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spam drive me nuts in my phpbb 3 forum

Discussion in 'phpBB' started by ogg, Oct 2, 2009.

  1. #1
    Any best methods?
    I set it to manu activation last year. and now, I still have 20 sign ups per day. of course they all got deleted. Of course real users got disencouraged, but nothing I can do. ANy good method of prevent SPAM?
     
    ogg, Oct 2, 2009 IP
  2. steve87

    steve87 Peon

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    #2
    steve87, Oct 3, 2009 IP
  3. 1-3-3-7

    1-3-3-7 Well-Known Member

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    #3
    I'm pretty sure phpBB has some extra captcha security mod., you could give that a try or e-mail activation, it won't thwart every spammer but it sure helps cut down.
     
    1-3-3-7, Oct 3, 2009 IP
  4. ogg

    ogg Active Member

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    #4
    Thanks a lot for the pointers. Especially steven 87, that is a helpful link.

    I am not tech person. may have to ask someone else do it.
     
    ogg, Oct 3, 2009 IP
  5. steve87

    steve87 Peon

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    #5
    You can PM me, I will protect you from automatic spams.

    Regards
     
    steve87, Oct 3, 2009 IP
  6. Endurer

    Endurer Well-Known Member

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    #6
    The phpbb3 captcha won't stop spam from coming in, maybe the bots have matured. Are there any other alternatives besides captcha? I am getting loads of spam every day on two of my phpbb3 forums as well despite the fact that user registration is through email validation only.
     
    Endurer, Oct 3, 2009 IP
  7. tnenad

    tnenad Guest

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    #7
    Step 1: The first thing you do is activate all the security already included in phpBB, such as user e-mail activation and visual confirmation. NEVER set your forums up so that your members can automatically sign in as soon as they register.

    Step 2: Never make it easy for spammers and hackers to join your forums. Add a number of security measures and then personalize your registration process and make it unique to your own forums.

    Step 3: Set your permissions to a minimum of REG for posting and replying. Never allow guest posting as this keeps a door open for spam bots to ruin your forums. Don't even be tempted to set up a forum for guests to post in.

    Step 4: Use your ban control. If you do have spam bots registered on your forums, ban the email addresses for them and delete the accounts. I suggest using a wild card username, like * as in *@hotmail.com for e-mail addresses on the hotmail.com domain name. In particular, e-mail addresses ending in .ru appear to be the latest email clients used by spam bots and any registration with a .ru domain is highly suspect. So, banning .ru e-mail addresses is advised.

    Now, once you have the standard phpBB settings in place, you will need to add a few hacks that I will list here with the links to download them.


    Live E-Mail Validate

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/4969
    Code (markup):
    The first hack to install is Live E-Mail Validate. This hack ensures that the registration process will fail if the e-mail address being used is not a live e-mail address. This is good because spam bots rarely use live e-mail addresses.

    E-Mail Confirmation

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/3137
    Code (markup):
    The second hack to install is E-Mail Confirmation. This is to ensure that the e-mail address that is being entered is entered correctly and we know how many people can make a simple mistake with their e-mail address, so it helps everyone concerned.

    Add Name and Address to Profile (Not Publicly Viewable)

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6602
    Code (markup):
    The next hack to add is Add Name and Address to Profile (Not Publicly Viewable). The information added is private and viewable only by the administrators and the member themselves. No other member can view this information and because some of the information is "required" to complete registration, spam bots do not know about it and the registration will fail.

    Here are some other hacks that are designed to prevent spammers from joining that you can install if you like. They are optional and should be kept in mind should any of the above measures be compromised by spam bots.

    Anti Bot Question Hack

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6697
    Code (markup):
    This hack is a variable configurable CAPTCHA to prevent spam bot registrations and spam bot guest postings. A question, randomly selected from a question pool, is added to the registration form and/or the post form for guests. This question must be answered correctly to complete the registration or post successfully. You can create your own individual questions or you can use automatically created questions. The hack is completely administrable via the ACP.

    Anti-Spam ACP

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6864
    Code (markup):
    This hack prevents spam bots from registering on your forums by removing the fields of your choice in the registration and profile form until users reach certain requirements. If a spam bot is detected, you are sent an e-mail notification with the username, IP address and more.

    Custom Profile Fields

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6664
    Code (markup):
    This hack allows you to add custom fields to the profile, memberlist and mini profile that appear to the side of each post. Admins can also add admin only fields. Add check boxes, text fields or more. Includes an admin control panel for easy field setup. This hack is handy to add more personal functionality to your forums.

    Inverted Visual Confirmation

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6667
    Code (markup):
    Changes the visual confirmation images that are shown in the standard phpBB visual confirmation. It inverts them so that the background is dark and the letters are light.

    Capitalize Confirmation Code

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/6495
    Code (markup):
    Converts the confirmation code that the user types in to capital letters automatically, once the user has clicked off the text area.

    Photo Visual Confirmation

    http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/7937
    Code (markup):
    Adds a new kind of visual confirmation where the person registering for an account must look at photographs and determine if they are of animals or not.

    By adding more fields to profiles, such as required fields, you will stop the spam bots from registering because, once again, they are unique to your forums and spam bots are not aware that all of these new fields are required.

    Now that you have added all this new information, much of which is required only by your forums, you have virtually defeated spam bots and you can rest easy knowing that 99.9% of your new registrations are genuine and your forums are safe from unwanted intruders.
     
    tnenad, Oct 4, 2009 IP
    pintonbd2 likes this.
  8. MhW

    MhW Active Member

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    #8
    You'll never be able to stop all spam, as quite often humans can sign up to forums wildly pasting their spam - rendering anti-bot measures useless.

    However, phpBB 3.0.6 has reCAPTCHA support by default, as well as several other CAPTCHA options. That, combined with several other methods mentioned in the above post(s) such as custom profile fields will crack down on bots signing up.

    Also check out the following MOD you will be able to install on 3.0.6: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=1795925&start=0 . It's an ajax based sortables list that requires the registering user to drag and drop list items into their appropriate lists. Bots of course, won't have a clue how to use this and subsequently won't be able to register. The lists and options can be configured in Admin Panel, check out the demo .
     
    MhW, Oct 4, 2009 IP
  9. Mobile-Monster

    Mobile-Monster Well-Known Member

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    #9
    For Automated Bot Spam I would suggest using Anti-Bot Question Addon

    http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=570929

    And if you are badly hit by Human(Manual Spam) then here is what you might to do to reduce it to a great extend :

    Admin control Panel > general > Posting > Enable queued posts > set it to 1,2 or 3.

    It has worked for many of my clients.


    Best Regards,
    MM
     
    Mobile-Monster, Oct 5, 2009 IP
  10. pintonbd2

    pintonbd2 Well-Known Member

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    #10
    pintonbd2, Oct 6, 2009 IP
  11. ogg

    ogg Active Member

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    #11
    Thanks all guys/gals for all replies. This is very helpful
     
    ogg, Oct 6, 2009 IP
  12. phaseman

    phaseman Active Member

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    #12
    Don't waste your time with adding anti spam mods, it will not work 100%.
    I have zero spam with no anti spam mods, here's what I did.

    1. go to admin > users and groups.
    2. under users, click Custom profile fields.
    3. From the dropdown menu choose Dropdown box, click create new fields.
    4. Field identification: call it what you want, I chose antispam question.
    5. Required field: tick it
    6. Field name/title presented to the user: Antispam (or what ever you want)
    7. Field description: are you a spam bot (or what ever you want)
    8. Entries: put YES, new line put NO.

    Go back to General > Customs profile fields, no, yes , yes

    Done, no need to refresh template.
     
    phaseman, Oct 17, 2009 IP
  13. Mobile-Monster

    Mobile-Monster Well-Known Member

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    #13
    Can you enlighten us why you think all the anti-mods are just waste of time and does not work at all ?

    Best Regards,
    MM
     
    Mobile-Monster, Oct 17, 2009 IP
  14. phaseman

    phaseman Active Member

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    #14
    When did I say anti spam mods don't work at ALL?

    It won't work 100%, meaning they will work just not 100%.

    I have zero spam with no spam mods, clearly the method I suggested works.
     
    phaseman, Oct 18, 2009 IP
  15. Mobile-Monster

    Mobile-Monster Well-Known Member

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    #15
    The anti-spam mod I suggested few posts above does work 100%. Have used it on a couple of forums and it does stop automated registration quite effectively. Your suggestion is equally effective as well.
     
    Mobile-Monster, Oct 18, 2009 IP
  16. ogg

    ogg Active Member

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    #16
    This is by far the best , easy and no mod required.

     
    ogg, Oct 18, 2009 IP
  17. Jontish

    Jontish Well-Known Member

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    #17
    Search on "spam plugins phpbb". Just a thought.
     
    Jontish, Oct 18, 2009 IP
  18. RectangleMan

    RectangleMan Notable Member

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    #18
    RectangleMan, Oct 21, 2009 IP
  19. ramysarwat

    ramysarwat Peon

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    #19
    best way is to change your capacha or use mods that ask human questions like
    5+5=?
    or
    what is the capital of the united states ?

    this will work
     
    ramysarwat, Nov 3, 2009 IP