Anti-Spam Options - 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:
----------------------------
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:
----------------------------
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

[kh99]

Thanks everyone for sharing that info.

[sweetpotato]

Just installed for my site. Seems to work fine. Need more time to check it out.
Thanks,

[SGuadagno]

Since i installed, no more bots. Very nice

[Bow Walker]

Just installed this yesterday and already I notice that there are no obvious spammers trying to register - whereas before I was getting 30 - 40 per day.

It's early yet, but this mod seems to be working great.

Thanks a lot...:up:

[motorhaven]

Even on an extremely busy forum you shouldn't be getting dozens or hundreds per day, not if you properly manage your server. A big part of this is deny thing HTTP access from common server farm IP ranges. I have about major 300 server farms blocked from all over the world, and it knocks out 95% of the spammers.

Plus setup whitelist mod_rewrite rules in your .htaccess to give obvious non-browsers a 403 error code.

One of the forums I recently purchased didn't do any of this, and had a ton of daily spammer registrations. When I implemented the above it dropped to 1-2 per day. Over time as I've added more server farm IP ranges the number has dropped further.

Now, that being said, this is a great mod. I installed it and it caught an IP yesterday. I looked it up on projecthoneypot.org, sure enoug it was an active bad IP. I looked up the IP range, validated it was a server farm and added that range to my block list. This plug-in will help me find more server farms to block, especially the smaller farms, and that makes it very handy.

Also, I block all of China. In over 15 years of operating forums I don't believe I've seen a legitimate user China (just spammers, crawlers, scrapers, etc.).

[Lionel]

Originally Posted by motorhaven

Also, I block all of China. In over 15 years of operating forums I don't believe I've seen a legitimate user China (just spammers, crawlers, scrapers, etc.).

Agreed. The bulk of spammers comes from China and Russia. Besides blocking them I also redirect them to China military. After being bombarded they will deal with their own

[Bluemax712]

kh99,
Wanted to change the email subject line to add the ip addresses
so changed these two phrases:

$vbphrase[kh99_sbs_notifyeach]
Registration Rejected $regip

$vbphrase[kh99_sbs_notifyeach_accepted]
Registration Successful $regip

Do you see foresee any problems with this?

[kh99]

No, I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work.

[Bluemax712]

Originally Posted by kh99

No, I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work.

Wow that was quick, thanks.

One problem I haven't been able to fix but involves Glowhost Spam-O-Matic
recently I needed to enable the option:
Auto-Moderation: Minimum Post Count = 6

but now everytime a notice is written to the Spambot Stopper thread
it is flagged for moderation

Have tried setting the Spambot Stopper id to 1
and also creating a new user with admin permissions

any ideas?

[kh99]

Originally Posted by apsrfvb4

any ideas?

Hmm...could it be that the forum your thread is in is set to not count posts (in the forum manager, "Count Posts Made in this Forum Towards User Post Counts" set to No)? But that would only be the problem if the user you're posting as didn't have at least 6 posts in some other forum.

I'll take a look at it when I get a chance, there may be a setting when adding a post that will stop it from being moderated (or maybe I'll have to look at Spam-O-Matic to see what it's doing).