are marketing company dealing mainly on social media.

Thats why this got us puzzled. Unless they are using to spam social media otherwise we cant think of anything else.

Likely crawlers access to business pages updating/posting/deleting content without using the proper APIs

ricardo

Yep, something that hits rate limits or IP bans. If you're OK with it, just charge them for every IP switch. I came across a host lately that charges 5 bucks for such a thing.

dedipromo

I've seen people using different IPs to forge comments and reviews on some product-listing or product-reviewing website (such as WHT, which may require different IPs for registration).

Virpus

Have you received any abuse requests for their existing IPs? If the client has been with you for quite some time, you should have some sort of report with him

ExpertVM

@Virpus I have not heard social media reporting such abuse (like email feedback loop?) before. Will be helpful if you can point me where to enroll for something like this.

ricardo

Sweet irony

jar

@adamjones0143 said:
Social spam is unwanted spam content appearing on social networks and any website with user-generated content . It can be manifested in many ways, including bulk messages, profanity, insults, hate speech, malicious links, fraudulent reviews, fake friends, and personally identifiable information.

Any chance you're an expert?

Virpus

@ExpertVM said:
@Virpus I have not heard social media reporting such abuse (like email feedback loop?) before. Will be helpful if you can point me where to enroll for something like this.

Typically abuse complaints are sent to the abuse contact on your IPs. You can look up who this is by doing a whois at arin: https://www.arin.net/ (top right).

If you don't own your IPs, these are likely sent whooever does own them who would the (in theory) pass the abuse complaints along to you.

GoatSeller

@adamjones0143 said:
Social spam is unwanted spam content appearing on social networks and any website with user-generated content . It can be manifested in many ways, including bulk messages, profanity, insults, hate speech, malicious links, fraudulent reviews, fake friends, and personally identifiable information.

f*k me, got anymore of that knowledge ?

bugrakoc

@adamjones0143 said:
Social spam is unwanted spam content appearing on social networks and any website with user-generated content . It can be manifested in many ways, including bulk messages, profanity, insults, hate speech, malicious links, fraudulent reviews, fake friends, and personally identifiable information.

Do you teach somewhere?