vbStopForumSpam

[pedigree]

At the point of user registration, the mod checks if the IP number / provided username / email addresses appear on a block list and can block the registration. This queries the StopForumSpam database (where I am a coder and administrator) to see if a new users IP address/email address/IP number are listed as known spammer sources.

Whilst this isnt the most perfect way to stop all forum spam, its another step that spammers have to overcome.

What it does

It checks with a remote database of known forum spammers. Their IP number, email address and forum username are tested and based on your configuration, you can reject / log / accept user registrations based on what you get back.

This version doesnt have
- whitelisting or the ability to submit users to the database but it will within the next week.
- automatic user deletion / post / PM purging. There are good tools out there already, this does something else.

Currently, I would say this is an beta codebase. Please treat it as such.

Instructions are included in the installation.txt file - PLEASE read it first and dont forget to actually upload the files in the upload folder, otherwise it WILL kill your registration progress and you wont see the log file options in admincp.

This is the exact same version that is on the 3.6 forums because it works with 3.54 to 3.84 (at time of wriing, the latest version)

Changes to vB
- 3 new database tables
- 2 database table alternations
- No new templates.
- 2 Hook (register_addmember_process & register_addmember_complete)

Known to work - tested by me
- vBulletin 3.6.8 on Apache 2.2 / PHP 5.1.2 on Linux using cUrl
- vBulletin 3.7 Gold on Apache 2.0 / PHP 4.4.3 on Windows without cUrl (template changes wont work on 3.7 - thats in the next version with auto template changes)

For code to submit spammers to the database, check this post for code changes
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showp...&postcount=288

Reported in the thread to work
- 3.5.4 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.9, 3.6.10, 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3, 3.74, 3.80, 3.81, 3.82, 3.83, 3.8.4

Installers should remember to refresh their ACP navigation window when they first install it so they can see the new log file menu item.

REQUIRES MySQL 4.1.1+

If you want to submit data directly from the user admincp to the database, then you can install an addon mod (Coded by Wired1) here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1646247&postcount=288

You need to have an API key from www.stopforumspam.com in order to submit data, its free and easy to get... The code above is a quick hack that changes the pages "form" so that it submits to the database. As its a quick hack, this relies 100% on javascript being enabled and makes no tests that it is enabled.

Please click Installed

[pedigree]

This is an exact copy of the 3.6 mod as Ive been nagged to near suicide (joking really, I think) from people saying "Why isnt this listed in the 3.8 mods section"

- So now it is.

This should remove any issues with people not installing it because they didnt read the 3.6 mod stating it works from 3.5.4 and might highlight its existance and thus, userbase.

[pedigree]

This is an exact copy of the 3.6 mod as Ive been nagged to near suicide (joking really, I think) from people saying "Why isnt this listed in the 3.8 mods section"

- So now it is.

This should remove any issues with people not installing it because they didnt read the 3.6 mod stating it works from 3.5.4 and might highlight its existance and thus, userbase.

Please read the original 3.6 mod thread at

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=176481

This is where the majority of the answers and replies are. Anything posted in the 3.8 mod section (until 0.7 is release) will be addressed in the original thread. This is to avoid splitting responses.

[TheSupportForum]

are there any code changes to do since 3.6.1, i know there are lots, i use this mod currently for 3.8.4 but codes need updating

[pedigree]

Nope, exactly the same. 0.61 was 0.60 with a tiny change and 0.60 didnt last very long at all. The mod in admincp still says 0.6 but is 0.61, which is what is posted here.

[segwayon]

An excellent mod! Every board should use this full-featured modification if they wish to curtail spam. It includes a panel in the Admincp for reporting new spammers back to the StopForumSpam.com database so that other boards won't get plagued, too. Also, it allows for blocking spammers based on 3 different criteria: their usernames they select, their email addresses, and/or their IP addresses.

[segwayon]

Pedigree: Someone on the lite mod asked if there's a way to query existing members: (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1878311&postcount=48). Would you have any plans for somthing which allows an admin to scour the local database for hits?

[pedigree]

Pedigree: Someone on the lite mod asked if there's a way to query existing members: (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1878311&postcount=48). Would you have any plans for somthing which allows an admin to scour the local database for hits?

I have and will but not a task to be run lightly. If you have , say, 2000 members and you want to check them all, thats 2000 (minimum) remove queries. As we only allow 5000 per day, thats a good slice is a daily allocation. What I might do uis build it around the daily downloadable (5am EST I think) CSV file. This would allow for every detail to be checked - registration ip, last activity ip, username, email address

[wmelnick]

Following the installation instructions gives "Invalid File Specified" when I try to import it. Any ideas?

W

[pedigree]

When you import the XML file?

how about some information, like what file youre importing and what version of vbulletin youre using

[rasp187]

So to update from the 3.6 version we can just import the next XML file?

[segwayon]

I have and will but not a task to be run lightly. If you have , say, 2000 members and you want to check them all, thats 2000 (minimum) remove queries. As we only allow 5000 per day, thats a good slice is a daily allocation. What I might do uis build it around the daily downloadable (5am EST I think) CSV file. This would allow for every detail to be checked - registration ip, last activity ip, username, email address

What I did for the time being was to export the entire Users table in the PHPmyAdmin product as a CSV file, deleted all the unimportant fields, then I designed a form in VB.NET to open the exported CSV file, parse it line by line and add the contents into a listbox, and then roll through the listbox, serially building a URL string with all 3 parameters as you had showed us, and parse the returned pages for the markers on whether they were identified as spammers. Since our board has only 500 members it went well.

[pedigree]

So to update from the 3.6 version we can just import the next XML file?

Just import the XML file in the zip file after uploading the contents of the "Upload" folder to the root of your forum

[xjuliox]

It would be nice to have a feature to search for already registered users for spammers like if i installed vbstopforumspam it would search for everyone that was already register to see if their emails/IP's show up in the stopforumspam database.

[AusPhotography]

<a href="https://www.stopforumspam.com" target="_blank">www.stopforumspam.com</a> XML response is giving errors for the non spammers....
<response success=" <type>ip</type>
<appears>no</appears>
<frequency>0</frequency>
</response>

Should be

<response success="false">
<type>ip</type>
<appears>no</appears>
<frequency>0</frequency>
</response>

And I cant contact them!

[pedigree]

www.stopforumspam.com XML response is giving errors for the non spammers....
<response success=" <type>ip</type>
<appears>no</appears>
<frequency>0</frequency>
</response>

Should be

<response success="false">
<type>ip</type>
<appears>no</appears>
<frequency>0</frequency>
</response>

And I cant contact them!

You just did, Ill pull the source code and look at this.

Edit : Just fixed it. Im not sure who editted that api file in the SVN but its fixed now.

[pedigree]

Following the installation instructions gives "Invalid File Specified" when I try to import it. Any ideas?

I just installed a clean 3.8.4 and imported the plugin (once I enabled plugins) and it installed with no issues at all.

[testbot]

just installed. i'm excited about this. we have a pretty high traffic board and get maybe one new spammer a day. they go right past capatcha and projecthoneypot. obviously user assisted. we manually check all new users against stopforumspam and i was getting ready to write the new 3.8 code but lucky stumbled on to this.

we'll keep a close eye on the logs and do some testing. i hope this adds another layer for them to battle. we might not be able to stop them but we can make it pretty damn difficult and annoying to get at us. lol

thank you for this. we'll give an update in a week and let you know how it goes for us.

[Expat]

This has been working fine so far. One more thing I've done is to delete the "Welcome to our newest member" line from the index page. I see no reason to reward a spammer for registering.

[segwayon]

This has been working fine so far. One more thing I've done is to delete the "Welcome to our newest member" line from the index page. I see no reason to reward a spammer for registering.

Good idea; it does usually say something like "Welcome to our newest member: nFRRserfa2Dfhkjj3." because the ratio of spammers to non-vampires is at least 4 to 1. :)

[AusPhotography]

You just did, Ill pull the source code and look at this.

Edit : Just fixed it. I'm not sure who editted that api file in the SVN but its fixed now.

Thanks for the prompt fix! :up: We had some people not able to join :(

The work around was to set...
"Query Connection Errors / What should happen if the remote connection times out when querying the new registration?" to "Allow Registration" :cool:

We love SFS!! It has cut our mods workload!

Forum: www.ausphotography.net.au

[brightflash]

Got an SQL Database error message not mentioned in installation.txt.

Specific message emailed me from my vBulletin server:

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.4:

Invalid SQL:
ALTER TABLE usergroup ADD vbstopforumspamviewpermissions INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL;

MySQL Error : Duplicate column name 'vbstopforumspamviewpermissions'
Error Number : 1060
Request Date : Tuesday, September 8th 2009 @ 08:32:31 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, September 8th 2009 @ 08:32:32 PM
Script : http:// www.myurl.com/forums/admincp/plugin.php?do=productimport
Referrer : http:// www.myurl.com/forums/admincp/plugin.php?do=productadd
IP Address : 71.212.191.241
Username : admin
Classname : vB_Database_MySQLi
MySQL Version : 5.1.30

Sorry. I am not conversant with SQL. Is this something I need to "worry" about?

Thanks for your help and thanks for what I hope will turn out to be a great mod!

John

[turbosatan]

first off thank you very much for this plugin it works very very well.

Can i ask for an addition to this so when you delete posts as spam then there is an option to report someone as a spammer

or just a user profile option which allows to report as a spammer to stop forum spam.

Some easy way to add them to the stop forum spam DB easily from within the control panel of the forum.

[pedigree]

brightflash it looks like you reinstalled it without first uninstalling it. Uninstall it and then reinstall it. Failing that, then you will need to edit that table in phpMyAdmin and drop that column from the table before reinstalling.

Failing that, drop me a PM and Ill knock you up a forced removal XML file that you can import to uninstall and cleanup so that you can import it again.

[pedigree]

first off thank you very much for this plugin it works very very well.

Can i ask for an addition to this so when you delete posts as spam then there is an option to report someone as a spammer

or just a user profile option which allows to report as a spammer to stop forum spam.

Some easy way to add them to the stop forum spam DB easily from within the control panel of the forum.

Sure, I can add that. I have been granted permission from the brother of the guy who wrote "1 click spam cleanup" to use some of his code. This mod-extra will ban a users, delete his PM/posts/threads and submit his details to the database (if the mod/supermod has been granted permissions to do so of course) This is mostly included in the 0.7 source that Im poking and prodding away at, at the moment

[brightflash]

brightflash it looks like you reinstalled it without first uninstalling it. Uninstall it and then reinstall it. . . .Thanks for the work-around!

Weird!

I had never installed it before.

I'm starting to wonder what's going on with my computer. Here it double-posted my post yesterday. It double-installed vbStopForumSpam . . . (!!!)

Again, thank you.

John

[pedigree]

The stopforumspam.com domain is down at the moment as the site owner forgot to renew the domain. Ive tried to contact him and just hope that hes reading his emails this morning.

[wmelnick]

When you import the XML file?

how about some information, like what file youre importing and what version of vbulletin youre using

Sorry, yes, when I import the XML file into 3.8.4 after the upload had already been done. I tried importing the xml both from my local machine and from the server.

W

Edit: Got it to load by downloading the product xml from the old thread.

[bernie g]

Installed and working perfect, thanks.

I'm new to all of this and have only had my forum up and running for just over a month now. There have been 22 spammers rejected in the last 4 days, not sure if this amount of spammers is the norm for new forums or, I'm doing something wrong lol

[XtremeOffroad]

Installed and working perfect, thanks.

I'm new to all of this and have only had my forum up and running for just over a month now. There have been 22 spammers rejected in the last 4 days, not sure if this amount of spammers is the norm for new forums or, I'm doing something wrong lol

Chances are it's the same bot using different details, (Comment Spammer)
You arent doing anything wrong, They are just persistant littls sob's.
After awhile they will move on,
But not to worry, There will be others on the way, They are like roaches, Once they arrive they just multiply lol
I had the same problem not too long ago.
They have slowed down a bit but will always continue to annoy us for some reason.

Be thankful some Great mods are coming out to help combat them.

[corsacrazy]

im getting 20+ spammers mainly from russia trying to register to my site a day, i have "aproove new sign ups" ON so i can catch them there BUT if this plug in can stop all this then thumbs up. Ill give it a go and report back

[DolphinEcho]

Hi pedigree,

Nice mod you made here, not installed it at the moment but I do have a few questions

1. What happens if www.stopforumspam.com goes offline, does it just hang in the user browser or is there a timeout then continue with registering the user?

2. Is there a way to test it working?

3. If I was to uninstall it for whatever reason will it go back to default?

[rasp187]

Hi pedigree,

Nice mod you made here, not installed it at the moment but I do have a few questions

1. What happens if www.stopforumspam.com goes offline, does it just hang in the user browser or is there a timeout then continue with registering the user?

2. Is there a way to test it working?

3. If I was to uninstall it for whatever reason will it go back to default?

1) It will allow all the registrations access. It won't just hang the attempted registrations.

2) Go to your Logs part of the AdminCP and click the StopForumSpam Log and you will be able to see all the people it has declined and the reason it has done so. On my forum, within about 5 minutes of it being installed, it already had 8-10 spammers/bots on the list for denial of registration.

3) Yes

[segwayon]

What I find odd is the large number of spammers who do successfully register, but who never go to their email to click on and complete the registration process. It's as if they are doing it just to see if the server allows for a new registration of an old spammer account, and if it allows them to register then they just move on because they are using the registration process as a way to check for the presence of an unlocked spammer account without the pitfalls of using the login page.

[Fenriz]

Do I really need to recompile php 5.2.11 with cUrl extension to make this hack working?
If YES, does --with-curl enough or we need --with-curlwrappers also?

[Miss Chatterbox]

Hi,

Would just like to say I have installed this mod and it is fantastic thank you very much.

I have one small question - In vB Options under Spam Managment it asks you to select which anti spam service to use and gives an option of two - "Akismet" and "Typepad AntiSpam Beta" - which option am I supposed to select?

Thank you again :)

[surfer2124]

Awesome app I have it installed and it is blocking a ton of spammers each day.


What I find odd is the large number of spammers who do successfully register, but who never go to their email to click on and complete the registration process. It's as if they are doing it just to see if the server allows for a new registration of an old spammer account, and if it allows them to register then they just move on because they are using the registration process as a way to check for the presence of an unlocked spammer account without the pitfalls of using the login page.

I am seeing the same thing on my boards. Some spammers will make it past but never activate there account. very odd

[nogerorob]

Awesome app I have it installed and it is blocking a ton of spammers each day.
I am seeing the same thing on my boards. Some spammers will make it past but never activate there account. very odd
I see this type of thing on my blog regularly. I think the important thing to remember is that you're dealing with software more than a human. The spamming software that the person is using is not complete enough to log into whatever free email system they're using, open the mail and click on the link.

I have a board with about 31k users, and we get about one new spammer / spambot attempt a day. My mods are agrieved over having to deal with this on a daily basis. We're probably going to give this mod a shot. If it is very good, we'd consider an annual donation to keep this alive.

Thank you very much to those involved in maintaining this modification :up::up::up:

Rob

[cdill35]

I installed this app. It stopped spam but now when any new members try to register the get a database error and can not register after they click "agree to terms". Any help?

[Halfhidden]

This is a superb mod... Thank you so much for creating it. We have a small membership (about 1500) but just lately we've been getting spm bots join and trying to post. We have Resync in place but they are getting past that.
I suppose we've kicked out about 10 a day at the moment.
I've also applied the API key to share the info with the Stop Spam Forum.

[tekknikal]

just wanted to say thanks. this mod was easy to setup and works extremely well.

[JWL]

Awesome mod, and has cut my spam down to almost nothing

Now How about a VB4.0 gold release :up:

[pedigree]

It works with vb4 gold in its current state :)

Ill see what I can do about removing cURL for those people on old servers.

[JWL]

Just installed again :up:

[Skydiver10]

0.61....Updated and reinstalled XML file...Thank you...:up:

[pedigree]

0.61 was just the same, I just forgot to put the correct version in the mod

[Megatr0n]

Any changes in this new version?

[cad2go]

Flawless install and already catching spammers

[mattyk72]

Excellent, exactly what I needed thank you. Just installed and already got my first spammer.

[Medtech]

I've been using this modification since it was first released, it is still the best mod ever!!:up:

[FitgirlWorld]

thanks for a great mod..

lets hope this works for me

[BrightStar]

This is an awersome mod. Thanks a lot :)

[WickedWeb]

Im messed up somewhere. I have it enabled for ip and emails addresses, and disabled for usernames. I have it so its supposed to log and block registration if either match the data. Query connection timeout is set to allow registration.

To test this after installing I tried signing up with a listed spammer information on the stopforumspam site. It logged that the database match the entry but it still allowed registration due to policy it says. Another weird thing is that i have email verification on and after signing up it said I need to verify my email. This should have put me in the "Users awaiting email validation" group. However it did not. With no email validation I was able to take the spam account and post on my forum with no email error messages. The user I made was directly promoted to a regular user but I have no such promotion set up. Some real issues for me right now.. Also I have no language reference to frontend erorr text. What is going on? I uploaded all the files in the package for 3.8.x and also uploaded the product xml file. Any ideas for me to check into?

The reason query connection timeout still allows registration is in case stopforumspam goes down I want people to still be able to sign up.. Just now double checked something else too.. SQL did not execute on product import.. Tried it manually and it returned sql syntax errors.

[WickedWeb]

Does every field that you enable (username, ip, email) have to match before registration is denied? I tried making test accounts from users in the database at stopforum spam and registration is still being allowed. The only difference is my ip is different. I have all 3 enabled. I am unable to create a denied account.

[pedigree]

No, just one of the fields. Its not so much as a "match these fields", its more of a "match any of these fields".

It sounds like you need to change to option to Block instead of the allow

[pedigree]

deleted

[pedigree]

deleted, my bad

[babynino]

Best mod ever... moderators can now focus with other forum related matters. Spambot activity has gone down to almost zero ever since I installed this mod on my forum.

Thanks so much!

[ShadMan]

Terrific hack, thanks!

[ascender]

Following the installation instructions gives "Invalid File Specified" when I try to import it. Any ideas?

W

Same error message here on 3.8.4. No other mods have failed in this manner and can't see anything out of the ordinary.

I'm getting hammered with spam by PM just now, where do I start in finding out why this won't install?

Thanks :)

[ZombieAndy]

Absolutly brilliant modification, i installed this on my forums, we were getting hit bad with PM spammers and this mod catches and prevents around 30 registrations a day at the moment.

Free's up so much time for my staff groups, thank you. amazing job.

[spwolf]

i started getting 100+ new registrations recently, which i think are bots... nothing is helping so far... none of them are doing anything right now, so we will see... mods are waiting ;-)

i will also install mod that allows easy reporting so i can report them...

[WickedWeb]

My installation was logging everything and tagging them as being in the stopforumspam database but even though I had everything set to block the registration it would not block them from registering. They could still register and post.. In one weird case some one without email verification was able to post but I do not know if that was related to this or not but it happened at the same time. I removed everything and all is back to normal. I could not make sense of the registrations not being blocked.

This was on 3.8.3.. I am going to update soon as I can and try again..

[mytweakerart]

simply awesome dude
installed on 3.8.4
youve saved me from those bastages again

http://www.ToyotaBrakeRecall.org

[BGObsession]

I have the mod installed, along with the plug-in to be able to submit spammer info from the admin cp. Seems to be working incredibly well. Only question I have is that when I look at the spam log, sometimes the mod has listed a new registration, but has 'Allowed Registration'. If the modification IDENTIFIED the new registration as a problem in the first place, why would it not block that user from registering? I have it on the default settings, so it should block anyone who has a previously reported username, IP, or email address, right?

It seems inconsistent for the mod to both list the registration in the spam log, but to have allowed the registration anyway? The instances I've seen this occur are ones where the new registration has not yet performed email confirmation. Does that have anything to do with it?

[WickedWeb]

I have the mod installed, along with the plug-in to be able to submit spammer info from the admin cp. Seems to be working incredibly well. Only question I have is that when I look at the spam log, sometimes the mod has listed a new registration, but has 'Allowed Registration'. If the modification IDENTIFIED the new registration as a problem in the first place, why would it not block that user from registering? I have it on the default settings, so it should block anyone who has a previously reported username, IP, or email address, right?

It seems inconsistent for the mod to both list the registration in the spam log, but to have allowed the registration anyway? The instances I've seen this occur are ones where the new registration has not yet performed email confirmation. Does that have anything to do with it?

Finally I have some additional proof. If you read a couple post or so behind this one I have the same problems as you just stated. It seems though that nobody is really supporting this.

[KW802]

Whoops, didn't realize that I posted this in the 3.6.x thread instead of the 3.8.x thread... :o

After upgrading my vB 3.x sites to vB 3.8.5 it meant, of course, that I lost the manual edits to submit the user to StopForumSpam.com from directly in the ACP.

So... I came up with a very quick & very dirty plugin to add an option in the postbit. That way if a spammer does make it through and posts something, I can view the post, click on their name in the postbit, hit the 'Submit' button from the drop-down list (which then takes my browser window to the StopForumSpam.com site and shows me the result of submitting the info), hit the browser 'Back' button, and then continue BAU on cleaning up the spam.

Only Super Mods & above should be able to see the 'Submit' button but, for your own sanity, test it out on your site. ;)

Attached is the plugin XML and a screen shot of how it'll look. Notice this is a plugin and not a product! That means you import via ACP => Plugins & Products => Download/Upload Plugins and *not* through the Manage Products screen.

Yes, it's quick & dirty but it serves my purposes.

[KProjects]

Installed a while ago - can't believe how many it catches throughout the day.. it's like 7 or 8 an hour!!

I'm starting to wonder if they're all spammers.. heh

[sump]

this mod is awesome !! we went form aproximatly 70 -100 registrations to 10/15 it looks like it get about 90% .. very please

there is some talk here about the alllowed .. the ALLOWED that i see did not find any problems with either IP, username or e-mail, just like if i search the IP in google ...

also all of the people that already registred I still must deal with , but from the minute this was installed it went to work !!

see see no error messages when one IS allowed,, DEFAULT settings ,,,

in the past when i have had problems with hacks .. delete as er instructions if any , redownload, reinstall ....

thanks for this great mod !!

[Theo-zzzz]

This mod is blocking about 200 spam registrations a day.
It saves us so much time.

Nominated for MOTM

[noj75]

Installed this last night.
Checked the log this morning and 31 spammers had been blocked. I am so very impressed with this mod.

Thank you Pedigree, excellent work!

Nominated for MOTM!

[Dunhamzzz]

I've had this mod for a while now (almost a year), but over the last few days I've had quite a few emails from real people who have been unable to register because the plugin has blocked them, this is happening on all my forums.

I'm temporarily removing it...

[DanGarion]

It appears that the www.StopSpamLinks.com is dead... :(

[pforums]

Thats cause it's http://www.stopforumspam.com/ :o

[bobnv]

Have an interesting issue. We have this installed on two separate forums, all seems to work well a far as programs operation but on one install "Prune vbStopForumSpam Logs" was installed under the log section and on the other forum, it was not installed. The installations were done by two separate people, could it be that something was missed in the uploads on the one missing the prune section?

BTW, have had this mod installed on one forum for about 6-7 weeks and the log is up to 3300+ the only spammers that get through are the ones that have fresh clean emails and IP's, but that's not many.

[Zookie]

REALLY NICE! Just installed to my vBulletin 3.8.5 and looks like a real winner. However...

I was thinking that leaving the User name check enabled would be a problem as I suspected that common user names would get flagged. For instance, if someone tries to use "Fred" they should get flagged according to http://www.stopforumspam.com/api?username=Fred. I tried testing this by registering a new user with the name Fred and it was allowed even though I have User name checking enabled and the above URL suggests that it should have been blocked. So maybe I'm not understanding how this works...

[Cindyl10]

We have been being attacked for the last month and now they have begun to try and hack into our board since they haven't been able to get through our registration blocks to prevent spammers and trolls. I am running vBulletin 3.8.6 Patch Level 1 and I have spoken to our host and they have suggested I contact vbulletin which I'm trying to do but I also thought I should let you all know what's going on too as if they are able to hack me, they can then hack anyone with this mod. Here is all the info I have on it which I gave to my host

We've been being spammed a lot and had to install a program that rejects spammers registrations as we were getting something like 100 a day. Well one person who was rejected keeps coming back to the board and when I look to see what he's doing, it says "modifying his profile". I wasn't to worried about it since I didn't think there was anything he could do to cause the site to accept his registration anyway, but each time he does it I get a database error and it looks to me like he is trying to force the board to add him as a member. This is what the error says:

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.6:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT DATEDIFF(NOW(), '2010-07-27 20:18:50') AS DAYS;;

MySQL Error : MySQL server has gone away
Error Number : 2006
Request Date : Tuesday, July 27th 2010 @ 09:56:19 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, July 27th 2010 @ 09:57:14 PM
Script : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/reg...p?do=addmember
Referrer : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/register.php?
IP Address : 94.23.18.220
Username : Naramoria
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

***************

In the line that says script is a link and at the end of the link it says: " do=addmember" which is what made me think this... Is this troll a possible hack attempt do you think or am I being paranoid?Hello Cynthia,

Thank you for contacting support.

It does appear that he may be attempting to use SQL Injection, however as long as your forum software is up-to-date and the latest version is installed you should certainly be safe. However, if you would like we can ban 94.23.18.220 from the server, so this way it will ensure he can't access the site or attempt any further malicious injections.

regards,
Melissa

I had them go ahead and do that. But it happened again today:

It's happening again I'm afraid. The people who are attacking us seem very stubborn. The biggest problem is that they're pro's and constantly switch their IP's. That's why we had to install the two programs we did to intercept them. We installed them a week ago on July 23rd and since then the programs have rejected 409 registrations as spammers.

This error message is slightly different though. Here is a copy of it:

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.6:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO vbstopforumspam_remotecache (date, data, spambot, field) VALUES (now(), 'martinkiday', '0', 'username');;

MySQL Error : MySQL server has gone away
Error Number : 2006
Request Date : Friday, July 30th 2010 @ 05:31:02 AM
Error Date : Friday, July 30th 2010 @ 05:32:20 AM
Script : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/reg...p?do=addmember
Referrer : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/register.php?
IP Address : 89.212.200.113
Username : martinkiday
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

I meant to add that one thing that concerns me now is that they've obviously figured out what the main program we're using to defeat them is: vbstopforumspam


Hello Cynthia,

Thank you for your reply.

From the SQL code, it appears they are attempting to inject into the caching system. Honestly, I would strongly suggest providing those results to vBulletin, as the developers would be the best people to tell you whether you are safe from those specific attacks or not. I know from experience that vBulletin is kept up to date regularly and is protected by these type of attacks, however it certainly doesn't hurt to get a second opinion from the source itself .

Please let us know if there is anything further we may assist you with from here.

regards,
Melissa

Please let me know if perhaps you guys can help me and if my board is safe...

[Cindyl10]

We have been being attacked for the last month and now they have begun to try and hack into our board since they haven't been able to get through our registration blocks to prevent spammers and trolls. I am running vBulletin 3.8.6 Patch Level 1 and I have spoken to our host and they have suggested I contact vbulletin which I'm trying to do but I also thought I should let you all know what's going on too as if they are able to hack me, they can then hack anyone with this mod. Here is all the info I have on it which I gave to my host

We've been being spammed a lot and had to install a program that rejects spammers registrations as we were getting something like 100 a day. Well one person who was rejected keeps coming back to the board and when I look to see what he's doing, it says "modifying his profile". I wasn't to worried about it since I didn't think there was anything he could do to cause the site to accept his registration anyway, but each time he does it I get a database error and it looks to me like he is trying to force the board to add him as a member. This is what the error says:

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.6:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT DATEDIFF(NOW(), '2010-07-27 20:18:50') AS DAYS;;

MySQL Error : MySQL server has gone away
Error Number : 2006
Request Date : Tuesday, July 27th 2010 @ 09:56:19 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, July 27th 2010 @ 09:57:14 PM
Script : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/reg...p?do=addmember
Referrer : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/register.php?
IP Address : 94.23.18.220
Username : Naramoria
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

***************

In the line that says script is a link and at the end of the link it says: " do=addmember" which is what made me think this... Is this troll a possible hack attempt do you think or am I being paranoid?Hello Cynthia,

Thank you for contacting support.

It does appear that he may be attempting to use SQL Injection, however as long as your forum software is up-to-date and the latest version is installed you should certainly be safe. However, if you would like we can ban 94.23.18.220 from the server, so this way it will ensure he can't access the site or attempt any further malicious injections.

regards,
Melissa
I had them go ahead and do that. But it happened again today:

It's happening again I'm afraid. The people who are attacking us seem very stubborn. The biggest problem is that they're pro's and constantly switch their IP's. That's why we had to install the two programs we did to intercept them. We installed them a week ago on July 23rd and since then the programs have rejected 409 registrations as spammers.

This error message is slightly different though. Here is a copy of it:

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.6:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO vbstopforumspam_remotecache (date, data, spambot, field) VALUES (now(), 'martinkiday', '0', 'username');;

MySQL Error : MySQL server has gone away
Error Number : 2006
Request Date : Friday, July 30th 2010 @ 05:31:02 AM
Error Date : Friday, July 30th 2010 @ 05:32:20 AM
Script : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/reg...p?do=addmember
Referrer : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/register.php?
IP Address : 89.212.200.113
Username : martinkiday
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

I meant to add that one thing that concerns me now is that they've obviously figured out what the main program we're using to defeat them is: vbstopforumspam
Hello Cynthia,

Thank you for your reply.

From the SQL code, it appears they are attempting to inject into the caching system. Honestly, I would strongly suggest providing those results to vBulletin, as the developers would be the best people to tell you whether you are safe from those specific attacks or not. I know from experience that vBulletin is kept up to date regularly and is protected by these type of attacks, however it certainly doesn't hurt to get a second opinion from the source itself .

Please let us know if there is anything further we may assist you with from here.

regards,
Melissa Please let me know if perhaps you guys can help me and if my board is safe...

Just this morning I discovered that I had yet another database error like the above one and when I checked the "member" who had just registered seems to be legit according to everything I can find out about them, so now I am really really confused! I know for a fact that the above two times were spammers/potential hackers but this time this person seems to be a perfectly legit registration and I doubt if they'd know how to do this... I'll share a copy of the error but I'm just very confused and don't understand any of this as this one looks more like the vbstopforumspam program itself might be responsible for these errors....

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.6:

Invalid SQL:
INSERT HIGH_PRIORITY IGNORE INTO vbstopforumspam_remotecache (date, data, spambot, field) VALUES (now(), 'mr_nazarene', '0', 'username');;

MySQL Error : MySQL server has gone away
Error Number : 2006
Request Date : Friday, July 30th 2010 @ 09:32:00 PM
Error Date : Friday, July 30th 2010 @ 09:32:54 PM
Script : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/register.php?do=addmember
Referrer : http://www.fresh-hope.com/forums/register.php?do=register
IP Address : 64.134.158.177
Username : mr_nazarene
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

Please help me to determine if my board is safe and what is causing this database error.

[KProjects]

Have you looked in the logs that vbstopforumspam keeps (bottom of your admincp in statistics and logs) to see if there are others that aren't causing this error?

Are you getting the 'mysql server has gone away' errors for other pages on your site also?

If it let the last one - mr_nazarine - register, try PMing him to see if he's real..

[Cindyl10]

Yes I have looked through the logs. Nothing seems to cause this error. The first two errors were made by a person who's registration was denied (a lot of times lol) and he was obviously trying to bypass it. When I would look to see what he was doing on the board after his registration was denied it would show him "modifying or editing his profile". It would be at that time that I would get those first two error messages I posted.

As for this last error message, the username is shown twice in a row in the log:
mr_nazarene 2010-07-30 21:33:59 MDCassens@email.nbc.edu 64.134.158.177 Allowed registration
mr_nazarene 2010-07-30 21:33:09 MDCassens@email.nbc.edu 64.134.158.177 Allowed registration

but only shows up as once in the members list and the new registrations list. I checked them out very thoroughly and can't find anything to indicate that they are trolls or spammers or anything other then a regular person who wants to join us... in fact they appear to be a pastor.

The only other "oddity" that was somewhat like this that I've seen happened yesterday. Again someone registered and seemed "normal". (they have since posted and are fine) This is how their registration shows up in the logs:



What is weird is that the only thing that showed up in my member list or new registrations was the last one; none of the other three did...

It has let through only two that I determined were trolls and banned, but those two were only listed once when on the logs such as:

Tanichi 2010-07-28 17:49:29 acneinfo@zenmed.eu 188.153.53.2 Allowed registration

Yet when I looked in new registrations that name isn't there; when I do a search they don't exist. I assumed for lack of a better explanation that when vbStopForumSpam approved them that my other program Auto-Moderate Evading Banned Members caught them and disallowed them... but I have no way of knowing as there are no logs for that program...at least none that I can find... Thank you for your help!

[pedigree]

mysql database errors are a thing of mystery and no one seems to know why they happen with "done away". it bugs me and others.

Tanichi 2010-07-28 17:49:29 acneinfo@zenmed.eu 188.153.53.2 Allowed registration

This means that it passed the mod checking and passed it back to vbulletin, which rejected the user.

The other errors on this page, are shownig when the mod is inserting data into the database, using the vbulletin api and there is no reason why mysql should be disapearing, but it is and there really isnt much that I can do to fix that as I never see this on my test board

[Cindyl10]

oh ok, that's cool then, as long as it's not a hacker! Thanks!

[Naan-Kadavul]

Thanks for the mod, I have installed this. but one problem I am facing.

my friend is having multiple internet connections. he is not able to register in my forum and has been listed as SPAMMER. any ways to solve this issue ?? what about those people who are in cybercafe etc. ???

PLS HELP !

[Naan-Kadavul]

And what is Api Key... how does it work, i have installed this mod in my vBulletin..whats there to do next >?

[Naan-Kadavul]

The www.StopForumSpam.com API Key to submit spammers details with

How can i get API key..please some one helppppppppppp!!!!

[thbertram]

The www.StopForumSpam.com API Key to submit spammers details with

How can i get API key..please some one helppppppppppp!!!!

Go to http://www.stopforumspam.com

[Cindyl10]

One of the RSS feeds I check daily had this article today:

Less Spam, please for Firefox lets you easily create temporary inboxes

So, you go to a new website, and you want to leave a comment. Maybe you want to open an account, but just to check the service out. Of course, they want your email, ... but should you give them your real email? Perhaps you should head over to Mailinator and take a moment to create a temporary inbox.

More:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/09/24/less-spam-please-for-firefox-lets-you-easily-create-temporary-i/
Now that's great for a legit user, but in the hands of spammers this is a nightmare! I went there:

http://www.mailinator.com/index.jsp

and saw this:

What email address should I use? Anything you want! You can be bipper@mailinator.com, pinkystinky@mailinator.com, or if you're a 16-25 year old male you can be bigdaddy@mailinator.com. Just make sure your "anything" is followed by @mailinator.com (or one of our alternate domains list on the left of this page).

There was only one listed there so I thought that's not so bad...until I refreshed the page and discovered that every time you refresh it, it gives you yet another domain name you can use for your email instead of Mailinator! So now I'm refreshing the page over and over and copying all the alternate sites so I can enter them all into our "ban list" of email address. So far I've copied 10 other domain names.

I thought I should let you all know about this too as there's no doubt in my mind that the spammers will (or probably already are) using it. I'm also going over to StopForumSpam and letting them know.

[doubleclick]

I installed this yesterday, and until I have more experience, I have it set to allow all registrations, yet keep a log.

While viewing the log this morning, the messages next to the users say either:


Result on field ip - 178.216.177.177 - Spammer but allowed by policy
Allowed registration


The thing is, when I search for these users listed in the stopforumspam log, they don't exist in my forum.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks,
dc

[thbertram]

I installed this yesterday, and until I have more experience, I have it set to allow all registrations, yet keep a log.

While viewing the log this morning, the messages next to the users say either:


Result on field ip - 178.216.177.177 - Spammer but allowed by policy
Allowed registration


The thing is, when I search for these users listed in the stopforumspam log, they don't exist in my forum.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks,
dc

You aren't doing anything wrong. What you will find is that a large number of the attempts never complete the registration process, at least that has been my experience.

In my case, I moderate all registrations. It's a low traffic, very specific needs site. I may get one legit registration a month (except during a seasonal active period), 1000 or more log entries from the spammers, and maybe only 5 that actually follow thru. It's weird, but in my case, that's the way it works out.

The message "allowed registration" only means the vbStopForumSpam did not stop the process. It doesn't mean that registration actually occurred.

[doubleclick]

Thank you thbertram

Those messages were quite perplexing for me. I saw many identified as spam and "allowed by policy", but only one or two actually showed up in new registrations.

Based on your explanation I've changed my setting from "log and allow" to "block".

Thanks for the clarfication.
dc

[adwade]

I know this is a two-edged sword, but it there a way to indicate to a person who was been denied registration as to 'why' that just happened?

I ask, because after receiving an email yesterday stating...

--------------------------------
Your registration has been denied. This forum maintains a zero tolerance policy against Spammers. Please contact us (via the "Contact Us" Link below) if you believe this is in error.

have tried registering several times and always get the same message...not cool!
--------------------------------

...I realized a common name like 'sean' should not have been dis-allowed registration just because a spammer somewhere, at sometime has apparently used that common name before. :(

For now, I disabled the test user name function of this MOD, but wondered if there was anyway to inform the user as to what the problem was with completing the registration process? I don't think bots would realize the information was there, and it might allow legitimate users to try and re-register given the info.(i.e. Registration Denied due to username, etc)

[JesterP]

Question,

I installed the manual submit via ACP, it worked for quite a while, now all I see is a white page in the ACP frame when clicking the submit button.

What would cause this all of the sudden?

[Chimpie]

Question,

I installed the manual submit via ACP, it worked for quite a while, now all I see is a white page in the ACP frame when clicking the submit button.

What would cause this all of the sudden?

We are experiencing the same problem.

[Itchy Nips]

suggestion:
can you add an option to email the daily logs to an email address we specify? I'd like to be able to monitor blocked registrants without having to log onto the forum to check the logs. this is not a huge deal but would be nice if included.

[realmr]

what to do if the spammer registers somehow and spams ? Is there a way to put up a verification method daily to stop the spammer/bot from posting on a day ?

[blackberry]

For code to submit spammers to the database, check this post for code changes
i cant find this code the link is not working please update me
thanks

[blackberry]

We are experiencing the same problem.
was having same issue, then updated it now i cant even see submit button or thingy to submit data of spammer.

[TPTP]

I just installed a clean 3.8.4 and imported the plugin (once I enabled plugins) and it installed with no issues at all.

I'm getting the same "Invalid File Specified" error on 3.8.2. Pretty simple site, so...

BTW, this is after disabling all of the few products that I have installed, except for vBa.

[adwade]

My vBStopForumSpam LOGS are no longer being generated for some reason. When I look under the product, the Scheduled Task Manager has no entry. I'm guessing I've done something to delete it, but how do I add an entry back in to get the LOGS to generating again??

I've tried re-importing the product w/overwrite, but to no avail.

EDIT: Well, nevermind. Somehow it seems to be working perfectly again w/o any scheduled tasks, so I don't guess it needs one. Sorry to interrupt, now back to your regularly scheduled discussions. ;)

[mholtum]

*Installed. Install went smoothly. Thank you very much. I have been getting hit by spammers hard and had put many things into place and have curbed it some. I am hoping that this will take it a litter further..

[XFSImperial]

Installed. No problems so far on 3.8.6

The past few days, there's been an excessive number of spammers and I've used Stop Forum Spam to verify before banning. Usually the spammers are manageable with only a handful month to month, but I had to ban 20 accounts in the past day, so it's getting a little out of hand.

I ran a test and tried to register with a spammer's email address and it was promptly blocked. Sure hope it continues to work against most of the bots.

[TPTP]

We've been getting slammed, too. So bad that I came back here to find that no solution was offered to the problem that I posted.

In relation to the vBStopForumSpam MOD, users may also be interested in checking out ZB BLOCK. It just requires a single line of CODE added to your global.php file and your vB forum is protected. Oh yeah, and it's FREE

I installed ZB Block, and within minutes, baddies were being blocked. Bingo. Perfect. Thanks for making me aware of a perfect solution.

[ETDC]

For now, I disabled the test user name function of this MOD
Good call - you wouldn't want to alienate legit sign-ups.

[cnredd]

I posted this in the 3.6 area, but didn't get a response, so I'll try here...

I installed on my forum (3.8.2), but I get a blank page when I click to check the logfile (all white next to the menu)...

I've seen where a couple of people got blank pages when they attempt to submit, but I don't even get that far...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/01/4.jpg

[adwade]

Your LINK should (most probably) be:

www.politicalwrinkles.com/forums/admincp/vbstopforumspam.php

Assuming your forum is installed in a /forums Directory off the public_html directory on your server.

[cnredd]

Your LINK should (most probably) be:

www.politicalwrinkles.com/forums/admincp/vbstopforumspam.php

Assuming your forum is installed in a /forums Directory off the public_html directory on your server.Thanks for the try, but that doesn't appear to be it...

As you can see, both the Moderator Log above and the Schedule Log below are in the same directory as the vBStopForumSpam log, so that can't be it....

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/01/8.jpghttps://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/01/9.jpg

I do notice the "?do=choose" at the end of the Mod log and Sched log addresses...That's not at the end of the address for vbstopforumspam.php...I don't know if that plays into it...:confused:

[cnredd]

Been 5 days...tryin' again...

I installed on my forum (3.8.2), but I get a blank page when I click to check the logfile (all white next to the menu)...

I've seen where a couple of people got blank pages when they attempt to submit, but I don't even get that far...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/01/4.jpg

[cnredd]

Anyone? :confused:

[scott_gersforum]

This is a great mod - has vastly reduced the spammers I have on my forum.

[mangus580]

Great Mod! - is there anything similar that can run against the current user database?

[Scalemotorcars]

Just an update. Since installing Ive only had a few spammers. This really cut out most of the junk... Thanks again...

[Scalemotorcars]

Been 5 days...tryin' again...

Make sure you uploaded all files. Also check your permissions. Ill bet its one of those. Im using it without any problems.

[Scalemotorcars]

Just yesterday I realized my database error email was set incorrectly in my config.php so as any good admin would do I fixed it right away. Now I'm kind of wishing I hadn't.

Im getting database error about every 5 minutes or so since then. All the errors are about the same as to whats wrong but the user id and ip are all different. I figured it was the limit at SFS of 1000 calls a day but SFS is not listing these IP's or user ID's as spam so now it looks like a hack.

Heres an example of the latest.

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.4:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT DATEDIFF(NOW(), '2011-02-08 07:20:59') AS DAYS;;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '(NOW(), '2011-02-08 07:20:59') AS DAYS' at line 1
Error Number : 1064
Request Date : Tuesday, February 8th 2011 @ 12:34:55 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, February 8th 2011 @ 12:34:58 PM
Script : http://www.scalemotorcars.com/forum/register.php?do=addmember
Referrer : http://www.scalemotorcars.com/forum/register.php
IP Address : 84.108.193.156
Username : QopCorinas
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

Anyone have an ideal how to fix it or how to suppress the error if it is just a timeout?

Thanks....

[Scalemotorcars]

I may have found the solution myself. I hope its just my antiquated mySQL 4.0. messing it up. https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1676739&postcount=353

So whats it cost to have a site moved to another (newer) server anyway? ;)

[Scalemotorcars]

Every VB board needs this hack. Nominated for MOTH.

Thanks again!!!!

[NakedCrook]

I installed this mod on my vB and I can say this...

Spam registration has gone down to 0.

This is the most useful thing EVER created for vBulletin. Mod of the Year! This should be default in vBulletin. This is the endgame scenario for spammers!

[clarkstoncracke]

Here is my update on this product. I've had it installed for roughly 3 months, and it has now filtered out 16,538 entrees, however my registration numbers are much lower, and I'm receiving many, many emails that legit people are being blocked. I'm not really sure what to do. Even if 10% of the filtered accounts were real, I think I am ahead by being over cautious, as opposed to letting the spam in. Currently looking for a new way to up the accuracy of removing spam bots.

[NakedCrook]

Here is my update on this product. I've had it installed for roughly 3 months, and it has now filtered out 16,538 entrees, however my registration numbers are much lower, and I'm receiving many, many emails that legit people are being blocked. I'm not really sure what to do. Even if 10% of the filtered accounts were real, I think I am ahead by being over cautious, as opposed to letting the spam in. Currently looking for a new way to up the accuracy of removing spam bots.

I have received emails like that too. I let someone through and the first thing that user did was post spam.

Some spam accounts are made by real people who are paid to manually make accounts to beat bot protection.

Do not be fooled.

[Scalemotorcars]

Spammers are getting past this for the last week. Not all but enough to be a pain in the butt. Is there a problem with the api?

[ETDC]

^ Yes, the site's been down for a while now.

[ETDC]

It's now back up. If you care about your forum - and more importantly, your members - then install this today.

[Scalemotorcars]

I love this mod and its been working great for a long time but I still have to check registrations sometimes. Today I got another spam registration. Seems these guys are either getting smarter or using more resources to overwhelm them system.

I hope it gets fixed sometime soon. Like I said its one of the best mods on VB.Org

[Alex510]

I thought it was just me.. but I have been getting database errors like crazy with this Mod. Seems to be working now though.

[TROLL]

In the AdminCP setup page:

Query Connection Errors
What should happen if the remote connection times out when querying the new registration?
* Note: Only applies if set to block listed registrations in the above setting

Allow Registration
or
Block Registration

Does this mean if it fails to connect with the stopforumspam website database should it block or allow by default? Am I correct in that it should Allow by default in this situation? Thanks...

[meijin]

Installed in v3.8.7 PL2 and seems to be working. However, when I go to have a look at the log file, it displays...but at the top of the page I get nine (9) of these error messages on different lines:

Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /var/www/vhosts/myforumname.net/httpdocs/includes/init.php on line 55

and this single error message:

Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /var/www/vhosts/myforumname.net/httpdocs/includes/class_core.php on line 2552

Sorry for being a newbie to this, but could someone help me to understand what is happening here and how I might correct it? Working or not, I can pretty well figure out that I should not be getting this.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[owning_y0u]

when clicking the link in the sp i get invalid post
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1646247&postcount=288 then i get: Invalid Post specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

[CBryant911]

I tried this mod on my latest version of PHP and it wouldn't work, it gave a deprecated message for init.php and class_core.php or something like that.

[popowich]

If you are trying a new install of this addon in a vB 3.8.x forum powered by MySQL Server 5.5.x :
Download the zip file
Extract and edit the product XML file
Change the (3) lines that have : ) TYPE=MyISAM;"

and make them look like :);"
With that change the product appears to install and function correctly.

[Ghostt]

Important security question:
How Can be the whole LOG or the IP log disabled ?

[MotMann]

Spam on Blog. What can i do? Over 400 Message in the Blog or Privat side.

[b6gm6n]

I cannot believe the amount of spammers i get on a daily basis, as exposed by this product which works beautifully btw...

I wondered, in the 'denied' phrase would it be legal of me to redirect them to an annoying site? i suppose these spam-bots are just targeting the usual vbulletin files using a program and not actually a browser? thanks

[CharLzarD]

Installed, thank you. We'll see how this does against the mass amount of spammers I've been dealing with lately.

[Jari37]

I was getting a ridiculous amount of spammers registering (over 50 per day) and this mod put a stop to it. Unfortunately it's also preventing a lot of genuine registrations too, I often get emails from people who have tried to register but been denied on the basis of being a spammer.

I switched it off for a while but was getting bombarded with spammers again, so I've now got it running again but it's still catching genuine registrations in the big spam net. Anyone else having this issue? Just wondering if there's anything I can tweak to fix the problem?

It's only a minor complaint by the way, this mod is a Godsend as having to wade through hundreds of registrations every few days trying to separate the few genuine ones from the spam is something I can happily live without doing.

[thbertram]

If it's their name that's getting them caught in the spam trap, you could tell it not to check name and see how that goes. You're going to get some spammers getting through.

It boils down to which problem is worse: The legitimates getting caught, or the spammers getting through.

[Wonksta]

I would urge those using this Mod to think about donating to http://www.stopforumspam.com/

This has saved me so so so many hours!

[EWGF]

Installed it in conjunction with my mod, which hold off 99% of most spammers. After installing this, this mod showed me the many attempts spammers actually do on my forum, since my own mod didn't log anything. Feels a lot saver now though :)

[tylercruz]

Just installed after spambots hit a chronic new high on my forums. Seems to be working for v3.8.7 PL2 so far...

[christon26]

Is there a way to show how many spam registrations this mod has blocked? Maybe in the What's Going On box? I'd like to show how many spammers have been stopped lol

[ETDC]

Admin CP > Statistics & Logs > vbStopForumSpam Logs

[christon26]

Thanx, I know about the logs, I'd like to show some sort of stats on my forum page as well like the vb4 version of Spam-o-matic ... if I can :)

[andy_mcguire]

Bumping for those that like me didn't know this and had to search through the thread.

If you are trying a new install of this addon in a vB 3.8.x forum powered by MySQL Server 5.5.x :
Download the zip file
Extract and edit the product XML file
Change the (3) lines that have : ) TYPE=MyISAM;"

and make them look like :);"
With that change the product appears to install and function correctly.

Worked a treat, thanks mate!

[bongwater]

database must be down. Users are receiving messages saying "Registration denied. We check new registrations against a database of known forum spammers. At this time, we are unable to contact this database to verify your registration. We are sorry for the inconvenience but please do try again later.""

anybody getting the same problem?

[christon26]

Down for me too, I have a thread to let visitors know they need to request manual registration while the site is down, I also have added a notification to the registration page....better that than a hundred spam registrations to delete lol

[GiaNNi]

Its working for me...

[Alfa1]

SFS seems to be letting some blacklisted IP registrations through. The log shows:

120.63.160.222 Allowed registration

But this IP is blacklisted: http://www.stopforumspam.com/ipcheck/120.63.160.222

What does this mean? Was SFS server offline and did it let the registration through? Or is there another factor at play?

This seems to happen frequently lately.

If this is a case of SFS server being offline, then please consider to add a 'automatically check in SFS database later' function.

[ETDC]

SFS seems to be letting some blacklisted IP registrations through. The log shows:

120.63.160.222 Allowed registration

But this IP is blacklisted: http://www.stopforumspam.com/ipcheck/120.63.160.222

What does this mean? Was SFS server offline and did it let the registration through? Or is there another factor at play?

This seems to happen frequently lately.

If this is a case of SFS server being offline, then please consider to add a 'automatically check in SFS database later' function.
It could be that your setting for 'Remote Expiry' is too low. If you set, say, 10 days any entries listed on the SFS database older than that will still be let through. Some suggest six months as IP addresses can be reallocated.

[wurkanimal]

Installed this. Thank you!

[suj69]

Thanks for this, seems to be working well on 3.8.5!

[Markco]

Thanks you for the plug-in ;)

[toneloc]

Awesome!

Flooded with spam registrations lately so I just installed this 4 minutes ago and went to the Admincp > statistics & logs > vbstopforumspam logs, and just saw that it immediately stoped 10 spam registrations (and counting by the SECOND...)! All within 4 minutes of installing this!

Sooooo happy! Thank you!!!!

vbulletin. 3.8.7

[ETDC]

Add 'IsBot' too and it'll be even fewer.

[toneloc]

I've just now installed that too. Thanks for the tip!

[tylercruz]

If you are trying a new install of this addon in a vB 3.8.x forum powered by MySQL Server 5.5.x :
Download the zip file
Extract and edit the product XML file
Change the (3) lines that have : ) TYPE=MyISAM;"

and make them look like :);"
With that change the product appears to install and function correctly.

Thank you for this. Works perfectly!

[tylercruz]

If you are trying a new install of this addon in a vB 3.8.x forum powered by MySQL Server 5.5.x :
Download the zip file
Extract and edit the product XML file
Change the (3) lines that have : ) TYPE=MyISAM;"

and make them look like :);"
With that change the product appears to install and function correctly.

I just wanted to clarify that you will need to do this regardless of which vBulletin version you're using, but just if you have MySQL 5.5+. You will need to implement this tweak whether you're installing on vB 3.7.x or vB 3.8.x for example.

[CoffeeLovesYou]

Instead of removing TYPE=MyISAM if it is giving you a SQL error, change TYPE to ENGINE
ENGINE=MyISAM
Type was eradicated in SQL 5.5