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

[djbaxter]

Don't forget also to ban certain email addresses at AdminCP >> Settings >> Options >> User Banning Options >> Banned Email Addresses.

I learned of a new (to me) and very dubious "anonymous" email service today and added it to my list: mailnesia.com

That website describes its service as follows:

Automatically clicks registration links
Disposable email at its best. Whenever you need to register on a site and you don’t want to give out your primary email address, use any @mailnesia.com address instead. Email verification links are visited automatically in the background to validate the account instantly!

My current vBulletin banned email addresses list looks like this:

@mail.ru
@yandex.ru
@yandex.com
.ru
.cn
@moreprobe.com
@sina.com
@hush.com
@buyorganicsheabutter.com
@tennese.bee.pl
@gawab.com
@e-mail.com
bee.pl
@zoho.com
@hushmail.com
@hush.com
@fastmail.fm
@mail.com
@mailinator.com
@web-maill.com
@126.com
@mailnesia.com

[Lionel]

@djbaxter Yes you can totally block China. You don't do it with IP range. You do it with TLD
That was so funny last night. As I was watching Black Hack Down, I was looking at my who's online and all those red dots of no permission kept on popping up as machine guns was erupting on TV
At one point I was tempted to redirect to China military site. Let them crack down on their people

[DAMINK]

Originally Posted by kh99

Looks good - but now I feel like I'm a competitor.

As for the ip banning, I was considering that, but the problem I have is that I feel if ips are going to be banned automatically, you also need a way to monitor the process and search and remove ips, as well as a way for someone to contact you if they get banned by mistake, and then it turns in to a major thing. What I was thinking of doing in the next release (some time this week) is to use the login "strikes" system so that at least it wouldn't be possible for anyone to try too often. I'm also going to try to include a summary email option instead of one per registration.

As it currently stands.
I redirect anyone that trips this mod to a bot trap which writes to the .htaccess file.
Now that does give an option to be unbanned.
This is not my code by any means. Just free stuff on the net.

http://danielwebb.us/software/bot-trap/

Why couldnt this mod have this basic idea implemented into it?
That would fix the problem if ip addresses changing, old bans etc.
I mean if it was to be coded to suit this mod then you would add a "melt ip after X" option and perhaps a way to view the bans.

Here is how it spits it out for me.

http://www.ftw.net.au/blacklist.dat

Like i said its really simple yet it stops them in there tracks.

[kh99]

Thanks again everyone. I'll consider putting something like that in. I'm working on it here and there when I get a chance, but I hope ot have another version out soon.

[kh99]

I'm working on a version with more features, but it's going to take a while so I thought I'd release an update with the features I've had ready for a couple weeks now. Also, some people may be happy with the basic functions, so I'm thinking of maintaining this one as a "light" version.

There are no bug fixes so there's no pressing reason to update, but I've added the following:

- Timer for enforcing the minimum time for legitimate registrations
- Optional maximum time limit
- Time limits for filtering email notifications
- Option to post notifications to a thread

The posting to a thread feature is simple and requires an existing thread, but I'll be improving it in future versions.

[In Omnibus]

Thank You

[kh99]

Ack - 1.1.0 had a small problem with posting notifications to threads (if you use that option), so I fixed it and called it 1.1.1 (this is only a problem if you downloaded v1.1.0, within the past couple hours or so, but if you did you should update).

Sorry for any inconvenience.

[puertoblack2003]

thank you for the update...

[smirkley]

Originally Posted by kh99

I'm working on a version with more features, ... so I'm thinking of maintaining this one as a "light" version.

Whoohoo!!,... not surprised here.

[Bluemax712]

kh99,
Can you explain the setting for Force Wait for Minimum Time
How does it also not force the spambots to wait for same amount of time?