SPAM BOT help needed
 

I have searched and searched, any I am coming up empty on this.


History:

My group has our own private forums. I am handling all the moderation by myself. I am being overrun by these SPAMMERS. I get about 50-100 new registrations a day.

I have HUMAN VERIFICATION set to reCaptcha. I also added an "Image Verification" mod that makes someone registering pick the right picture before being allowed to register. But, it's barely helped.

I also do NOT allow post until I have moderated a new member.

How I moderate new users

When a SPAMMER registers, they are automatically placed in either

(COPPA) Users awaiting moderation or
Users awaiting email confirmation

For COPPA, I go into AdminCP>Users>Search for Users>Quick Search>List users Awaiting moderation... this allows me to mass delete the spammers.

As for Users awaiting email confirmation, I have to go to AdminCP>Users>Move/Prune Users to mass delete that group.

My question

Is this what everyone does? Can someone suggest a better way?

Thanks in advance.

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=2189988#post2189988" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showt...88#post2189988</a>

I have a similar problem... how do you automatically put spammers in the (COPPA) Users awaiting moderation usergroup?

Btw, don't bother with email confirmation, spambots have been able to verify mails for years now, so it's just an extra annoyance for users with no effect on spammers.

We were using ReCaptcha, then around the beginning of Jan. we saw a big increase in spammers and it seems like a lot of other sites did too, and the rumor was that a bot had been developed to get past ReCaptcha. At the suggestion of someone here we switched to Question/Answer verification and that reduced 'spammer' registrations from 100/day to around 10/day. I've been changing the questions occasionally and it seems to make no difference, so I've been assuming these are real people as opposed to bots. Most of them are just putting links in the profile so it's not a big deal, we clean them up occasionally.

But you say you've got an additional Image Verification so I don't know if you would see the same decrease we did. Also, someone asks this same question periodically and people usually recommend some mods, but I don't remember what they are. You could try searching this subforum, or else maybe someone will answer it again here.

We've been using Q/A verification but spammer signups got past them as if they weren't there in the last few months and you can only change the questions so often. No point if it's humans that are getting through though.

And yea, ReCaptcha's been broken, it's useless.

I am not sure exactly what determine whether they go to COPPA or the 'Waiting on Email Verification' usergroup but it is always one or the other. Maybe COPPA is based on what birthdate they enter?

Personally, I wish I could get everyone dumped into COPPA... since it is so easy to mass delete.