Anti-Spam Options - Automatically deny registration for users with multi-dotted email address

On my forum many bots have multi-dotted email address so I wanted to avoid them to create a new account on my forum.

The way to do this is create a new plugin to recognize these multi-dotted email address provided at time of registration and delete them automatically.

Steps:

• Create a new plugin using hook userdata_start

• Use this code:

$this->validfields['email'][VF_CODE] = '
    $max_dots = 1;
    if ($retval = $dm->verify_useremail($data))
    {
        $parts = explode("@", $data);
        if (is_array($parts) && substr_count($parts[0], ".") > $max_dots)
        {
            $dm->error("bademail");
            $retval = false;
        }
    }
    return $retval;
';

It only checks the part before the '@', so set $max_dots to the number of dots you will allow (I think one dot in an email name probably isn't unusual, but that's up to you). Also, this uses the default 'bademail' phrase, but if you'd rather have a special error messages for "too many dots" you can create a phrase and use the varname in place of 'bademail'.

Special thanks to kh99 who provided this solution.

[copjend]

Many thank

[Boofo]

If you use email verification, that should catch the phony email addresses so they wouldn't be able to register, anyway.

[Snowhog]

This plugin (not a MOD) was suggested to me based on my post that was answered by kh99 at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....12&postcount=3

It doesn't delete registrants with multi-dotted emails, it merely prevents them from actually registering.

[djbaxter]

This is a good idea.

To prevent brain strain, can you easily tell me how to also check for semicolons or colons before the @? For a while I was getting Chinese bots with email address like gobbledygoop;more_gobbledygoop@somesite.com

[Snowhog]

You could write two additional plugins (give each a unique plugin name) using the code with only a slight modification.

Plugin to deny registration if email address contains any colons preceding the @

$this->validfields['email'][VF_CODE] = '
    $max_colons = 0;
    if ($retval = $dm->verify_useremail($data))
    {
        $parts = explode("@", $data);
        if (is_array($parts) && substr_count($parts[0], ":") > $max_colons)
        {
            $dm->error("bademail");
            $retval = false;
        }
    }
    return $retval;
';

Plugin to deny registration if email address contains any semicolons preceding the @

$this->validfields['email'][VF_CODE] = '
    $max_semicolons = 0;
    if ($retval = $dm->verify_useremail($data))
    {
        $parts = explode("@", $data);
        if (is_array($parts) && substr_count($parts[0], ";") > $max_semicolons)
        {
            $dm->error("bademail");
            $retval = false;
        }
    }
    return $retval;
';

I'm sure that these could be incorporated into the original plugin, but I'm not a coder, so maybe kh99 can suggest how to do that.

[Boofo]

You should be able to do a preg_match to cover all of them in a single piece of code.

[djbaxter]

Thanks. I'll play around with this a bit and see if I can make it one if a or b or c statement.

[Boofo]

Maybe make it a setting where you can add what to exclude.

[djbaxter]

That's probably a bit beyond my vBulletin skills.