Quote Originally Posted by Teryaani View Post
You're right. There are only so many ways. Each 0 could be 0 or O or o or use the special O with a dash through it or include extra spacing, the $ could be a $ or an S or an s or a USD or a US D or they could change their prices. The point is that they can do this with an external tool that scripts it and does it randomly for basically no extra cost to them.

My approach may be wrong, admittedly as I'm a casual pitting myself against a person who does this for money, but for me the trick here is to make it less profitable to do the spam in the first place. Close down the paid and compromised accounts faster. The account blacklist Anneliese mentioned would help in a similar way and may be easier for SE to implement.
Yup, they can definitely use a scripted tool to do the job for them and that's a step in the right direction. Until they got it under control, they would most likely need somebody to monitor and adjust the filters either way though. It's like you said, they will adapt, especially when the filters are first put into place, and there will be things that the automated tool doesn't catch.

As for the account wide blacklist, I'm in 100% agreement with that, not just for spam but in general. Odds are if you blacklist somebody you don't want to talk to or play with their alts either.