Spam problem emerging?

[SteveWrightNZ]

Originally Posted by Magnum

Put a waiting period on it so its too much work for the spammers and then their first 3 posts must be approved

I second that. I'm sure genuine prospective members will understand the issues. This is the internet after all. A kindly worded explanation and apology could be included in the new-member signup process.


S

[David Staten]

Originally Posted by SteveWrightNZ

I second that. I'm sure genuine prospective members will understand the issues. This is the internet after all. A kindly worded explanation and apology could be included in the new-member signup process.


S

I think a waiting period would be uncalled for if there was validation for the first few posts.. But I agree that the Spam is annoying.. and it would be great to put as much of a stop to it as we can

Dave

[Waiter]

Personally, I believe CAPTCHA is the way to go. Its simple, unobtrusive, and allows a real person to post immediately.

This method requires a new user to type in a series of letters and numbers that are displayed. The displayed letters and numbers are randomly generated and are displayed as a photograph. This makes it virtually impossible for the automated register's to read the letters and numbers.

This can be done via Admin CP > vBulletin Option > User Registration Options; set Image Verification to yes.

Waiter

[John Slade]

I checked. Image verification is set to Yes. Maybe Dan or Dust switched it on recently.

[Dust]

Dan did it when it became available - he be on top of it

We get a lot of registrations, but just a few that actually return the email and can post

[Dust]

just deleted 15 "new" registered user - none had replied and most had the same email address.

[Kim]

Hello all - please pardon my interuption on your forum.

I stumbled across this site/thread while searching spammers of my own forum.
It seems we are in the same boat and having trouble with several of the exact same people.

One thing I have discovered you may be interested in: there are entire "spammer boards" (for lack of a better term). These individuals visit the phpBB and vBulletin help boards, plus search terms like 'message board', 'forum', etc. to find our sites. Once they find your board they post the URL on their site and you get another wave of spammers coming through. The more popular your site becomes, the more visits and problems you can expect.

What they are hoping to accomplish is that their URL gets picked up by a search engine bot when it crawls your site. Your popularity gives more credit to their link and boosts their spam site.

Seems like a waste of time to me, with little chance of actually working but that doesn't stop them from trying. I am currently getting anywhere from 30 - 50 of them each day.

Basically, I just wanted to offer you a heads-up and tell you to keep doing what you're doing - visual and e-mail confirmation. I have already tried the probationary period, it didn't make any difference. They behaved for the first couple of posts to gain access and then cut loose.

If you would like to double-check any new registraints with me that you may not be sure of, I would be happy to share that info and save you all some of the messes I have had to clean up.

Good luck!

[Dust]

Originally Posted by Jon Matcho

Not to rain on the parade, but you need to take a closer look at your members list. The first several on this page are bogus/spammers. I have the same issue, but they get quickly deleted.

If it weren't for the 1 Long-EZ in Russia, I'd restrict anyone from logging in with an e-mail address ending in '.ru'

Anyway, congratulations!

Yes the thousand means nothing, just fun that it occurred with a vari builder. would have happened sooner, but, I've been deleting too many spammers, till we upgraded, the rush seems to have stopped.

[tnt]

Ok, I don't think this morning's new spammer will be converting to a canardist. Anybody want to purge him/her/it?

[Jon Matcho]

Originally Posted by Dust

just deleted 15 "new" registered user - none had replied and most had the same email address.

You should turn on the requirement to force unique e-mail addresses as that's a common spammer thing to do. Forcing them to activate with a real AND unique e-mail address knocks a few of them out.

[Dust]

Jon - the requirement has been on for ages

Tnt - done as soon as i signed on dis mornin

I ban em now - stops new ones with the same email - used to delete em and dey would just come back

[John Slade]

I deleted two bot 'members' today. Mike, new users with weird user names - just do a quick google and you'll see the name coming up under a whole bunch of forums. Click on the user name, hit user options, admin, log in, select delete. Done. I wish there was an easy way to put a stop to this crap.

By the way, I'm getting fairly good at deleting users these days . If I happen to delete a 'real person' who actually wants to contribute - my apologies in advance. Just register again and send me a PM telling me you're real.

Maybe we should conduct registration interviews....

Oops - just read your note above. Banning it is. - Of course ithey could just come in under another email address.
Still beats me trying to understand what this achieves.

[ZG4Me]

Originally Posted by John Slade

I deleted two bot 'members' today. Mike, new users with weird user names - just do a quick google and you'll see the name coming up under a whole bunch of forums. Click on the user name, hit user options, admin, log in, select delete. Done. I wish there was an easy way to put a stop to this crap.

By the way, I'm getting fairly good at deleting users these days . If I happen to delete a 'real person' who actually wants to contribute - my apologies in advance. Just register again and send me a PM telling me you're real.

I'll ass-u-me this forum administers somewhat like mine...

Don't have email confirmation turned on.
Automate the email to read: "We'll get a round tuit, email the forum admin's at xyz@pdq.com if you absolutely *have* to post B4 we get round tuit."

Admin once a week (MWF for John, TThSSu for Dust?), activate the new users, delete the others.

BTW, FWIW, banning an IP may not be an ideal solution. Banning my concours.org IP would ban 1k potential members. Banning an email address preferrable, but there's a bajillion of them.

Ain't being an admin fun

Rick

[SteveWrightNZ]

John,

Do not worry too much about offending new users with stringent joining requirements. Everyone these days understands the way of the internet, and that strong measures must be taken.


S

[Clutch Cargo]

Don't you think it's funny (strange not ha ha) that the bots are drawn to the Finishes finishing topic?

When I see that topic come up wih a new thread I look askew at it.

So far it's been 100 % bot magnet.