Upgraded my forum from 1.1.11 and now I'm being spammed to death

[trekkie2444]

After the upgrade was finished I started getting emails from gibberish names with gibberish titles that are totally just spam. Why am I getting them and how do I make them stop?

[Kindred]

you are now running smf 2.0RC2?
Did you activate the CAPTCHA?  Have you tried member activation?

You could try one of the anti-spam mods.... personally, I have had good luck with the reCAPTCHA mod.

[trekkie2444]

This is what I'm getting in my email inbox:

[email protected]
OlgAWCnJkmiS

But my users online shows this for all the guests: Guest (194.110.165.86)   02:01:16 PM   Sending email to another member.

I'll try activating the CAPTCHA but I never had this problem before I upgraded, and yes I'm using RC2.

[vbgamer45]

What does the complete email look like? Does it appear to be coming from he forum?

If so disable guest options to send topic to a friend etc

[NFSP_Ashley]

I'm having this exact same problem off and on with my motorclub's forum (I setup and Admin the site and forum) it's nfspmotorsports(dot)com(slash)forum if that helps

A couple months ago, it was really bad. I got dozens of emails in just a couple hours.
Then it was off-and-on for a week or so.
Then nothing for weeks
Now I just get one or two of these every once in a while.

It would still be nice to address the cause though.

I don't know if it will do any good, but here's what the email looks like (although the gibberish changes every time)


I spoke with some of the other members, and it seems that the members that are more active, have more posts, and are subscribed to more threads, got more gibberish email. I got the most.

Also, I don't know what CAPTCHA is, so any help there?

[Kindred]

First of all, you are posting in a thread which has been marked as "solved", so you are less likely to get additional support...

second CAPTCHA

http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=173.msg5180#msg5180

[NFSP_Ashley]

^Ok.
Thanks for the quick response.
Sorry about posting here, I didn't realize it was marked as "solved"

I think CAPTCHA is enabled on everything, but I'll double check.

Also, member registration is completely disabled.
Membership is subject to a board review, so one of the admins will simply add a member.

Let me go double check all the settings. Anything specific I should be looking for?

[NFSP_Ashley]

After reviewing all the Admin settings, I may have found the problem, but I do now know how to fix it. (Or at least fix it and retain desired functionality)

In "Administration Center > Security and Moderation > General" the option "Do not reveal contact details of members to guests" un-checked.
I would like people to be able to send emails to any of the members, however, I can't find any option to enable CAPTCHA for the email page (AKA "/forum/index.php?action=emailuser;sa=email;uid=X")
So it's completely possible for a script to send pointless spam to any member. Is there a way to fix this and keep the ability for human guests to send emails?

[Kindred]

no...