7500 Spam Submissions in 4 days - Record Breaker!

Discussion in 'Directories' started by vicdigi, Jul 29, 2008.

  1. #1
    We have received in the last 4 days over 7500 spam submissions to our UK Bidding Directory.

    The version was phplinkbid 1.2 which we have now upgraded to version 1.4.2.

    All the of the submissions were 90% from the same email and the titles that were being submitted looked like"zzvrwe9usdmrgjp".

    Has anyone else had this amount of spam submissions in such a short space of time.

    I hope this is the end :eek:
     
    vicdigi, Jul 29, 2008 IP
  2. homepageofthemonth

    homepageofthemonth Peon

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    #2
    Yeah,

    My homepageofthemonth.com dealt with this same bs

    It was crazy, we got a spammy "jsngjkGJHFdsosj" type submission about every 10-15 seconds.

    I actually deleted about 6500 just last night.

    Upgrading does not always solve the problem, so I will pm you with another solution.

    It is an easy fix, but I don't want the g*dd*mn spammers to know what it is.
     
    homepageofthemonth, Jul 29, 2008 IP
  3. gjvblack

    gjvblack Active Member

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    #3
    If you can share the fix with me as well, i use phplinkbid as well. Freaking spammers are getting on my last nerve.... They waste my time and my bandwidth, and create loads of nonsense like "10incasnjzq" every 20 seconds on mine.
     
    gjvblack, Jul 29, 2008 IP
  4. kewlchat

    kewlchat Well-Known Member

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    #4
    wow thats alot of submissions i wonder what kind of bot that got that can do that .. wow..
     
    kewlchat, Jul 29, 2008 IP
  5. xc06

    xc06 Notable Member

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    #5
    Bid directory is easily subject to spam attack, the same as mine: www.prdir.org
     
    xc06, Jul 29, 2008 IP
  6. scoobby

    scoobby Active Member

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    #6
    i get the same at my contact page but not at my submit page.If you like you can share the fix with me also.
     
    scoobby, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  7. vicdigi

    vicdigi Banned

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    #7
    Having upgraded to the latest version of phplinkbid it has had a massive positive effect on the spam submissions but they are still coming through!

    Because of this problem, even though phplinkbid has some fantastic features and that the scale of spam has decreased, you need to ask yourself if:

    Until a mod is found that actually works to stop these spam submissions - do you really want to be in the position of having to delete thousands upon thousands of spam submissions every day?

    .
     
    vicdigi, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  8. mikey1090

    mikey1090 Moderator Staff

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    #8
    I'm amazed at some of you guys. This will be the trillionth time I've had to "self-promote" my own mod.

    phpLinkBid v 1.4 Anti-Spam Mod

    I made this FREE for phpLinkBid v 1.4. It blocks out 99% of the spam by robots. Users such as DP member syted has given feedback stating he has had 0 spam since this mod was installed.

    Stop moaning. It takes 2 minutes, if that to install this free mod. You can sit back and relax when its done.
     
    mikey1090, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  9. vicdigi

    vicdigi Banned

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    #9

    Yes - thanks Mike. Did not work on my DIR buddy. :(
     
    vicdigi, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  10. juniper

    juniper Well-Known Member

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    #10
    maybe you must add code like simple math count before submit button.
     
    juniper, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  11. lipsigprice

    lipsigprice Banned

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    #11
    you have to prevent them by submitting twice by url tracking
     
    lipsigprice, Jul 30, 2008 IP
    Spider-Man likes this.
  12. juniper

    juniper Well-Known Member

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    #12
    also try ip ban.
     
    juniper, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  13. mikey1090

    mikey1090 Moderator Staff

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    #13
    I'd love to hear more. Did it install properly? Did you test it properly?
     
    mikey1090, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  14. homepageofthemonth

    homepageofthemonth Peon

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    #14
    vicdigi,

    I sent you a pm with a solution.

    I have received ZERO spam submissions since I made the changes.

    As the old saying goes...You can lead a horse to water...:D
     
    homepageofthemonth, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  15. vicdigi

    vicdigi Banned

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    #15

    Mikey, the mod installed very easily and worked in the sense that you had to do the maths to continue with the submission.

    I left this for an hour sitting proud and what do you know. I check my email and then database and their they are. All those weird and wonderful spammy submissions were working their way through to our database somehow bypassing the capcha!
     
    vicdigi, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  16. syted

    syted Notable Member

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    #16
    I did say that Mike but since then I've had a few, deleted 3 the other day and 2 more just now. Still an improvement though. :)
     
    syted, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  17. deceylon

    deceylon Well-Known Member

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    #17
    Hey who is the spammer ?
    please PM me.
     
    deceylon, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  18. gray929

    gray929 Banned

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    #18
    Try adding a harder visual confirmation. . .

    Let me know what worked for you and what didnt. tthanks
     
    gray929, Jul 30, 2008 IP
  19. vicdigi

    vicdigi Banned

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    #19
    Thank you all for some of your advices. I will put some of this into action when I get back this evening and post the results a little later.
     
    vicdigi, Jul 31, 2008 IP
  20. mikey1090

    mikey1090 Moderator Staff

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    #20
    This is odd. The only people so far that have complained about this are the people that have upgraded to 1.4 from 1.2.

    Those that did a clean 1.4 install have had no problems with my mod.


    EDIT -

    ukbiddingdirectory.com/buy.html

    I think I found the problem Vic -

    When upgrading from 1.2 to 1.4, the old buy.html page still exists - meaning a robot could still visit this page and spam you.

    I suggest you delete the buy.php file in the content folder, and buy.tpl from the tpl folder you are using.

    Did Mikey save the day? We shall wait and see ;)
     
    mikey1090, Jul 31, 2008 IP