Spambot Stopper - Prevent Spambots from Registering
 

What is it?
----------------------------
This mod rejects registrations where the form is filled out in less than a minimum time. You can configure one of the following actions to be taken when an automated registration is detected:

- Show a "No Permissions" page
- Display the "Successful Registration" message but without creating an account
- Redirect the user to any URL you choose
- Reload the registration page with an error message of your choosing

You can also provide a list of email addresses to be notified each time a registration is blocked.

Added for version 1.1.1: Time delay enforcer, maximum time option, time limits to cut down on email notifications, posting to a thread.

In the future, I'd like to add some simple logging and statistics, and a summary type of email notification (because people seem to quickly get tired of the single emails).

Note: I coded this myself from scratch, but I would like to acknowledge a couple of previous mods that used this same idea, by users Calorie and noppid, and maybe others. In any case, I believe this one adds some features that the others don't have.

Other advantages: no ads or links, no abuse of update notifications, no disappearing features, no threats to delete the mod (it will never be deleted, at least by me). Also, translations are allowed.

Installation:
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1) If you have "Is Bot", "Stop the Registration Bots", "Spammers Suck!", or another mod that works on registration time, note any admincp settings for that mod then uninstall it.

2) Import the product XML file from the Product Manager.

3) Go to Settings > Options > Spambot Stopper Options and configure the desired settings.

4) IMPORTANT: try to register a new user to make sure that there are no problems with humans registering. If you want, you can also temporarily set the minimum time to a higher value (like 60 seconds) and test to see if the spammer rejection is working.



History:
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1.1.1 (Feb 16, 2013)

• Added timer for enforcing minimum time
• Added maximum registration time limit
• Added time limits for email notifications
• Added posting notificatiosn to a thread

1.0.1 (Feb 01, 2013)

• Fixed bug
• Added check for fake timestamps

1.0 (Jan 31, 2013)

• Initial Release

Reserved

Very nice. Just in time to it seems.

Is this something like the spammers suck mod that is now in the graveyard

Thanks. And yes, it's not a coincidence. I created this one because the author of a similar mod decided to remove his.



Yes, it works the same way.

This is really great. Vbulletin forum owners common stress bot registration may have an end by this mod.
Thank you.

Thanks installed

that's great. The other mod stops 80 spammers daily. Use it in conjunction with Q&A.
This one requires no template edit and gives more options

Good suggestion. We use Q&A (on my site, not vbulletin.org) and never had any problems. But I wanted to (re)create this mod because other people find Q&A isn't effective.

There's an update because I found a bug while working on other features. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Edit: BTW, have people confirmed that this is working for them?

Definitely working for me. Recommend increasing the limit to 20 seconds from the default 15 though - several obvious spambots being caught at 17, 18 seconds on 4 forums where I'm using it.

Thanks. I'll increase the default to 20 in future releases.

And thanks for the confirmation. I kind of rushed out the update because I wasn't sure what effect the bug might have had, but if it was working for you then the answer is that it wasn't having any effect.

bots always pick the first answer in required profile field. So one question is Are you a spammer?

yes
no

and they all pick up yes. That bans them automatically

suggestion. Why not add IP in database and also check IP when registering?

That's a good tip. Is there a mod that does the banning?


I'm not sure what you mean - can you elaborate on that?

No I just added it manually in global_bootstrap_init_start
I ask them which version of vb they are using? but that's specific to my site

0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
and they all pick up 0
and for banned IP, once banned I insert IP in a custom table and at registration:
And I verify that IP at registration register_addmember_process
I stop 80 to 150 bots daily and sort of solve that plague

Thanks, that sounds great. If that's your code and you're giving me permission, maybe I'll include those as options in a later version.

Sure you can include a vboptions to include the trick profile field id.
Once banned I send user to gay.com

I have been using this for 6 months now and that finally gave me a break

Required custom profile fields is great as that increase the registration time

Thanks, I'll consider those for the next update.

And for those complaining about amount of emails they are getting, just create and outlook rule to send those mails to a specific folder, then delete the contents of that folder daily. You will be surprised how fast it gets filled up with banned notifications

That's exactly what I do. And once I verify the best range to set for identifying a spammer for my servers (currently 20 seconds but that's partly server-specific: 2 of the forums are on one dedicated server while the other 2 are on a VPS with a different host - those on the VPS are slower so that's where the 17, 18, and 19 second spambots are showing up), then I just disable the emails.

I really think that this mod is the end for spammers

Sadly, I doubt it. Every time one new hole is plugged, the bastards find another one. And this does nothing about human spammers, of course - just spambots. But it certainly makes a huge difference.

another great mod was to send them a code by mail before registering and they had to enter that code to complete registration

Much Thanks. It's a shame refusal to comply with site policy made this necessary.

Thankyou kh99 for taking the time to recode this.
I will be installing it now and removing the other mods i was using.

Increased time to 25 seconds. Getting spambots trying at 21, 22, 23, 24 seconds. No actual humans blocked yet. Total today for 4 forums is 500+ attempts.

May have to go back to 30 seconds which is what I used before but didn't actually test myself.

I think there should be another anti spam integrated with this mod. something that will delay humans to register so that we can increase the time limit...

Yeah, can see where it's a problem if the bot time is approaching human time. The idea of delaying human registration would work, if I can figure out a way to do that. Or maybe one of the ideas that Lionel suggested would work to differentiate the bots from the humans.

Is it working with this mod?
I mean can I use it both in same time?
Anti-Spam Options - KeyCAPTCHA - Interactive CAPTCHA with Social Features

I can't say for sure, but I looked at it and I don't see any reason that it wouldn't work. It doesn't use the same hooks or anything like that.

FWIW I have this set at 30 seconds and haven't had a single bot get through.

But are you concerned about humans filling out the form in less than 30 seconds?

I'm using 20 and it works great for me, love this mod.

that bot went thru but will be stopped due to last answer

I've also successfully tested a nice way to catch thieves trying to buy via my icart with stolen Credit Card. Once I have some time I will implement for registration. You give them a list of country where they are for them to select. Then you create a function to grab country from IP. if they don't match then you stop them. Recently a fraudster with a Canada IP made a purchase with a Credit Card from France. Of course he got caught. 2 days later the legitimate credit card owner filed an unauthorized claim.

No. I have a dozen required fields. No one could possibly fill them all in under 30 seconds.

Still monitoring via emails from the 4 forums with now well over 1000 registrations blocked since yesterday morning (I won't be continuing to look at all thse emails for very much longer). I've seen times as long as 27 or 28 seconds since I bumped the setting to 30 seconds and it's obvious from the structure of the usernames and email addresses that they're bots (you can spot most of them after a while - the bots aren't very good at constructing fake names and one even had an "@bypass-captcha.com" email address!). None of the blocked registrations have been actual humans.

Kevin, if you want I could PM you the function to grab country code from IP then you verify it vs selected country? A bot will never guess from a list of 100 ++ countries

This thing is amazing. I just made a sale and the country Great Britain from IP was verified by PayPal user address.

I have mine set at about 25. So far no humans blocked that I can see, and I have a very short registration form. No CAPTCHA (since, really, who is this stopping now other than delaying human registrants), but all my verification questions require identifying something in an image. And I often use the same questions for different pictures. So that buys me those few seconds a human would need. So far, so good.