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Woah... sorry for the uhhh... "spam" posts...

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Ryan

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I've been out for the past two weeks. Usually, I get those posts within minutes, put some how I missed a few this week in the rush to get life done... I'm back in the flow now and you won't see those posts anymore.

I'm also starting my own garage project this week, so get ready for lots of questions from me...

Finally, I have a number of upgrades coming to the board in a month or so... More on that later.
 
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PAToyota

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Definitely understand how "life intrudes" on things. This is a great site and it is a shame that the spammers do what they do. Having a few more mods to pitch in and lend a hand could be a good idea. Always feel free to ask for a helping hand with things.
 
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DIGGER_DAVE

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Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
124
Location
Calgary AB Canada
Ryan said:
I've been out for the past two weeks. Usually, I get those posts within minutes, put some how I missed a few this week in the rush to get life done... I'm back in the flow now and you won't see those posts anymore.

I'm also starting my own garage project this week, so get ready for lots of questions from me...

Finally, I have a number of upgrades coming to the board in a month or so... More on that later.
Click to expand...

Ryan, I posted the warning on the HAMB the other day to try and let you know the "bots" were at it again.

Sorry, didn't mean to "muddy the waters."
(I knew you were "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off"; was just trying to give you a "heads up.")
 
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mike944

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Location
Vernon, CT
Looks like they're back.

Would it make sense that any new users, who start a new post (instead of responding to one) have that post checked by a moderator prior to being put up on the board?

Since these posts are probably automated, it probably all happens very quickly. What about anyone who joins as a new user, and then makes a complete post within the first 10 seconds or so, gets sent to a moderator first?

I don't know much about the inner workings of these BBS's, and this might not be possible, but just some thoughts.
 
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Cebby

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Pittsburgh, PA
I doubt that bots are able to register - since there is an image verification box that requires human eyes to decipher. I don't remember if they are using it here, but having the board send a confirmation email that requires a click also helps.

I haven't resorted to this on my forums yet (the spam has been getting worse daily though), but it is possible to segregate the new user postings. It requires extra work on the part of the mods though.

In a nutshell... you know how there are the Junior Member/Member/Senior Memebr hierarchy? In effect, you can add another tier to this. It is done via usergroups and promotions. The new user would have their posts moderated (approved) by a moderator until they reach either a post count or days on the forum (or both). This can be a real strain on the mod/admin corp though due to the extra work load on really active sites.

Not sure how many new members join and post here daily - it probably isn't too many for it to be managable.

The worst part about these spammers is the extra work created for the owners/admins/mods of the boards. Fortunately, after the spammers rear their ugly head once, you have a record of and can ban their IP/IP range and also aggressively ban their email addresses.
 
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Der Bugmeister

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Dec 29, 2005
Messages
445
Requiring moderator intervention for new user posts is probably creating more work in setting up and administering the system than it's worth just to avoid having a spam post or two every day or so. Yes, they are an annoyance, but they're not infecting the board with viruses and their subject lines are normally clear enough that avoidance is easy. The addition of a couple regulars here with moderation abilities should be enough to keep the annoyance factor under control.

Advanced bots are able to defeat the image verifications in most cases, although it will keep a few out. Email verifications don't work either, to any great degree. From what I can tell, the bot owners check their inbox daily and click on those verification emails...the bot then returns to make it's post.

I ban each bot/spammer on IP, email and username. There are some email domains (ie @mail.ru) which are commonly used by bots only, and I'm able to ban all accounts using an email from there. Judging by my ban logs of late, I'm keeping a lot more out than are managing to get in and post.
 
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Tyson

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Minneapolis
Most bots can easily defeat the image verification these days. You need to put in a simple question into the registration like "what color is the sky on a clear day?"

Cebby said:
I doubt that bots are able to register - since there is an image verification box that requires human eyes to decipher. I don't remember if they are using it here, but having the board send a confirmation email that requires a click also helps.

I haven't resorted to this on my forums yet (the spam has been getting worse daily though), but it is possible to segregate the new user postings. It requires extra work on the part of the mods though.

.
Click to expand...
 
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bmwpower

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NJ
Tyson said:
Most bots can easily defeat the image verification these days. You need to put in a simple question into the registration like "what color is the sky on a clear day?"
Click to expand...

How do they defeat the image verification? Seems unbeatable to me...
 
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mike944

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Jan 18, 2006
Messages
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Location
Vernon, CT
Yea, some of those image verification things (particularly ebay's) the numbers are so badly distorted that i have trouble reading them sometimes.

You know what pisses me off, it's the small percentage of the population who actually click on those things, and buy stuff. if nobody ever bought anything through all that spam, nobody would post it, because it wouldn't work. That's what's perpetuating the spam problem on the internet. People email and post spam, because SOMEBODY will eventually buy something.
 
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Cebby

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310
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Pittsburgh, PA
Tyson said:
Most bots can easily defeat the image verification these days. You need to put in a simple question into the registration like "what color is the sky on a clear day?"
Click to expand...

I'll have to try that - good idea...
 
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R

Ryan

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If you do find one of these posts, simply hit the
report.gif
button and report it...

I have enabled email verification at registration, so hopefully that will help a bit...
 
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Jay H 237

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bmwpower said:
How do they defeat the image verification? Seems unbeatable to me...
Click to expand...

There are scripts out there that the bots use to decifer the image verification one character at a time. Never underestimate the spammers, they're getting paid to do this.


On one of the forums I moderate we had to go to a question instead of the image verification and it has helped greatly. The fact is an image verification is random characters and if you keep trying different combos eventually you'll crack it. Think of the characters as being the combo to a safe, you will eventually open it if you keep trying. The bots are computers that can do thousands of calculations a second so they can crack the verification much quicker than we can with a safe. The question works since bots can't "think" logically if presented with a question, if you know what I mean. The forum we have it set up on is phpBB based but there's no reason it won't work for vBulletin and others.
 
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RAYJAY

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UNION DALE PA
Ryan said:
If you do find one of these posts, simply hit the
report.gif
button and report it...

I have enabled email verification at registration, so hopefully that will help a bit...
Click to expand...

it helped on my board 0 problems since i did it:thumbup: ...lol

jeff
 
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OI812

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Jan 8, 2005
Messages
202
I'm trying to get them just as fast as I can. I was gone last weekend Ryan, so I wasn't able to get those. Will be gone this weekend also. Keep reporting them and I will keep deleting them.

Thanks
 
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R

Ryan

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yeah, I'm banning IP addresses... It's nuts... I deleted 34 posts last night...
 
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bmwpower

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Can't they just use a new IP under a different proxy? I've seen this done before, I'm pretty sure you IP changes since the traffic is routed thru the new proxy.
 
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Tyson

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Minneapolis
e-mail and image validation won't do anything.

Banning IP addresses does nothing.

Banning some of the popular spam e-mails will cut down a little, maybe 10%....I've found a few spammers like to use cashette.com or gmail.com

Gotta impliment better registration....I have a forum over on zcarchat dot com where I haven't upgraded yet, I have to delete about 10 new accounts each day because of spammers. Thankfully most of them register either with "USA" or some foreign country in the location, that's the first indication....The second is they almost always have a web link to their product, which is easy to spot....Third is the e-mail address.
 
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Ryan

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I also run the HAMB which is by far the largest hot rod foum on the planet... 6 million page views a month... And we have the occassional spam issue, but never anything like this.

Our registration system "flags" accounts that look suspicious and that's how I kill 90% of the spam coming through. Some obviously get out...
 
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OI812

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Joined
Jan 8, 2005
Messages
202
Ryan do you want me to start deleting all these post?

Ryan said:
I also run the HAMB which is by far the largest hot rod foum on the planet... 6 million page views a month... And we have the occassional spam issue, but never anything like this.

Our registration system "flags" accounts that look suspicious and that's how I kill 90% of the spam coming through. Some obviously get out...
Click to expand...
 
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R

Ryan

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yeah, if you see ****, nail it... I've started doing a hard delete just so I don't have to look at em...
 
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PAToyota

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South Central Pennsylvania, USA
Not sure what all changes were made, but it seems that our spam problem is pretty much under control.

Props to those in charge for running a tight ship and making this such a great place to hang out!
 
T

thecarfarmer

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Messages
20
Ryan said:
If you do find one of these posts, simply hit the
report.gif
button and report it...

I have enabled email verification at registration, so hopefully that will help a bit...
Click to expand...

Hi all,

Not meaning to be an ****** - having not done a formal intro here and all - but what are spam posts? Are these ones with **** links in them, or are they some other way a$$h0l3s can get into the email database?

Reason I ask: I signed up at bigblockdart.com recently and got two ***** spams in my email inbox within one or 2 days of signing up. Seems that one of the spammers got hacked into Bill's computer and sent 'em to all members.

I've lurked on the HAMB and then signed up a while ago, never seen any ****. Risque avatars and some rated-R language in the posts (NOT complaining - just explaining). But no ****.

yeah, if you see ****, nail it... I've started doing a hard delete just so I don't have to look at em...
Click to expand...
BTW, do you want to re-word that, Ryan?

I guess I'll just get my mind outa' the gutter so someone else's can float on by...

-bill
 
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RAYJAY

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Messages
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Location
UNION DALE PA
Tyson said:
I just implemented an anti-spam at registration on my website....It's PHPBB so the same mod wont work for this site since it's different forum software, but you get the idea.

Please do not register unless you have a purpose to be on the forum
http://www.zcarchat.com/forum/profile.php?mode=register&agreed=true

Just keep hitting refresh and you will see a different type of question at the top.
Click to expand...

is that a new mod for phpbb or you own doing...lol great one

Jeff
 
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