Help! My forum getting hit by a serious amount of spam

[matt scarlett]

My forum is getting hit by a huge amount of spam. Any suggestions?

http://portal.fakeheadphones.com/index.php

[lorth]

one or two of the antispam mods from the modsection.

[rsavoia]

My forum has been getting hit with about 50 spammers in the last 24 hours. Could this be related to the release of SMF 1.1.14 and 2.0?

[Burridge]

I don't think it'd be related to the release of 1.1.14 and 2.0

However I would advise going to 2.0, it has better anti spam. If you don't want to (completely understandable) then try some of the following mod.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2932

I use this on my forums that use SMF, and it works like an absolute charm. (I use it on my 2.0 forums since I use 2.0, and it is defiantly a good anti spam)

[Metalcrypt]

I haven't had any actual spam because I have manual approval in place and I use the "stop forum spam" mod to check for usernames/e-mails/IPs registered as spammers, but I've been getting a lot of spam registration attempts, all red-flagged by the mod.  It used to be that I'd get one or two a day at most, but in the past three days I got something like 75 (I stopped counting.)  Nothing to do with 1.1.14: I was running 1.1.13 when this started.

I tried both "visual verification" and the recaptcha mod to no avail.  I'll try that notCaptcha one and see if things get better.

[charlottezweb]

It used to be that I'd get one or two a day at most, but in the past three days I got something like 75 (I stopped counting.)  Nothing to do with 1.1.14: I was running 1.1.13 when this started.

Same here.  Just noticed a spike several days ago that seems to be increasing for multiple forums I administer.

[coach]

Yeah, what's up? I do Member Approval for registration and usually get 3 spammer member registration requests per week.  Last 4 days I'm getting 25 requests per day. PITA.

[nob4uask]

Morn Coach,

Not sure on details of all the spam mods for smf but I can tell you since installing the Stop Forum Spam mod I haven't received any and was getting several a week.  There is another one I have been reading about but just can't remember the name and since this has worked pretty good I haven't worried about it.  I suggest you do a search in the mods for spam and read up.

Good Luck.

[Thunderdownunder]

I have also had a HUGE spike in spmbots attacks the last two days.

MY forum is set on admin approval so no damage BUT I am sick of deleting 50 registrations a day and trying to save the real registrations at the same time.

I have a range of IPs I want to ban ( 109.230.220.0- 109.230.221.255) but the range isnt accepted by SMF.

What am I doing wrong ??


cheers

[a10]

I have a range of IPs I want to ban ( 109.230.220.0- 109.230.221.255)

109.230.220-221.*

[Thunderdownunder]

Thank you will try

[Metalcrypt]

I don't think it'd be related to the release of 1.1.14 and 2.0

However I would advise going to 2.0, it has better anti spam. If you don't want to (completely understandable) then try some of the following mod.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2932

I use this on my forums that use SMF, and it works like an absolute charm. (I use it on my 2.0 forums since I use 2.0, and it is defiantly a good anti spam)

No bogus registrations since I installed this mod on my board yesterday - thanks!

[TheMovieman]

Yep, I've been innodated with spam registrations (started 2 days ago IIRC). Will try that mod, thanks for the suggestion, Burridge.

[ozbob]

Yes, my forum is getting steady spam bot registration attempts as well.  Seems that they have worked out how to get around the SMF captcha registration.  If it keeps up might give the NotCaptcha a go ..

[charlottezweb]

If you're using 2.x -- enable the verification questions.  That solved it for me.

[rsavoia]

I don't think it'd be related to the release of 1.1.14 and 2.0

However I would advise going to 2.0, it has better anti spam. If you don't want to (completely understandable) then try some of the following mod.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2932

I use this on my forums that use SMF, and it works like an absolute charm. (I use it on my 2.0 forums since I use 2.0, and it is defiantly a good anti spam)

Sorry, I should have clarified. I have been getting a lot of spammer registration requests. I also have the Stop Forum Spam mod and have my board set up for registration approval, so they don't actually get in. It is still a pain to clear out all those registration attempts.

[busterone]

There has been a dramatic increase of spammers hitting sites everywhere for several days.  It is not just SMF forums being hit. They were reporting the same thing at Stop Forum Spam from admins that use other board software as well for the last few days.  At the moment SFS is down due to unknown reasons at this time. 

[akamrf]

This Mod works awesome with my three 1.1.14 SMF forums!! STOPPED ALL SPAMMERS INSTANTLY!!!

Make up all 5 simple questions and answers.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1516

[mouse92im]

My forum has been experiencing the same thing.. 50+ spam accounts created daily.  Ridiculous.  I have my forum set to admin approval, High visual verification and still getting them. 

Just updated to 1.1.14 a few minutes ago.  If the spammers continue over the next couple of days, I'll be looking to use a mod like above to make it stop.

[nob4uask]

There has been a dramatic increase of spammers hitting sites everywhere for several days.  It is not just SMF forums being hit. They were reporting the same thing at Stop Forum Spam from admins that use other board software as well for the last few days.  At the moment SFS is down due to unknown reasons at this time.

Even bust,

I just started getting hit and checked SFS and noticed they where down to, maybe that is why.  I did find that the 2 spammers didn't show a host name and they are both from Latvia.  Although, I was under the impression that with the IP Addresses you could tell what country they where from but was 80.233.196.71 and the other was 95.68.44.57, nothing showing that they are from the same country.