Spam-spam-spam!!

[shimpaku]

I’m not at all sure if this is the proper place to post this question but, nothing ventured, nothing gained and perhaps there are others with the same problem.

I used to be a moderator on a site for some time that eventually went down. We used to get the occasional spammer from time to time but nothing at all too problematic. When this site went down I started my own back in October of ’07. I started out getting the occasional spammer but then it eventually became a nightmare! I and my two moderators could hardly keep up the banning and deletions. I finally made it so that every new registrant had to have administrative approval before being able to become a member.

Well, that certainly alleviated the spam on the site but I still get approximately 8 to 16 spammers a day trying to get on! As I said, there was never anything remotely like this on the other site that I was a moderator on. Each day I deal with people that have insane user names, and ridiculous locations. I’m just glad I made the location a mandatory field to become a member as it helps me to spot these numerous idiots. Why is my site such a spam magnet? Has anyone else had to deal with this and is there anything I can do to try and at least bring this problem down just a few notches? I don’t mind the occasional spam as its only part and parcel of a forum site but this has gotten to be a virtual plague!

It seems as though other forum sites still have the automated registration and log in in for new members as I used to have and are having no such problems. If I still had it set up that way my entire site would be nothing but porn and Viagra! What the hell is going on here and what steps can I take to bring it down to a more manageable matter and get back to not having to give every new member administrative approval as was on the other site and from what I can see, on just about every other forum site? I'm in the midst of creating another forum site (totally different subject matter) and so it is of course closed. I'd really like to also have it as automated registration but I'm afraid I'll run into the same problem. Help......!

~Phil

[Grampz]

I have seen 2 different solutions to your problem, but guess that there are many more. The first is checking to see if it is a spam bot at registration. You can find that modification here.

The other is to make sure they can't post any links until they have a certain number of posts. I have cleared up about 97% of the porn and viagra links coming into my site. You can find that by going here.

I hope these help you.

[cheat-master30]

Well, a few tips I'd say are:

1. Maybe the mods which add posts to the moderation queue if they have key words in, and add things that spammers like to advertise to this list?

2. Not posting links until about five posts.

3. Pre moderate users for their first five posts.

4. Switch to a non CAPTCHA form of verification like question and answer or recaptcha (this and 3 has never got me any spammers).

[Swampfox]

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=141554" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=141554</a>

That stops them cold, havent had one get through in over a year, it does work with 3.7

also implement the human verification options that come with 3.7, specifically the question, make it simple so a human can answer it right but a bot will not be able to

also, and Im sure some may disagree, turn off email verification, Ive seen the bot software in action, they monitor the email account, wait for the verification email, verify the account, then spam your site, if verification is turned off, the email is never sent.

[shimpaku]

Originally Posted by Swampfox

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=141554


also, and Im sure some may disagree, turn off email verification, Ive seen the bot software in action, they monitor the email account, wait for the verification email, verify the account, then spam your site, if verification is turned off, the email is never sent.

Well, I tried various Image Verification settings and it didn't seem to do much good.
However, when I tried this it seems to have stopped the suckers dead in their tracks! I simply entered in a very simple arithmetic question and not one spammer in my email verification in 24 hours! http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=205214

No need to turn off the email verification!
Simply do this:

Set these options to 'NO' for Unregistered, Users Awaiting and COPPA usergroups:
Can Use Email to Friend
Can Email Members

~Phil