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Can tell a Spammer by Username 80% of the time

Discussion in 'vBulletin' started by Dubz, Jun 26, 2007.

  1. #1
    Is it just me or anyone else, you see them signup your like... You're up to no good!

    Some are harder than others but if it ends in ltd that's one great sign.

    Rob
     
    Dubz, Jun 26, 2007 IP
  2. Endurer

    Endurer Well-Known Member

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    #2
    I am not sure what you're trying to say but yes.. It's easier to track them from usernames alone.
     
    Endurer, Jun 26, 2007 IP
  3. ThreeGuineaWatch

    ThreeGuineaWatch Well-Known Member

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    #3
    Yes, the usernames are often very unimaginative. Also, the mail addresses they use are equally conspicuous in ~80% of cases.
     
    ThreeGuineaWatch, Jun 26, 2007 IP
  4. Colleen

    Colleen Illustrious Member

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    #4
    Lol, so true! They sign up over at the webmaster forum I admin at, I can tell right away and usually search them up in Google as I wait for them to do their damage so I can hit the ban button! :D
     
    Colleen, Jun 26, 2007 IP
  5. DeViAnThans3

    DeViAnThans3 Peon

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    #5
    Of course, the disadvantage is that we can't develop an application that can recognize spam usernames yet... ;) (except a few alternatives)
     
    DeViAnThans3, Jun 27, 2007 IP
  6. Dubz

    Dubz Peon

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    #6
    LOL, agreeed your like I know what your up to but... Just in case. Even though i"m sure!
     
    Dubz, Jun 27, 2007 IP
  7. Reprobate

    Reprobate Guest

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    #7
    I skim through and look at usernames, email addresses, homepages... also location. I use Admin Mass Delete to clean out my forums daily.
     
    Reprobate, Jun 30, 2007 IP
  8. rdv817

    rdv817 Peon

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    #8
    You mean usernames like lvnmtrz, ddrdddklkj, grtwsdn, etc....? I dunno why but the bots that hit my site do not like to use vowels in their names lol.
     
    rdv817, Jul 2, 2007 IP
  9. terin

    terin Peon

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    #9
    Hi,

    Managing a forum is new to me - I'm finding that easily 90% of new users are "spammers" such as mentioned above. It's pretty easy to figure out who they are. Such a pain to have to manually delete them...

    What I don't get is why they do this? Can they do harm?

    Thanks, I've been wondering about this...

    Terin
     
    terin, Jul 2, 2007 IP
  10. Reprobate

    Reprobate Guest

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    #10
    If you're using phpbb I recommend you upload this (has information and a link to the download).
     
    Reprobate, Jul 2, 2007 IP
    Jamson likes this.
  11. terin

    terin Peon

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    #11
    Reprobate, thank you!
    Amazing tool there, I really appreciate your sharing it. :)

    Terin
     
    terin, Jul 3, 2007 IP
  12. ablaye

    ablaye Well-Known Member

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    #12
    That's a very nice tool. I absolutely love it. For some reasons, there is more spam in phpbb forums than vb. This tool really helps.
     
    ablaye, Jul 3, 2007 IP
  13. Reprobate

    Reprobate Guest

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    #13
    You're welcome guys.

    I use it once or twice daily. Clean out the scammers and spammers. It takes 10 or more minutes to go through each one to delete, with that it takes half a minute.

    I don't ban addresses, because if they're silly enough to use the notorious ones it only makes my job easier.

    Be on the look out for addresses such as @mail.ru, @runbox, @gawab.com...

    That's just a few off the top of my head.

    I'll post more as I find them.
     
    Reprobate, Jul 6, 2007 IP
  14. Qryztufre

    Qryztufre Prominent Member

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    #14
    They can actually help you in the SERP if you are trying to rank for VIAGRA :rolleyes:

    I've randomly spot checked new members by searching for IP addresses, emails, or usernames. It's nice to find that many places publicly list their spammers so we can all act quickly against them.

    It's also good that a few admin out there are lazy and allow such trash to remain...as I've banned a few based on posts they have made on other forums. *shrug*
     
    Qryztufre, Jul 6, 2007 IP
  15. Reprobate

    Reprobate Guest

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    #15
    I did know of a webpage that had a link to a zip file that had a txt doc of all the known IP addresses of spammers.

    I only tried it once. The size of the txt doc slowed my computer down and my web browser stalled because phpBB was overburdened with the amount of data I tried to input from the list. :D
     
    Reprobate, Jul 6, 2007 IP
  16. pjk

    pjk Well-Known Member

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    #16
    I can tell by email since 90% of the spammers have mail.ru emails.
     
    pjk, Jul 9, 2007 IP
  17. terin

    terin Peon

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    #17
    Here's a list of spammer domains I found...

    http://www.svpocketpc.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=45

    Hope this may be of help

    And again, the Mass Delete User function ROCKS!
     
    terin, Jul 10, 2007 IP
    Reprobate likes this.
  18. Reprobate

    Reprobate Guest

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    #18
    Yes, it certainly does.

    I use it every day. Even twice a day if I'm stuck for a minute with nothing to do.

    It saves time, effort and frustration on a daily basis. And what's great is it's so easy to install. Just upload it.

    The guy who wrote it should be given a knighthood.
     
    Reprobate, Jul 10, 2007 IP
  19. arcx33

    arcx33 Peon

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    #19
    As strange as it sounds, one of my members with a very high participation rate has a simple spammy name that is just three letters next to eachother on the keyboard repeated twice.

    The spammers that target my forum seem to mostly use yahoo.com. I think they are spamming manually so it wouldn't matter what address they are using. Actually, there are no .ru spammers on my board at all.

    What has worked for me is to just force users into the "Are you a spammer" group if their first posts contain certain words, typically email addresses,'USD' or '$', and so on.
     
    arcx33, Jul 12, 2007 IP
  20. ThreeGuineaWatch

    ThreeGuineaWatch Well-Known Member

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    #20
    What board software are you using?
     
    ThreeGuineaWatch, Jul 12, 2007 IP