Why so much spam at my forum today?

Discussion in 'vBulletin' started by Adulu, Oct 1, 2008.

  1. #1
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    My forum is busy?, NO!
    they are spammer.
    especially, they are not one minute register be member.

    are your Vbulletin forum is fine?
    how can i prevent them?
     
    Adulu, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  2. ~kev~

    ~kev~ Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Do you have captcha enabled and email verification enabled?

    There are some modifications at Vbulletin.org to help stop those spam bots from signing up,

    http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=181818

    http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=183329

    There used to be a modification called stop spam read books. Where the person had to type a word into a box. That one seemed to work pretty well.

    But to answer your question, no, I do not have a problem with spam bots. And all I am using is captcha image verification. I might get 1 or 2 spammers a month.
     
    ~kev~, Oct 1, 2008 IP
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  3. KonichiJ

    KonichiJ Peon

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    #3
    Wow, that's bad. I get atleast 2-3 spammers joining everyday on my forum. The stupid "Wow Gold" spammers are the worst. Most of them sign up with .cn email addresses.
     
    KonichiJ, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  4. Cheap SEO Services

    Cheap SEO Services <------DoFollow Backlinks

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    #4
    I was watching new registrations at my forum and I noticed one member had XXX at the end of their username...I followed closely what he was doing....2 minutes later he created a thread with disgusting porn images....I banned him straight away and deleted his thread.

    This just happened about 10 minutes ago.
     
    Cheap SEO Services, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  5. HVH

    HVH Member

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    #5
    Are you using the latest version of the forum available? Do you have the security and registration settings high enough? Try requiring people to have to click a link via an email in order to activate their forum account.
     
    HVH, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  6. sachin410

    sachin410 Illustrious Member

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    #6
    sachin410, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  7. Qryztufre

    Qryztufre Prominent Member

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    #7
    ASAIK bots still have not beaten full on CAPTCHA with options... the WOW GOLD spammers I think are actually humans with valid email addresses.

    I'm getting one or two a day now, and it is getting annoying.
     
    Qryztufre, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  8. danger9918

    danger9918 Well-Known Member

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    #8
    Apparently this is spreading on many forums, take a look at forums.seo.com, their online list is full of banned users with no posts.
     
    danger9918, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  9. ~kev~

    ~kev~ Well-Known Member

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    #9
    Take a look at this modification - http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=156444

    Couple of the things I like about that modification, it adds the spammers IP address to the IP ban list and bans the email address. This stops them from just signing back up again. Plus, it deletes all the post and threads by the spammer.

    It takes a whole 15 seconds to recover from a spam attack using this modification.
     
    ~kev~, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  10. hvalle98

    hvalle98 Well-Known Member

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    #10
    Upgrade to the lastest version (I think its 3.7.3) and 1. Use email verification and 2. Use ReCAPTCHA.
     
    hvalle98, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  11. Brandon Sheley

    Brandon Sheley Illustrious Member

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    #11
    why... because you haven't done anything to stop the spam bots ;)
     
    Brandon Sheley, Oct 1, 2008 IP
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  12. sachin410

    sachin410 Illustrious Member

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    #12
    None of the original features provided by vbulletin are able to stop these bots.

    I had captcha and email verification enabled and still got 100+ bot registrations yesterday.

    Fortunately, I used the modifications suggested by ~kev~ and was able to restrict them.
     
    sachin410, Oct 1, 2008 IP
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  13. Adulu

    Adulu Peon

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    #13
    I am against with spammer and found they are from differnet IP

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    now, Verify Email address turn on
    i forgot it before:(
     
    Adulu, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  14. Pompay

    Pompay Banned

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    #14
    Now they will have to validate their accounts before they can login:) Spammers, Spam bots away..
     
    Pompay, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  15. dragonlove

    dragonlove Active Member

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    #15
    u should use come mod for detect spam like spam list and also enable image verification
     
    dragonlove, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  16. sachin410

    sachin410 Illustrious Member

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    #16
    That's because it is not one single spammer.

    I don't know how they work, but I think some forum auto-posting software added your (and my) forum to its list.

    That may be the reason why the number of spam registrations went up so sharply.
     
    sachin410, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  17. GreenDog

    GreenDog Active Member

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    #17
    This is weird because all of a sudden I have had all kinds of people joining my forum some even with XXX in their name spamming my forum.
     
    GreenDog, Oct 1, 2008 IP
  18. Logician

    Logician Active Member

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    #18
    If you use vb 3.7, just turn on "Question & Answer Verification" in
    "human verification manager". SPAMer registrations will end RIGHT AWAY.

    If you are not using vb 3.7 yet, upgrade. ;)
     
    Logician, Oct 2, 2008 IP
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  19. Qryztufre

    Qryztufre Prominent Member

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    #19
    If you have vB, then you can bar XXX from usernames... it's in vB Options someplace in the admin panel. That'll likely stop at least some of the more automated ones... then again, those are not the bright ones. Heh, show me an admin that won't watch an account name that is somethingXXX and I'll show you an admin running an adult board ;)
     
    Qryztufre, Oct 2, 2008 IP
  20. ~kev~

    ~kev~ Well-Known Member

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    #20
    Its under admin control panel - vbulletin options - User Registration Options - Illegal User Names.

    =========================

    Another thing that will help is if you create an extra required field that has to be filled out when people register.

    Such as "What is your sex?" Then have 3 radio buttons - Male - Female - Rather not say. Or have a blank text box, and ask them a question, such as "What country do you live in?"

    Having a couple of these extra required fields can help keep the spam bots away, because they have to be filled out by a person.

    I use captacha, and one radio box question, and that is it. And I do not have a problem with spam.


    =============================

    Are the spammers using the same domain name over and over, but with a different username? You can block that domain name in your email banning options. Turn on "aggressive email banning" and enter the domain name. Nobody else will be able to register an account from that domain.

    =============================

    Use the IP banning options to ban the networks the spammers are coming from. Use your IP banning feature to ban 200.63.43* That will ban everyone from the 200.63.43.0 network.

    IP Ban 78.157.*.* and that will ban all IP addresses that are from the 78.157.0.0 network.

    You can also use the "IP deny manager" of your servers Cpanel to ban these networks and IP addresses.
     
    ~kev~, Oct 2, 2008 IP
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