A question about the spammers

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » September 27th, 2006, 11:18

So, what with the influx of all that spam recently (Thanks admins for deleting it so fast), I'm curious. Is there any reason we're getting more and more of these guys now?

Back when I'd just joined we'd never even heard of forum spammers.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 27th, 2006, 11:24

Higher up in google results, more sophisticated spammers etc. etc.

narf the best fix i've seen ever has been blocking all free email accounts, (only allowing ISP/owned domain email accounts)

slightly inconvenient, but for the sake of the 1 auth email on signup, almost flawless.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » September 27th, 2006, 11:33

But a lot of people use hotmail/yahoo/gmail and if they get to the sign-up screen and are refused they are not likely to to try again with a different address, I for one would just think 'Sod it, can't be arsed'

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » September 27th, 2006, 11:35

Cheers, though google might be part of the reason.

Hunterkiller · Post by **Hunterkiller** » September 27th, 2006, 11:53

mrbobbins wrote:But a lot of people use hotmail/yahoo/gmail and if they get to the sign-up screen and are refused they are not likely to to try again with a different address, I for one would just think 'Sod it, can't be arsed'

yeah, i only use hotmail, i wouldnt bother signing up if i had to get another email

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 27th, 2006, 11:58

Same here, I just use gmail. I have an ISP mail account but dont use because that means I'd have to felcher out all the spam instead of gmail.

Woo Elephant Yeah

http://spamhuntress.com/2006/09/14/advi ... hpbb-spam/

There are some really interesting comments on this, and I am thinking of using the "Are you a BOT/Moron?" approach to try and catch the bot spam, but as mentioned, it isn't going to stop human spammers, but we have enough of those already*

*they are called 5punkers :o)

Post by **fabyak** » September 27th, 2006, 12:13

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:http://spamhuntress.com/2006/09/14/advi ... hpbb-spam/

There are some really interesting comments on this, and I am thinking of using the "Are you a BOT/Moron?" approach to try and catch the bot spam, but as mentioned, it isn't going to stop human spammers, but we have enough of those already*

*they are called 5punkers :o)

can you do the 'Put these letters in the box:' *insert warped but readable to the human eye characters here* thing?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 27th, 2006, 12:15

fabyak wrote:
can you do the captcha thing?

Yes, and it's enabled on 5punk, but the basic phpbb is crap, dunno if it's possible to add custon ones.

Fear · Post by **Fear** » September 27th, 2006, 12:17

I agree with Wey's approach, the key to doing this is to do something that no other forums do - so the bots aren't going to be able to handle it.

Even something like:

Write this word in the box below: "Horses":

[BOX HERE]

Would catch em out.

Woo Elephant Yeah

Think I might give these 2 a go as well

Block DNSBL Blacklisted Registrants - http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/4878

Easy BotStopper - http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6391

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » September 27th, 2006, 12:36

Those captcha things are a good idea but I've seen one or two that are so messed up I had trouble reading them with my human eyes.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 27th, 2006, 12:41

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:Think I might give these 2 a go as well

Easy BotStopper - http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6391

Maybe use this twice, hide the ICQ box too (given no fucker actually uses icq and most of the bot spammers seem to fill in that box too)

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » September 27th, 2006, 12:44

Reverse Turing Test FTW

Are you a robot?
Yes.
Gotcha!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Turing_test

Post by **Roman Totale** » September 27th, 2006, 17:17

mrbobbins wrote:Reverse Turing Test FTW

I had a horrible thought that might involve faaabulous porn and cyanide laced apples.

iamspamtestingagain

This is not spam.

THIS is spam

On a semi serious note, we have changed a few minor things today, but we need to have a look at whether it reduces the spam or not.

Please do not reply or bang on about new spam accounts/posts, as I am actively looking out for them along with the rest of the admins.

This is Farmer Suitical, reporting live from Bristol on the back of a tractor

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » September 29th, 2006, 16:52

iamspamtestingagain wrote:This is not spam.

THIS is spam

On a semi serious note, we have changed a few minor things today, but we need to have a look at whether it reduces the spam or not.

Please do not reply or bang on about new spam accounts/posts, as I am actively looking out for them along with the rest of the admins.

This is Farmer Suitical, reporting live from Bristol on the back of a tractor

z0MG! SPAMZORS! ADMIN PLZBAN!KTHXBAI!

Awaiting SPNG in 3....2....1...

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » October 1st, 2006, 4:54

What's the deal with the spammers now? they still seem able to sign up, but haven't been posting?

Stoat · Post by **Stoat** » October 1st, 2006, 10:09

Not sure. This recent flurry don't have valid email addresses, so User Authentication catches them. However, I'm pretty sure they're a kind we haven't seen before- all the addresses are similar and none post web urls in their profiles. Odd and difficult to make a decision on.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » October 19th, 2006, 13:53

Would it be smart to add stuff that keeps coming up in the spammer usernames like tramq to the not-allowed names list? should stop them before they can even register