Check4SPAM - Advanced SPAM Search & Destroy!
 

This project is closed. I do not give persmission for anyone to continue it or use any of the code contained in it.

QUICK TIP: Always add your website domain to the URL safe list (so newbies can link to other pages on the forum).

I've not yet had the chance to test with the latest beta. Maybe someone could give it a go and let me know if everything works ok.

wow ... really great job ... :)

Bennefits of using this over the already built in spam destroyer?

This mod is designed with versatility in mind. You can set it as strict or as easy-going as you like, and 100% tailored to your site (rather than a generic filter)... and if the mod flags any posts it puts into the moderation queue (so you can either delete as spam without it ever showing on the forum or teach your filter to allow posts like that in future).

The best feature (or the feature I like best) is you can stop URL's to domain1.com but allow URL's to domain2.com (by using the URL safe list) even is the spammer tries using stealthing tactics.

I'm not saying it's better because I haven't done a side by side test (also this mod was orginally made for 3.6.x so orginally was to fill a 3.6 gap).

All I can say is give it a go, it's been a god send for me.

If you can fool the URL detector PM me and let me know how and I'll upgrade it (i've tried dozens of different url formats and haven't fooled it yet).

It would be awesome if when triggered, a report message was sent to a specified forum like a report :D

Read the write up, it all ready does. *doh!

W.>

Sounds good to me. Thank you! :D

Looks very promising...

Would be excellent if it could be applied to the PM system as well. Let us know who is spaming via private messages, block URLs we don't want as well..

I have a new version coming out soon that includes things like max number of attempts before auto banning etc, so will see if I can put it into the next version.

Yes, this!!!

LOVE IT!!! I had so many spammers now they can't post adds any more :D:D:D thanks

If you are adding a "safe url list" why not automatically and programmatically adding the forum url (using the vBoption) to the list?

does it work for vbb3.6.x?

Spam Destroyer?

All i see is the vBulletin Anti-Spam Key Powered by Akismet... and you need to pay to get a key for that to work, right?

Am i missing something?

this doesnt work with vb 3.7 rc4

i have 'URL Stop' ON/OFF" set to ON and 'URL Stop' Post cut off" set to 10 and i setup a test user that had a post count of 0 but could still post urls?

also i dont see any setting for email address ?

how do you install this, is it just admincp - products/plugins - download/upload plugins - upload xml file?

Thanks

Bug:
1.) If a user edits their post they can bypass the Check4SPAM system and post anything they wish, including links.

2.) It would seem it stops bots from posting links as long as they have less than 5 posts, but see when they post a topic with a link in there and it sends the link they tried to submit to the forum we set it to, it gives them a post toward their post count. So if they post five times and all five times are sent to that forum then they have 5 posts. So now if they post a link it is allowed. Understand?


No only if you are a commercial website. You can get a key for free:
http://www.akismet.com

There's no difference in a free key or commercial key besides one costing money.

awesome, this is what i want

Here's a site with a bunch of spam words that spammers often use: http://www.technologyevangelist.com/..._spam_pre.html

Note: There are some offensive words there.

Thanks for this, spammers have plagued me in the past.
Don't know if you all know about this site:
http://www.stopforumspam.com/

Thanks, this is a great hack! Hopefully it will be updated soon. :)

Thanks this is really useful, stops those annoying users keep posting links.
One touch ban and clean was good too, I cant find it in 3.7..
This supplements that very well.

96 installs so far. What are your experiences with this hack?

Check4spam stops all ads from appearing on our forums (WoW gold bots so far), which is very good. I am waiting for the next version with auto-banning btw, since right now we have to do that manually. It might also be a neat feature to delete the spam user, so that the users table isn't spammed with spam users.

I'd much prefer that spammers were simply stopped from registering altogether, but eh.

any update?

I uninstalled it due to some of the comments here. There are a few bugs and it would be the most useful anti-spam modification available if some features were added, but we haven't seen any updates.

It might still offer basic functions though. Since most spam looks the same it's nice to have something that submits it for moderation automatically.

Andy Huang released something similar to this, and it doesn't have some of the bugs this one has. I'm going to bump it in a minute and ask about the auto-banning feature, but it does have a feature that automatically removes posts for having too many pre-set keywords.

I am most interested in the function 'Stop newbies from posting URL's or email addresses '. I am aware of one other hack that does this, but that one stops users from posting images.

Don't have that specific forum set to add user posts to their post count...

Does this apply to social groups and visitor messages also? If not, please add it.

I am getting the following error on a new user...

Sorry for the lack of support on this recently.


Hi ShackMaster,
This may be down to your server rather than the code (not sure though). I've been really busy recently but have a few bug fixes in the next release (due soon). Maybe that will fix it.

Hi Hal,

If you goto:-
Languages & Phrases > Search in Phrases
Then search for: 'In an effort to stamp out forum SPAM'
replace this with whatever you would like for your forum.
(If you want to say how many posts they need before being able to use URL's then put [postcutoff] <--- this will be replaced by the number of posts selected in the C4S setttings.

Same goes for the other phrase.

Hope that helps.


I have re-written and fixed a few bits in a new version that i have had running on my forum for a while (for testing). Give me a few days and I'll package it up and let you all give it a go.

Would appreciate an answer to this. Thanks woostar

edit: just tested it in visitor message area, seems that this mod does not apply to that area or social groups.

It doesn't yet (purely because I originally made this mod for 3.6) but will do in the next version.

This hack is excellent. So far all spam is prevented and staff is alerted through the 'post spy forum'. Could you please add the following features:
- post all attempts by the same user, in the same thread. One bot now causes a mass of threads to be created.
- add the actual url to the post spy thread: [username] attempted to post [url]

Regarding the "Ignore List" (URLs) option....

If one designates a domain name in the list of allowed URLs, does that designation cover all its subdomains as well? In other words, would specifying domain.com also make forums.domain.com allowable as well? Or, do both variations need to be designated?

Thanks. -- Rik

Spam bots are waiting for a month after registering and then start to post spam. This hack does not prevent this. Please add an option to set the maximum time. In my case I would not use a maximum time, as I am already using this function on the newbie usergroup only.

If a legitimate member gets hit with Check4spam and his posts goes into the spam board how do you moderate the post to remove the spam message and get it back into the population?

You can't. You can make sure that the same url or keyword will not trigger the same action again. Some innocent members will get hassled by this hack. However; it is well worth it.

I love this this mod!!

We've been getting hit every day now and today was the first day of the mod in use.

Caught 4 spammers already and stopped their posts dead. I move them to a board only I can see and many times I can delete the user while they are still on line. This mod is one of the best out there and will save me a ton of time. Now this is a mod I'd pay for.

Please, support it, expand it, enhance it, update it. Keep it going.