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Signature spammer bot!

Discussion in 'Forum Management' started by helleborine, Aug 29, 2006.

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  1. #1
    In the past two or three weeks I have noticed an exponential increase in "signature spam" where registrants that NEVER POST, simply include a link to their websites in a signature.

    My IPB forum has always disallowed bb code or html in signatures, so they are wasting their time.

    I started to recognize the login names of some of the spammers showing up on several unrelated forums.

    Googling one of these login names yielded 140K pages. This was one busy guy.

    But it can't be a person, can it? It has to be a robot.

    Today, two new registrations.

    The email addresses look like this:

    ipb5789*AT*bot-test.info
    ipb4641*AT*bot-test.info

    Same IP for both. 69.61.79.194

    I checked my raw logs. No user-agent or details show up for this IP.

    It shows up as:
    200 40689 "-" "-"

    I found several other registration attempts for this IP. Googling the IP revealed a preponderance of polish sites. I don't know what it means.

    A whois shows a company in Georgia.
     
    helleborine, Aug 29, 2006 IP
  2. b.a

    b.a Peon

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    #2
    are you using image verification on registration proccess?
     
    b.a, Aug 29, 2006 IP
  3. yfs1

    yfs1 User Title Not Found

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    #3
    Forget that, just hide all members that don't make any posts (I think its a standard setting in vB and I already use the MOD for phpBB)

    That way they never get the link and you don't have to monitor each new sign up. I have tried image verification but these spammers pay people to sit at a computer and punch in those image verifications all day.
     
    yfs1, Aug 29, 2006 IP
  4. helleborine

    helleborine Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Yes, there is image verification. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
     
    helleborine, Aug 29, 2006 IP
  5. yfs1

    yfs1 User Title Not Found

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    #5
    See my post, image verification won't stop these spammers
     
    yfs1, Aug 29, 2006 IP
  6. helleborine

    helleborine Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Yes, I saw your post - and agree it doesn't make a difference.

    I don't allow links in signature. It makes no difference either!
     
    helleborine, Aug 29, 2006 IP
  7. I. Brian

    I. Brian Business consultant

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    #7
    This is an old tactic - memberlist spamming - but I've been seeing a real increase in this the past year.

    There are some Polish and Czech sites that are additionally being incredibly aggressive with HTTP_POST scripts at the moment - they send out the bots to hit any and every online form possible, and this means not simply the forum member registrations (where targeted) but also hit those contact forms at the bottom of vb if you're not careful.
     
    I. Brian, Aug 29, 2006 IP