Why does vbulletin atract spam?

[dmknights]

ive used many different forum softwares over the years

phpbb, mybb, smf etc etc

Ive only had people registering that actually are there for a reason!

Ive noticed that for some reason vbulletin attracts alot of spammers

Why is that?

[nexialys]

over the years, there was less spam, it's a new tengeant... real commercial spam is on the net for months, not years, so it's sure you did not see it anywhere else in the past.

and vBulletin is not different from IPB or phpBB... go to their support forums and see, you will read a lot of new requests for more anti-spam support.

[dmknights]

thats not answered my question

[nexialys]

if it does not answer your question, make your question clearer, because all the facts are there...

[guile09]

dmknights, I agree. In my honest opinion, vbulletin could be doing alot more to prevent or discourage spammers, yet instead of improving the features that already exist, the focus always seems to be on cramming more stuff in.

Just off the top of my head:

1) Built in support tp prevent signatures or links until a new user has made an admin defined number of posts. Also a way to limit the number of posts a new user can make per day so admins can easily identify the problem members and deal with them.

2) Multiple steps to human verification instead of just one. Captcha + question. An admin defined # of questions to ask. A way for admins to enter several questions and answers.

These are 2 small changes that would go a long way in preventing spammers. If vbulletin can implement blogs and a CMS, this seems trivial. Members shouldn't have to download plugins/products to prevent spam.

[nexialys]

activate email verification cut the spam from 95%... people don't use it because they hate to bother their members... sorry, but if you do not do the effort, you have spam anyway.

[BlueNinjaGo]

We have a custom question set up that they must answer...

Ever since then we haven't gotten one spam bot....

And block e-mail addresses like .ru and other popular spam bot e-mail addresses.

[TNCclubman]

We have a custom question set up that they must answer...

Ever since then we haven't gotten one spam bot....



Ive posted this 10 times on this forum... people like spam I guess...

[guile09]

We have a custom question set up that they must answer...

Ever since then we haven't gotten one spam bot....

And block e-mail addresses like .ru and other popular spam bot e-mail addresses.

I just thnk vbulletin should ship with multiple lines of defense. As it is right now, you can choose 1 form of spam prevention. I want to make it harder for spammers to get in, and harder for them to spam if they do.

New members should have to both answer a question and enter the captcha image text. After that, they should not be allowed to post links to other sites until they have x number of posts. They should also be limited to x number of posts per day until they reach a certain number. By the time a member reaches the post count where they can post links, you will have a pretty good idea if they are legit or not.

[BlueNinjaGo]

Well to each his own...

My site requires both a captcha image and a question (IIRC...it's been so long since I've messed with it) and it does a well enough job. As for not being able to post links, that depends on what your forums are geared towards.

[dmknights]

are all emails that contain mail.ru spammers?

I think vbulletin should implement some kind of feature in the next release to cut out spammers

[nexialys]

why you ask here then, you're on the modification forum, where features not implemented in vb are developed by 3rd party coders... so if it is asked here, it is sure not implemented in the core engine...

[dmknights]

why you ask here then, you're on the modification forum


Err , i think its YOU that is wrong!

As it clearly states, this is the:

General vBulletin Discussions

& 1 more thing, please do not go "off topic"

[Brandon Sheley]

We have a custom question set up that they must answer...

Ever since then we haven't gotten one spam bot....

And block e-mail addresses like .ru and other popular spam bot e-mail addresses.

This is what I do as well on my forums, and we might get one spam post a month now. :up:
ten mins or work, will save you hours of hunting down spam on your boards.

ps.. nexi isn't going off topic, in fact he's trying to help you :rolleyes:
You are asking for vBulletin to be built in with some mods, this would be best asked on the official site, not a modder site.. like Nexi suggested.

It's easy to prevent spam, it requires a "little" work from the admins. ;)

[nexialys]

off topic, me?!... you're kidding, right?!

ok, i talk about the website you're on... it is completely useless to require that Jelsoft add any feature to vBulletin if you are not at the Jelsoft website itself, you're on a fan site here... you will not touch any feeling from the company by posting here with your arguements.

go there: vBulletin Suggestions and Feedback (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=55)

[R1lover]

All you need is e-mail verification and the question and answer... I have this setup on many many sites.... and there is not a spam issue on any of them.

The only spam that get's through is an actual person that post up crap.

The tools are there, you just have to use them. Stop complaining and start learning how to use what vBulletin has given us.

[TNCclubman]

Its like someone complaining they hate scuba diving because they cant hold their breath...

[kNeeLy]

activate email verification cut the spam from 95%... people don't use it because they hate to bother their members... sorry, but if you do not do the effort, you have spam anyway.



I've done this and ask a question. (Knocks on wood) I have had 2 spammers sign up, but not one post since the day I opened the site (almost 5 months ago).

I think setting up and customizing the vb is half the fun of owning one.

[Lynne]

Is Bot - it catches about 100 would-be-spammers a day for us. And then if we do happen to get a spammer, One-Touch Ban will get them. Seriously, we don't use email verification and we use standard Image Verification and hardly have any problem at all. If we do happen to see some sudden problem, I have all new users going into one group and promote them to another group after x days/posts. Right now, both groups have exactly the same permissions, but with a couple easy changes I can set the first group to be very restrictive (moderated, no PMing, no sigs, etc.).

[TigerC10]

activate email verification cut the spam from 95%... people don't use it because they hate to bother their members... sorry, but if you do not do the effort, you have spam anyway.

Well, vBulletin used to have a problem with the random code that was sent through e-mails for activation. It was actually a predictable number, I think this got fixed in 3.7.4 and 3.6.8 PL1. This made vBulletin slightly more susceptable to spambots.



And block e-mail addresses like .ru and other popular spam bot e-mail addresses.
are all emails that contain mail.ru spammers?

A large number of .ru domain e-mail addresses are used for spam because the Russian internet/mail laws are far more relaxed than the rest of the world. Because it's out of the jurisdiction of the rest of the world, they pretty much can't be penalyzed for breaking any other country's laws.

It's sad, really, because one of my good friends is Russian and has a real .ru e-mail address because he's proud of being from Russia. However, half of the websites he visits block his e-mail address because of all of the spammers that use it.


I just thnk vbulletin should ship with multiple lines of defense. As it is right now, you can choose 1 form of spam prevention. I want to make it harder for spammers to get in, and harder for them to spam if they do.

It does ship with multiple lines of defense.


E-mail activation prevents a large number of spambots from being able to activate and post ads.
Image Verification and reCAPTCHA (http://recaptcha.net/) is built into vBulletin, under the "Human Verification Options". Though, reCaptcha is better than the regular image verification.
Ability to ban known spam e-mail addresses (like @*.ru) from being able to register.


These methods are pretty reliable. But, the problem with including defense measures against spam, is that the spambot programmers will start attacking those lines of defense. If Jelsoft leaves the spam prevention mods as mods instead of including them in the product, then the programmers don't program for the mods in mind - and get foiled. Can you dig it?

[PPUS]

I just thnk vbulletin should ship with multiple lines of defense. As it is right now, you can choose 1 form of spam prevention. I want to make it harder for spammers to get in, and harder for them to spam if they do.

New members should have to both answer a question and enter the captcha image text. After that, they should not be allowed to post links to other sites until they have x number of posts. They should also be limited to x number of posts per day until they reach a certain number. By the time a member reaches the post count where they can post links, you will have a pretty good idea if they are legit or not.

How do you set up both a custom question and the image? I have installed re-captcha to help thwart the bots but would like the added option too. Most of my spam came from humans as they go through the email verification but I know the bots will soon be on the way. I opened the forum this past week (converted from another board).

[Cryo]

dmknights, I agree. In my honest opinion, vbulletin could be doing alot more to prevent or discourage spammers, yet instead of improving the features that already exist, the focus always seems to be on cramming more stuff in.
Part of what vB does to prevent spam is to have some a great modification system. Why focus on spam singularly when they can allow the users to handle it as their board needs it? You can include some very basic and easy usergroup promotions to limit what a new user can do. You can also use a spam filtering service in a default install that will check a user's submissions based on post-count to see if they're a spammer or not.

These are 2 small changes that would go a long way in preventing spammers. If vbulletin can implement blogs and a CMS, this seems trivial. Members shouldn't have to download plugins/products to prevent spam.
I downloaded a single product to prevent spam, and I don't even really need it (link prevention). My board is very busy (12 million hits / month with over 1,000 active posters), I set it up the way I felt I needed to and it's exceedingly rare that I get any spam. Spammers are adaptive, and even if the vB team dedicated a ton of time and effort to preventing it they would just adapt and find ways around it. You need to find the solutions that work for you.

I just thnk vbulletin should ship with multiple lines of defense. As it is right now, you can choose 1 form of spam prevention. I want to make it harder for spammers to get in, and harder for them to spam if they do.
It ships with 4 different forms of spam prevention - email verification, CAPTCHA verification, email domain banning (for getting rid of .cn / .ru registrations) and built-in support for (free) anti-spam services (Akismet and Typepad AntiSpam). If your board requires it you can add even more levels by using custom plugins. You could argue a 5th method with usergroup promotions as well.