Trying to stop the SPAM!

[admin]

I have turned on new user moderation, which means that new users will have to be accepted by a moderator (Statous or computerclinic) If this does not work very well, we will look into some other options, but the spam needs to stop!

I hope this will not stop valued people from posting, for very long.

Thanks all for your patience!

-Mike

[wljohns]

Great!!!!!!!!

[countryboy18]

so your saying no one can stop them. i thought some one can delete them? it is getting worse but i am glad that you are trying to make things better. thanks.

[computerclinic]

We can delete the posts, and also ban the users, but the problem is that because we are a free website there is nothing that will stop them from registering a new name and just keep spamming. We cant ban by IP address because we are using vBulletin which does not have the available option for that sort of ban installed (yet)...

The next best solution is to "screen" new members as they register....Its that or moderate the posts which is a huge pain in the #*!....

For new members who would like to post right away, we thank you for your patience and we will get you going as soon as possible.

Thanks All!

[Painless]

We cant ban by IP address because we are using vBulletin which does not have the available option for that sort of ban installed (yet)...

What is your host operating system? You could place a firewall rule in to block the IP at the network interface.

Actually, according to this forum post:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=357515&postcount=3

... you can ban by IP. Forum software upgrade perhaps?

[computerclinic]

The primary Admin (technikl) can ban by IP addy, but the rest of us cant...at least not yet....thats what we are trying to work out right now...

As for firewall on the host server, I am not to sure about the hardware nor software environment....

Its a pain in the backside, but we are working the problem folks...Hopefully VERY soon we will be able to make the necessary changes so that ALL of the admins and moderators may do necessary banning....

In the mean time, PLEASE KEEP THE REPORTS COMMING!!!!!! Me personally, I check email very regularly and so does Stratous....As soon as we recieve a spam report, we do our best to get on it right away...

Thanks Folks

[Stevo]

Isn't there also the possibility of this scenario for dynamic IP?

-Att.net user spams in forum and admin blocks by IP address
-Att.net spammer's IP address changes after 24 hours
-Existing legit HHOF member on Att.net renews his IP address from DHCP and receives the spammer's IP address thus being blocked.

Or is the logic for example: (UserIPAddress && UserName)

I know the possibility is very minimal, but I would hate to be blocked inadvertently. Spammers should be burned at the stake! :mad:

[Cadillac]

Don't get me wrong I am on the computer quite a bit. I hear people talking about spam. What is spam? Is it like solicitors?

[Stevo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic)

It's the internet version of Telemarketing basically. Annoying as hell.

[admin]

I haven't seen any spam reports in a while! looks like we have it licked.

think it's safe to turn off moderated new users?

[computerclinic]

Not yet Mike,

I have noticed a few spam bots trying to register again... I went through the new user list and accepted a lot of folks, but out of all the new members, there were still about 3 in there that were no good....

[c02cutter]

I like the idea of screening members that sign up. I under stand the issues that are popping up, and know it is more of a pain to stop than many realize.

An idea to consider is to give know valued members enough admin power to delete the posts, and delete that member that posted it. I know that some board administration allows for this option, but others don't. So it my not be an option to consider.

[HHOhoper]

I haven't seen any spam reports in a while! looks like we have it licked.

think it's safe to turn off moderated new users?

Thank you so much for trying to take care of this garbage! It is SO frustrating!

[hho]

I also use vBulletin for my site. This is my first posting so don't get me wrong. This is not my site. But I suggest going to http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=198 and having a good look around to solve this problem. I also run 3.6.8 If your interested in my hacks or plugins or my site drop a posting. Or email me. No spam allowed. This is a great site having a great deal of information. Great Job.

[Painless]

It looks like the spammers have found this site now bigtime, I suppose this was inevitable seeing as the forum gets lots of search engine hits now.

I know that policing and moderating a forum as active as this is a big job and even with several people working on the task real life can make it next to impossible still.

If some extra hands would be a help I would certainly like to volunteer my services, I have a strong IT background and am on these forums multiple times everyday. The offer is there if it would help.

Russ.

[resago]

I wrote a good mod for phpbb that stopped bots cold.
there are also some simple mods that block registration if they try to enter a web site in the sig or try to enter a field that you have intentionally left out.

my mod required new posts to contain an admin assign phrase or word that you would post in the rules. If the phrase or word was left out, the post was blocked.

[ElectricSquid]

We can delete the posts, and also ban the We cant ban by IP address because we are using vBulletin which does not have the available option for that sort of ban installed (yet)...

I know it would be a pain in the ass, but try SMF forum software (http://www.simplemachines.org) instead of vBulletin for your forum software. SMF has all the cool bells and whistles for stopping and banning spammers.

That's what we use to create my website WhereTheTrailEnds.com (http://wherethetrailends.com). The only time I had any issues was when the GD module went down and I dropped the CAPCHA code for a day or two. Man was that a rough few days.

Fortunately there are a few user written mods that I implemented to keep the spammers at bay till I got the GD module back up and the CAPCHA code fixed.

Talking about user written mods, SMF has a ton of them. Some of the cooler ones you can check out on my site, like Custom Profiles.

OK, back to spammers ...

For any usermane, email address, or IP in question, check it on StopForumSpam.com (http://www.stopforumspam.com/search)

... and to find their location and possible websites attached, check it on uTrace.de/ (http://en.utrace.de/)

[computerclinic]

Nice site :)

There were a few that I had suggested while we were early on, but now there are just so many posts and members, well lets just say that it would be a challenge to change forums simply because of the way vBulletin structures the SQL tables.

If you know a way for us to transfer all existing data and translate it into another forum package DB, we would definately be interested. Me personally, I like WowBB. I would even be happy that the data was csv

Also thanks for the tips!

[JonDoh]

yea... Spammers SuX

[FuzzyTomCat]

Hi All,

I know some new members are being approved slowly, your name is in with a lot of spammers many have registered here also but haven't been approved, its a slow process to "weed out" the good from the bad with new applications daily.

There are around 82,000 known spammers out there, here is a updated hourly list of them ........ "IF YOU SEE YOUR NAME NO NEED TO APPLY"

http://www.stopforumspam.com/

If you see a spammer on the new members list not to worry, until "Approved" they cannot post on the Forum. If you see a "Forum Posting" from a known spammer feel free to contact one of the moderators to check out the posting.

Thank you for your patience,
Fuzzy
:)

[admin]

I just accepted 493 members so lets hope the ones that were spammers gave up trying, we're also going to import a new spam IP list, and upgrade to the latest vbulletin with better picture authentication.

Thanks all!

-M

[Stevo]

I just received this personal message:

tullyamo tullyamo is offline
Newbie

Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 0
tullyamo is on a distinguished road
Default Forum problems

Hi,

Is there a way I can get permission to post in the forums? I have made an account and cannot see pics that members have posted and I am not allowed to make threads or reply to other post. I have asked painless the same thing and got no response. I have mailed the forum admin and received a mail delivery error 3 times. I have soo many questions to ask and would love to see all the pics that members have posted. I know it is not your position to make this happen, but could you pass it along to someone that can? Thanks in advance.

Tullyamo

[computerclinic]

Thank you all for your patience and persistance. To better serve the community, we are currently working on a few things that will allow us to speed up the registration approval process as well as improve the spam banning.

Our community is only a few months old and our staff is all volonteers so as you can imagine, there are a few typical bugs that we are working very hard to work out as quickly as we can.

We especially appreciate the members who report spammers and foul posts as soon as they are spotted. We do what we can to eliminate the nasty stuff quickly, and you help is needed as there are so many threads.

Please keep an eye out for an announcement VERY soon. It is in regards to new membership registration and related details.

Thanks all!

[ElectricSquid]

One of the GREAT ways to end the forum spammers dead in their tracks is to custom modify your registration page. Most of the spammers are pre-packaged spambot programs. They target the registration page then post like mad. If your registration page is different than the norm, the spambots have no way to get in.

I did this to my forum and have been spam free ever since.
It takes a little coding to do it, but is well worth the time.

Try ReCapcha for the captcha image. It's very secure and easy to code into an existing registration page.
Plus, every time a user uses it, they are helping digitalize words in old books and newspapers that OCR programs (like the spambots use to hack your existing captcha) cannot figure out.

http://recaptcha.net/


http://recaptcha.net/images/smallCaptchaSpaceWithRoughAlpha.png



To see it in action, hit my custom registration page on...
http://redneckfabrication.com

It took me about 15 minutes to code it in.


.

[ElectricSquid]

Oh, and did I mention it's 100% FREE!

[cabrera]

I just accepted 493 members so lets hope the ones that were spammers gave up trying, we're also going to import a new spam IP list, and upgrade to the latest vbulletin with better picture authentication.

Thanks all!

-M

Not workin' so good.
Begining at 6:09pm and ending at 6:19pm member IkrinkaSo has contributed 14 lovely porn posts.

[ElectricSquid]

The ReCaptcha should do the trick, but here's some insight on what you need to modify in the registration process to end the spambot programs.

The main registration page is not what they actually attack. It's the next step in the process they exploit. I'm not sure what it is in vBulletin, so I need to explain it with SMF, which is what I use. But they are both similar enough in this case.

Basically, my registration pages URL ends in "=register". The next step, when they click submit, shows in the statcounter logs as "=register2". The spambots have a premade program that sends their info directly to the "=register2" URL, bypassing the need to even hit the main "=register" page.

All you have to do is figure out what that next page is in vBulletin, then change it in the code to anything else.

In my case, I would change "=register2" to anything else, like "=register3" or "=thanks" or anything besides what it is by default. The spambots will still try to hit the "=register2" page with their info, but it would throw a 404 page not found error instead of registering them.

Doing this is tricky, because there may be many references to that second URL where they send their register info. One mistake in the code and no-one can register. So be sure to test it well before making the change live.

Don't bother with a pre-made vBulletin modification to do this, because the spambot program writers are wise to these mods and write new pacages to beat them fairly quickly.

BUT, a pre-made vBulletin mod is a great place to start, as long as you custom modify it further with the info I posted above in mind. The reason I say it's a great place to start is because it will show you EVERY place in the code that needs to be changed, so a lot of the guesswork is taken out each place in the code you need to change.

Though I changed my main registration page ("=register"), as stated above, I haven't bothered to change "=register2" since ReCaptcha works so friggin well. But the day the spammers get through ReCaptcha, "register2" will be changed immediately the same way I described above.

I hope all this info helps.
I see that as I posted these replies, your site was hit yet again.

Good Luck!!
Your Admin friend,

Wayne Sundmacher
BSA Skunkworks

[ElectricSquid]

Oh, and to add...
Ever since I added ReCaptcha, new users can post directly after registering.
I did away with email activation because I know that most new users want to post right away.

I'm still spam free, even though ReCaptcha is the ONLY thing in place now to block spammers.

It works that well!!

[cabrera]

Admin PLEASE do something about the
SPAM & PORN
This is getting a bit ridiculous. Maybe you should try ElectricSquid's solution!

[biggy boy]

Yes Please do something.
I'm not thrilled about getting an Email telling me there is a new post I subscribed to, only to find it is B.S. spam.

Glen

[IM2L844]

Dude, you're getting slammed hard by these slime buckets. I'm not familiar with Vbulletin either. Sorry, if it were PHPBB I think I could help you out. Oh well, a wish in one hand...as they say

[biggy boy]

Spam spam spam spam. I love spam spam.

Reminds me of another HHO forum that closed down due to: spam spam spam spam

[cabrera]

Do we have an admin on this forum???

We have more SPAM here than the Hormel factory!
If there is an admin, I hope he shuts down the SPAM before bigboy's prediction come true!
Why not have an admin approval before you can post like the EBN?
http://treesflowersbirds.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/spam.jpg

[biggy boy]

Hey the titty spam-er strikes again! :confused:

spam spam spam spam

This is too funny
The name of the forum should be changed

[biggy boy]

The funny thing is they don't seem to spam this spam thread :p: :p

I just love some of the spam topics headers

[biggy boy]

Still no spam in theis thread, just in every other one!
Porn spam strikes again.

[ElectricSquid]

One of the GREAT ways to end the forum spammers dead in their tracks is to custom modify your registration page. Most of the spammers are pre-packaged spambot programs. They target the registration page then post like mad. If your registration page is different than the norm, the spambots have no way to get in.

I did this to my forum and have been spam free ever since.
It takes a little coding to do it, but is well worth the time.

Try ReCapcha for the captcha image. It's very secure and easy to code into an existing registration page.
Plus, every time a user uses it, they are helping digitalize words in old books and newspapers that OCR programs (like the spambots use to hack your existing captcha) cannot figure out.

http://recaptcha.net/


http://recaptcha.net/images/smallCaptchaSpaceWithRoughAlpha.png



To see it in action, hit my custom registration page on...
http://redneckfabrication.com

It took me about 15 minutes to code it in.


.


Here's the solution.
The same spambots that are slamming this site, are following the links in my sig over to my site.
But they have yet to break through.
Not a one of them.



.

[IM2L844]

This is becoming the best porn site on the internet...hmm<cough>hmm...I mean the worst.

[biggy boy]

[QUOTE=tobeads;35257]Shining is not the sun's patent, you also may shine.


<marquee behavior="alternate">HAHA the spammers finaly made it into this thread!!</marquee>