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190 members in 3 days. ALL FAKE! How do i stop this??

Discussion in 'Forum Management' started by welshmullen, Jul 12, 2011.

  1. #1
    I have been getting lots of fake members ever since i started my forum, they make an account with a username like aschmetllk or steds4sale and it takes me aages going through to delete them all. They all have thier location as the same as thier username so i am able to tell who the fake ones are. They dont make any posts but i dont want them there!

    Does anybody know haw i could prevent this? I am still a noob so if you could make things easy to understand that would be great!

    I am using a bbpress forum which is on my website in my signiture link.

    Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to help me :)

    Jamie
     
    welshmullen, Jul 12, 2011 IP
  2. DJboutit2

    DJboutit2 Active Member

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    #2
    In Admin panel set so only 1 email can be allowed to register only 1 ip can allowed to be registered last block proxies from viewing your forum
    You do not want the same email & ip for like 50 members
     
    DJboutit2, Jul 12, 2011 IP
  3. welshmullen

    welshmullen Peon

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    #3
    Im not sure if i have those options in my admin panel, as i have been looking for something like that. My forum is with bbpress
     
    welshmullen, Jul 13, 2011 IP
  4. hans

    hans Well-Known Member

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    #4
    1. you chose a particular forum because you have STUDIED all features and security FIRST ...

    you can make accounts to be approved by you (admin) instead of auto-approval
    there is a reason why ppl have multiple accounts - many forum offer profile links = backlinks !!
    and some forum offer upload of malware hidden in GIF or other uploadable files
    a forum configured by a novice is one of the easiest way to break into a server/webspace and setup phishing sites or malware

    unless you have already lots of traffic
    you may consider change of forum software to have all the control features you NEED to be safe and secure and in control
    if your forum is the one in your profile homepage - then you still have near zero traffic and thus would have time to change your forum SW unless you FIND or ADD all needed features for existing forum
     
    hans, Jul 13, 2011 IP
  5. welshmullen

    welshmullen Peon

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    #5
    Thank you hans, i already thought about using another forum. But as i said i am a total NOOB. This forum was installed for me and i wouldnt know how to change it if i wanted to :(
     
    welshmullen, Jul 13, 2011 IP
  6. hans

    hans Well-Known Member

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    #6
    specially as a newbie
    it is like getting married
    first select the right one
    then prepare and learn for a lifetime relationship
    with your forum

    may be better to close down a few weeks, DE-install properly to make sure all doors closed
    take time to study all different forum SW and features
    best may be have a look at OLD established high traffic forums and at the very bottom you usually see the signature of the forum version and type
    there surely is a reason why high traffic sites use or favor particular forum SW such as vbulletin etc

    there are many feature you have to LIVE a life long
    such as post moderation, member control
    or RSS feed of all new posts for enhanced SEO ...

    IMO better to have a few weeks NO forum and time to study, securely setup later the best choice
    than to keep now just because someone set it up for you ...
    just take a few days or weeks time to learn BEFORE you do

    may be in 5-10 yrs you have 5000 or more ppl on your site each day and you'll be happy and peace of mind if all working as needed
     
    hans, Jul 13, 2011 IP
  7. RectangleMan

    RectangleMan Notable Member

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    #7
    Use Cloudflare. Turn on Geo Location. Block troublesome countries with htaccess.

    Disallow posts with certain words like Coach Bags or just censor them.

    Add nofollow tags to links and disallow signatures for those with less than X posts. I prefer 10 or 20 but depends on the type of site you have.

    Basically get yourself off the list of spam friendly forum sites.

    I have many forums and those that I make it worthless to spam don't get any.
     
    RectangleMan, Jul 17, 2011 IP
  8. sambling

    sambling Well-Known Member Affiliate Manager

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    #8
    Get a global moderator to help you out. Some people will do this for free of for a future revenue share.
     
    sambling, Jul 25, 2011 IP
  9. AR7'

    AR7' Peon

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    #9
    Set up anti-spam measures. Use verification questions, the CAPTCHA image also. Also only allow one IP per member, so they can never re-register. These are bots just looking to spam your forum with links. So set up strict anti-spam measures. :)
     
    AR7', Jul 25, 2011 IP
  10. RobCopywriter

    RobCopywriter Peon

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    #10
    If each account is registered with the same IP, simply doing an IP ban will stop them from joining. Now if it's multiple IPs, I really don't know. You could IP Ban all of them, but you never know if he'll come back with another masked IP.

    CAPTCHA is another good way to go. Oh and have them answer a question, like this: What's the color of a black cat? etc. I see these popping up at most forums I go to these days.
     
    RobCopywriter, Jul 25, 2011 IP
  11. welshmullen

    welshmullen Peon

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    #11
    How do i add CAPTCHA anyone?
     
    welshmullen, Aug 1, 2011 IP
  12. real_skinner

    real_skinner Notable Member

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    #12
    I suggest you try recaptcha Simply reliable and easy to use http://www.google.com/recaptcha
     
    real_skinner, Aug 2, 2011 IP
  13. Dr_Michael

    Dr_Michael Member

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    #13
    Neither captcha helps. We have implemented a script in one of our forums, which recognize them and creates a verification list, where the admin once a day can just verify the deletion of those accounts.
     
    Dr_Michael, Aug 3, 2011 IP
  14. IProx

    IProx Well-Known Member

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    #14
    You can try using the stopforumspam.com API and block countries that are giving you problems.  You can also block anonymous proxies and Tor with BlockScript.

    It is also a good idea to have a good Moderator around as well. 
     
    IProx, Aug 3, 2011 IP