Spammers AGAIN

[Allan]

Of the 6 members on line ATM I think I am the only one not a spammer as I don't recognise the other names
You wouldn't mind spammers so much if they posted something of interest however most of them post crap.
I think they have head problems

Allan

[fragged8]

hi Allan

 it is a problem thats on the increase, last month a load of spurious email addresses managed to get registered. I have been looking at it with Ken and hdflame, i think the only thing to do ATM is go through the members and reject those that look suspicious but there is always a risk of booting genuine members. Also it would take forever to do because this board has so many members.

 I'm rejecting about 30 a day on my baord too !!

Rich

[Mojo]

Probably the only way your going to beat this problem is through approving new members.

In other words when someone signs up to become a new member they have to add a tidbit in a comment section about why they are joining,  such as - I am an upholsterer or I want to learn about upholstery. Spam Robots cannot answer questions.

Many sites that do not have a lot of new members signing up everyday have gone to this setup and it has helped tremendously. Only problem is that someone will have to monitor and approve those requests.
I would think that with the small number of new members who are signing up here is small and may benefit from this type of setup. It wouldn't be any more time consuming then searching out and deleting spam.

The only other way around this is by going to a high end forum software package ( which is expensive ).  My son is the CEO and principal owner in an International tech company that makes this software. His clients list reads like a who's who. Skype, Intuit, EMI, NBC, BC/BS, NASA, FBI, NFL, NHL, MBA, Yahoo and a slew of celebrities, recording artists and professional sports teams. They also have a data division which provides web hosting, e-commerce and data services to the corporate world.

He has provided all the software and web hosting services for a few of the community forums I have belonged to in the past but he will not " pay the bills " for a forum where the owner also has classifieds and sponsors that provide income for the site. He does a lot of charity work for different organizations through software and web hosting donations and pretty much supports any web site that I ask him to. ( It is part of his Daddy tax package he pays me every year ).

His forum software I know removes 99 % of spam and hacking attempts but it also requires an administrator that knows his way around forum software. Their forum software is amazing and is the Porsche in their industry. Here is their website - http://www.invisionpower.com/
I do not know much about their data centers except that they are located in self contained bunkers in Dallas and Washington DC.  The last I knew their reliability rating was 99.8 %.

Unfortunately most free community software programs are targets of spammers. I wished there was a way to rid the internet of spammers. These people do nothing but take up good bandwidth and have no purpose in life but to spam, scam and con people.

Chris

P.S. Richard, they also have an office in London. They have technicians all over the world but their software chief and head designer dude is a bloody Pom. ............lol.....

[Peppy]

What about that reCAPTCHA? Where you type in the squigily words? It's free I think and seems to work okay on other boards. Just please god, don't make us do it for every post. Just new members or something? Won't solve the problem I'm sure but couldn't hurt. 

[fragged8]

hiya

 there is a jumbled letters code for new members registering so i don't quite
know how the spammers got in ?
 It could have been when the board was having some problems during the migration
to the new host. also The board was running an old version with some security
bugs so they may have been exploited ? version is upto date now so we'll
just have to see how it goes.

 Quite often a lot of spammers register on a board and never actually post ?
why i don't know, very odd .

 As usual please report spammers by clicking the link in the bottom right of the post window
and although only Ken and Hdflame can delete the account I will delete the posts as i see them.

Regards
Rich

[hdflame]

hiya

 there is a jumbled letters code for new members registering so i don't quite
know how the spammers got in ?
 It could have been when the board was having some problems during the migration
to the new host. also The board was running an old version with some security
bugs so they may have been exploited ? version is upto date now so we'll
just have to see how it goes.

 Quite often a lot of spammers register on a board and never actually post ?
why i don't know, very odd .

 As usual please report spammers by clicking the link in the bottom right of the post window
and although only Ken and Hdflame can delete the account I will delete the posts as i see them.

Regards
Rich

Ever since I started helping with the board I've had it set up with the squiggly letters and numbers but somehow they get past it.  I have it set as high of security as possible with this software.

I don't have any option to ask them a question and have them answer it.  I think it I did, that would help a lot.

Ken said he was moving the forum to a new server and host.  Maybe that will help.

I typically get 5 -10 reported spammers a day that one of us deletes.

I don't know the right answer.....now if I could get them in my sites....I'd blast 'em with my ole 45!

[ajlelectronics]

My opinion is to have all new signups manually approved. First 5 posts go via a moderator. As far as automatic registration goes, I don't think there is an answer as these SPAMmers are clearly signing up in person rather than using a 'bot.

[Allan]

My opinion is to have all new signups manually approved. First 5 posts go via a moderator. As far as automatic registration goes, I don't think there is an answer as these SPAMmers are clearly signing up in person rather than using a 'bot.

Good plan ajlelectronics as we have another handfull here tonight

A few sites i have been on over the years do similar

Allan

[sofadoc]

My opinion is to have all new signups manually approved. First 5 posts go via a moderator.

Our moderators have a full plate right now, without having to proofread about 150 posts a day. If there was a way to divvy up the proofreading among some of the regular members, I would volunteer to do my part.

[ajlelectronics]

Our moderators have a full plate right now, without having to proofread about 150 posts a day. If there was a way to divvy up the proofreading among some of the regular members, I would volunteer to do my part.

Well I would be wiling to assist in any way. Due to the time difference, I think I get to see the crap before you over there, so I am ideally placed to zap it. The mainstream of posts don't need attention, just new member's initial posts. Even just the first one would be something as I think we can suss a "tryon"

As far as delay for new signups is concerned, I don't think that will faze anyone genuine and eventually the SPAMmers are likely to stop trying.

[byhammerandhand]

I don't know how possible it is with this BB software, but on one board I'm on, people with good reputations (i.e., a number of posts, YaBB god, full member, jr member etc.) can click on "report as inappropriate"    If a post gets a certain number of thumbs down this way, 2 or 3, then the post is removed and the poster is put on moderated posts (must be manually approved) or is simply left as banned by the moderators when they get the time.    A banned poster can appeal the decision, maybe a slap on the wrist to be nice,  but most likely the true spammers will just move on.

[KenB]

I've banned 6-8 people so far today but it's not noon yet here (CALIF).
I've had that many rejected today for trying to register with fake emails.
I'll try to look into more advanced registration filters-we are using the most difficult that comes with this board but people may be simply registering the normal way.

I've been providing this board for over a dozen years and I hope it is working for you folks otherwise.
Ken

[byhammerandhand]

We appreciate your efforts.

It might be slightly better than starving, but I think if my job was to spew spam all day wherever I could, I might just look for a job emptying out septic tanks.

I've been providing this board for over a dozen years and I hope it is working for you folks otherwise.
Ken

[sofadoc]

I've been providing this board for over a dozen years and I hope it is working for you folks otherwise.

I hope that you don't take our discussion about the spammers as a criticism of you, or your efforts in any way. We certainly appreciate this board. Even with the spammers, it's still the best one of it's kind IMO.

[gene]

I mentioned before that a guy I know who works with computer security said spammer software can read and type the squiggly letters with no problem.

I know of several forums that when you sign up they automatically send you an email to the email address you listed with your password. You log on with this password that they emailed you and then you can change the password to what ever you like.

Now that I think of it, I don't see any spam at these other forums that do that.

KenB, I second sofadocs appreciation to you for having this forum and all the hard work you do to keep it up and running.

gene