That stinky stuff called SPAM

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 5:51 am

There is another 5 threads this morning with SPAM, and its happening damn near every day. *Form (and others) have managed to stop them so why can't it be done here?

Red Bigot · Post by **Red Bigot** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:54 am

Gavin told me he's updated to the latest version and applied some MOD's that are supposed to stop a lot of them. It slowed things for a while, but I deleted nearly 40 spam posts yesterday and I send him the IP's to add to the banned list.

I don't visit *Forum as often, but you are right, I haven't seen any there recently, supposedly they just have the same version/MOD's, I'm not sure what the difference is.

707 · Post by **707** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:59 am

What was that Swedish girl offering last night?

GrahamB · Post by **GrahamB** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:03 am

*forum does ask the question

Are you human? And defaults to NO

Red Bigot · Post by **Red Bigot** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:28 pm

GrahamB wrote:*forum does ask the question

Are you human? And defaults to NO

This forum asks for a random number displayed as a graphic to be typed in to register, maybe they hove something that can read that and the radio buttons are a better option? Anyway, manual registrations can be dealt with, it's the automated spambot posts afterward that are the nuisance, the range of IP addresses they use is ever-changing, even if you ban using wildcards in the last one or two segments there are plenty of combinations left.

Bert Werden · Post by **Bert Werden** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 10:19 pm

Hi guys, just saw this and thought I'd offer a quick summation on my experiences with phpBB

Firstly the bots have no problems getting past the graphic code. This was a good measure when introduced as standard about 5 versions ago but the spammers have cleverly avoided it. It is now worthless.

There are a number of modifications available but for the most part they are quite intricate and a character out of place somewhere can make the entire board ineffectual.

Finally, I came across two very simply mods. I implemented the first (are you human) mod and left it for a few days. While it seemed to slow the spammers down, it was probably only catching about 20%. I sent this to Gavin but reported back to him that I wasn't happy with it.

Secondly, I installed the VIP mod which has wiped out 100% of spam. I also forwarded this to Gavin for use here. I suspect he is going to implement this at some stage. Theoretically, a spammer could manually get passed this but no one has bothered yet and I doubt too many will. Deleting one user once in a blue moon is better than 10-20 a day!

Now about that Swedish girl...

Serge Birbrair · Post by **Serge Birbrair** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:28 pm

Bert Werden wrote:
Now about that Swedish girl...

any tasting notes?

Serge Birbrair · Post by **Serge Birbrair** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:52 pm

Bert Werden wrote:Hi guys, just saw this and thought I'd offer a quick summation on my experiences with phpBB

My expereince with phpBB is rather limited,
but my expereince with porn spam is not.

Here is a bit unorthodox solution, which I would use myself if I had the product to sell.

I would never delete porn spam, but rather moved it to some special board and warned regulars not to go there.

The porn spammers know what they are doing and use catchy words for Search Engines to pick up and rate them higher than their collegues.
I'd leave all them but...would change the URL's from where they point it, to your own wine stores instead. In less than a month, you'd see influx of new pairs of eyes to your wine stores websites. Being horny surfer looking for porn on the interent, doesn't exclude one from being a wine buyer.
I call this turning s--t into fertilizer approach. Bert, it wouldn't work with your closed to non members board, as Search Engines don't penetrate that deep...small pun intended.