How to prevent spam on smf forums?

Hi,

I have an smf forum but lately there are people that signed up using spammy accountnames such as "BuyCheapestCARISOPRODOLL" i assume these are bots. does anyone know how to prevent these bots registering except turning on captcha which i already did.

site: http://www.engineeringserver.com/forum/index.php

if you check our memberlist you will see 5/10% or so spammy member names http://www.engineeringserver.com/forum/mlist.html any tips?

 

I was facing this very same problem few months back.

you should use Validation & SPAM control system on registration process on your forum. You can find mods for this on www.simplemachines.org or PM me, I will help you

I hope this will help !
Cheer

 

Thanks, i've browsed trough their mods and installed some but there are still some people that use spammy names on the site. I guess i can ban them but i'm not sure if they are real spammers or just using spammy names.

 

Hi,

Are you using Validation For Registrations ?

This is help you to prevent SPAMs!

 

yes i'm using it. I've also blocked @mail.ru addresses because i noticed a lot of these spammers use adresses that end like that. I still get usernames like "wrvdsffweafra" and "cvsrwq3e34" but it's less than before.

 

Then I think, they are not BOTs, or any software generated.

You should manually Ban them

 

start by upgrading your forum, your at 1.1.2, the latest stable
release is 1.1.5. enable visual verification on registration.

also enable it for new posters, they have to use it for x number
of posts and or PM's. use member verification on registering, make
them answer a welcome email with a verification link.

there are a few other things you can do, upgrading is the first thing to do though.

 

Thanks, i've been considering updating the forum for some time but a few custom mods and some smf mods will not work with 1.1.5 and because SMF 2.0 should be out soon afaik i'm kinda waiting for it.

 

No you didnt - captcha is disabled on your forum. http://www.engineeringserver.com/forum/register.html

When I went to register I did not see a captcha image. You are making it super easy for spam bots to register on your forum.

And the bad news, you did not edit the register template. This means a lot of your members email addresses might be visible on their profile. All a spammer has to do is register, then go profile to profile collecting your members email addresses.

I just set up an SMF forum for my son. Its been 2 years since I used smf and I forgot how to change the default "Hide email address from public?" setting on SMF. After doing a lot of searching I found the answer and got it posted here - http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=950994 The default install of SMF leaves your members email addresses exposed. Its been like that for 2+ years and why the developers at SMF do not fix it, I do not know.

Enable captcha and get that register template edited to protect your members email addresses.

 

There is also a mod that does that in SMF. Here is the link

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1088

 

Check Karl Benson's top MODs for preventing spam bots. You may not be able to stop them if they are done manually. The best you can do is to be on guard of your site all the time until the spammers get tired of visiting your site.

 

do manuel regestration after they have email you.

 

I thought it was already enabled, i guess it was because of the new theme and changing a few settings (although im positive i didn't mess with the captcha settings) but it's enabled again. Thanks , i'll also look into that hide email problem.

 

i would be more worried about my forum getting hacked.
your 3 versions behind and all it takes is one asshole to come along
and see that.


poof, no more forum.

 

I've upgraded some time ago and it lucky for me i managed to make all the mods that i was using to work on the latest smf version.

 

I have been using SMF software for more than 1 year. Never have had a single problem on SPAM.

 

apachectl stop

 

Manual Reg + Email validation will help you a lot. Also make sure that you are updated to the latest version. These types of spammers usually are lowlifes just wasting their time.

 

Is it possible to ban certain keywords in the SMF forum?
I'm currently using the latest 1.1.6.

Thanks!

 

If you check you can find a list of words you can censor. Dig around and you may find it...

Ah, found it.

The "Edit Censored Words" option is in the admin area under "Forum Configuration."

HTH