How to stop spam bots on vb 4.x?

[CarlitoBrigante]

Usage of automated bots to bypass most of captchas was the norm; in these days, you can see real people being used to pass through anti-spam protection, especially in forums or in blogging environments where there is a high ROI for spam. I have seen an increase of this type of spam especially in forums around Forex, or forums that in general provided services that had immediate value outside of the forums, like classifieds.

These posters behave like normal members for the first 10-15 posts; at that point, they switch to spammer mode, sometimes in subtle ways. Any form of captcha is entirely useless in these cases; solutions like the one above or even Akismet and centralized spammers IPs databases in general are necessary.

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by vitrag24

You have a point.

So what to do that? Content scrappers? Link?

Bad behavior stops spam bots, scraper bots and malicious bots from accessing your site. Its available for vb3 and vb4.
Spam-o-matic works well on top of that.

[KeyCAPTCHA]

Originally Posted by CarlitoBrigante

Usage of automated bots to bypass most of captchas was the norm;

How long was it the norm?

Originally Posted by CarlitoBrigante

in these days, you can see real people being used to pass through anti-spam protection, especially in forums or in blogging environments where there is a high ROI for spam. I have seen an increase of this type of spam especially in forums around Forex, or forums that in general provided services that had immediate value outside of the forums, like classifieds.

These posters behave like normal members for the first 10-15 posts; at that point, they switch to spammer mode, sometimes in subtle ways. Any form of captcha is entirely useless in these cases; solutions like the one above or even Akismet and centralized spammers IPs databases in general are necessary.

The statistics proves that if one stops bots then the spam also disappears

There are not and never were bots without human spammers behind them, otherwise they are called by viruses but not bots.
And there are no "pure" spammers without bots. Their productivity is so low and, resp., prices so high that they are economically senseless

Stop bots, and this is technically possible, then jump to conclusions

BTW, your home site http://magneticat.com/ blocks humans from even reading it giving, for example, to me:

Forbidden
You do not have permission to access this document.

And I am on black IP of a large ISP, meaning that just on this one you blocking dozens thousand of legitimate users.
Or the whole countries?
Cheers!

[CarlitoBrigante]

Ah, I know trolls with vested interests like you, no problem. You will go a long road selling out your services with this attitude. Nobody implied that there is not a human behind the spam; I implied that there was not a human physically going through the captcha process. What does "called by viruses" mean?

While you like to talk, my experience comes from about 200 forums we worked with during the years, some of them being the biggest vBulletin forums around; websites with 500,000 visitors per month were plagued by spammers even though they used the most advanced captcha systems at the time. A simple usergroup technique like the one above solved their problems. We have no "theory" or "statistic": we saw this happening starting 1-2 years ago. Why or how or the commercial implications I do not care: that is not my job. I see facts, I act on them.

Thankfully, a usergroup technique like the one above is free, unlike your extended service: your captcha, by the way, must be one of the most frustrating systems I have seen in a long time (why on earth are some pieces placed below other pieces, thus being invisible to the user?).

Anybody interested in security and in anti-spam measures instead of just advertising their services would never spend time to criticize the methods I outlined: they are added layers of protection.

On a note, your russian IP is being blocked because it is on a well-known spambot list: amazing, isn't it? If I were a company specialized on anti-spambot measures, I'd at least make sure to have a clean dedicated IP. And no, we do not ban whole IP ranges. The tool we use to protect against spam is a well-known commercial hardened kernel/anti-spam package which loads data about single IPs from some of the best spambot list databases.

Originally Posted by KeyCAPTCHA

How long was it the norm?


The statistics proves that if one stops bots then the spam also disappears

There are not and never were bots without human spammers behind them, otherwise they are called by viruses but not bots.
And there are no "pure" spammers without bots. Their productivity is so low and, resp., prices so high that they are economically senseless

Stop bots, and this is technically possible, then jump to conclusions

BTW, your home site http://magneticat.com/ blocks humans from even reading it giving, for example, to me:


And I am on black IP of a large ISP, meaning that just on this one you blocking dozens thousand of legitimate users.
Or the whole countries?
Cheers!

--------------- Added [DATE]1302551561[/DATE] at [TIME]1302551561[/TIME] ---------------

One more note to the poster: I believe it is better to have strong anti-spam measures that do not punish the good users like Akismet, centralized databases of spammers' IPs, and usergroup promotion schemes like the one I have outlined. The great thing is that these methods are FREE for everybody. Commercial websites need different licenses with Akismet, but it is well worth it.

Captcha systems are just a first barrier, good when not too frustrating for the user; security must be multi-layered. And I will certainly not recommend vBulletin owners I work with captcha systems that are backed by companies that like using trolling as an advertising scheme.

[KeyCAPTCHA]

Originally Posted by CarlitoBrigante

my experience comes from about 200 forums

And mine comes from over 10,000+ protected websites

Originally Posted by CarlitoBrigante

On a note, your russian IP is being blocked because it is on a well-known spambot list: amazing, isn't it? If I were a company specialized on anti-spambot measures,

If I am, then I simply have to know how ordinary user/IP from commonly used ISPs is affected by various spamming and antispamming techniques

Originally Posted by CarlitoBrigante

One more note to the poster: I believe it is better to have strong anti-spam measures that do not punish the good users like Akismet

Akismet:

• routinely being (anti-)helpfully used by blackhat SEO to dump competitors,
• that is inherently retroactive, i.e. doomed to always lag behind the newly invented spamming techniques and approaches,
• dumping legit users web resource owners never see
• is illegal for use in Germany and other EU countries,
• etc.

[CarlitoBrigante]

"Anybody interested in security and in anti-spam measures instead of just advertising their services would never spend time to criticize the methods I outlined: they are added layers of protection."

[thenags]

I've tried the Q&A verification with about 6 different pretty good questions. No answers given away in the question, no simple math problems, etc... spam kept flying in.

I've been testing out Glowhosts Spam-O-Matic all day and it's catching quite a bit of spam but it's also letting in about 2 spambots for every 8 it blocks.

I've now temporarily disabled Spam-O-Matic and I'm testing out KeyCaptcha to see if that can get 'em. Hopefully this works.

I really wish we had the option of enabling 2 Human Verification options. I'd love to have KeyCaptcha on as well as a Q&A.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by thenags

I've tried the Q&A verification with about 6 different pretty good questions. No answers given away in the question, no simple math problems, etc... spam kept flying it.

I've been testing out Glowhosts Spam-O-Matic all day and it's catching quite a bit of spam but it's also letting in about 2 spambots for every 8 it blocks.

I've not temporarily Spam-O-Matic and I'm testing out KeyCaptcha to see if that can get 'em. Hopefully this works.

I really wish we had the option of enabling 2 Human Verification options. I'd love to have KeyCaptcha on as well as a Q&A.

Try this Mod of the Month:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=289463

[thenags]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

Try this Mod of the Month:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=289463

I'll keep that in mind if KeyCaptcha doesn't work. I've only had it installed for about 2hrs so far but so far I've had no spambots join. It was so bad earlier that I was getting several an hour.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by thenags

I'll keep that in mind if KeyCaptcha doesn't work. I've only had it installed for about 2hrs so far but so far I've had no spambots join. It was so bad earlier that I was getting several an hour.

There's no conflict, it's a turnkey installation, and you'll be amazed the number of bots it stops and reports.