Hi there, Recently, I setup PHPBB forum on my domain. After few days it has been spammed. Spammers are signing up daily and sending the nudity, casino and other messages. I need help how to get rid of the spammers? Any help will be highly appreciated. Regards bushib
Have left your submit forms open to public (without captcha or registration). Try to enable CAPTCHA in the forum and force users to register before they post If captcha not enabled in your forum just download a CAPTCHA mod that can be integrated into phpBB. You can also take a look at this on adding captcha here
Well one thing you can do is add those words to your content censor filter so all there stuff will turn into ***** Some words you will want censor are like viagra,pills,penis,enlargement,pharmacy, etc.. Also use captcha and email verfication.
I had so many spammers sign up on my previous forum, that I was forced to turn a lot of my attention towards them instead of the forum and its users. I'd recommend improving/adding the CAPTCHA settings, and possibility including a random question in the sign up process (what is 1 + 1) for example. Make sure this question is always changing. That did the trick for me. Let us know how you go.
JKhoury how can i get the random question for my forum? Is there a script or mod that i could download?I would like to put it on my site.
I agree, SMF is a much better alternative! Plus you can change your PHPBB to SMF, and you'll not lose anything! just take a look at the convertor page at simplemachines.org
phpbb default captcha was not much used as it was already hacked by spammers long time ago, just install any of the anti spam php mods, you can find quite a number at the phpbb web site.
I had the same problem with my PHPbb but I got it tied down in the end - like the others have said enable the CAPTCHA for every registration and filter out the domains from which the users originate (*@domain.com is what I've done) ... as well as blocking all the 'paris hilton' words and swears... you'll get there eventually!
omg.. spammers! hate them.. i got the problem long time ago.. just setting up email verifications and block they IP but still not enough. huh!
I was wondering how they beat the captcha, after all its a image. But I remember Adobe PDF softwares, these programs can process a book you put in your scanner and convert the image's text into real text with great accuracy and turn into a pdf or .html files. Captcha is not the utlimate way to stop bots.
Firstly, make it that new accounts have to be activated by the admin. Edit the file which controls the user profile, remove the possibility of their website being shown. Check your server logs then ban their IP. That's all I did and I haven't had a single spam registration or post in the last 2 months, I was getting 20+ a day.
Check the google thread, they released a press about their new software which can detect and read captcha's
If your not using the latest version of phpBB, get it. It has a much better CAPTCHA. Turn on email activation also, if you haven't already. You can probably find some more modifications on phpbb.com to stop robots and stuff.
It stops every fucking thing. When bots can read like humans and even know what the box is, then I will think so too.