News:

Want to get involved in developing SMF, then why not lend a hand on our github!

Main Menu

How to tackle SPAM with SMF?

Started by flapjack, April 18, 2010, 06:40:38 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

societyofrobots

The Avatar Verification mod is useless, lol. Its as if it didn't even phase the spammers for a second . . . and its not just one spammer that got in within the last day, either.

Well, it probably slows them down about 5 seconds per registration, so I guess its better than nothing . . . This just shows that its probably paid humans and not a bot thats doing the registrations.

Adding niche questions won't help, it'll only take a day or so for the spammer to work around it. I'd have to make up new questions every day.

butchs

#21
Project Honeypot will be back May 5, 2010.   :-X

Humm, you have 1.1.x bummer, looks like you are a victim of the Forum Poster program.  Most of the time they hide behind a proxy.  Then they first try automatic posting.  Then manually sign in.  Then they switch into automatic posting.  There used to be 180 of them hitting my site every day.  A few times they assaulted me with many hits to see if they can find a hole in my protection but the BB cache feature tossed them with ease.  Now I reject one to two of them per day.
:o

Though BB can take care of them by blocking just the evil proxies, I do not have the energy to re-write it for 1.1.x so, you can see if Proxy Blocker will slow them down.  Or upgrade to 2.x?  Chances are they will eventually turn off the proxy and try it in the buff.  Then BB and/ or honeypot can catch them.  :P
I have been truly inspired by the SUGGESTIONS as I sit on my throne and contemplate the wisdom imposed upon me.

societyofrobots

Hmmmm thanks butchs!

Its been 30 hours, and no new spam accounts (that can be identified as a spam account).

Proxy Blocker appears to have stopped the majority of them, while Stop Spammer blocked the rest.

I give them a max of 6 months before they figure out a way around this and I get spammed again.


I have the below also installed, but they are all useless beyond slowing them down a few seconds:
reCAPTCHA
Anti-Bot Registration Puzzles
Avatar Verification

~DS~

reCAPTCHA and Anti-spam link I might use.
"There is no god, and that's the simple truth. If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again."
~Penn Jillette – God, NO! – 2011

butchs

Quote from: societyofrobots on May 03, 2010, 01:56:17 AM
Hmmmm thanks butchs!

Its been 30 hours, and no new spam accounts (that can be identified as a spam account).

Proxy Blocker appears to have stopped the majority of them, while Stop Spammer blocked the rest.

I give them a max of 6 months before they figure out a way around this and I get spammed again.


I have the below also installed, but they are all useless beyond slowing them down a few seconds:
reCAPTCHA
Anti-Bot Registration Puzzles
Avatar Verification

Maybe a week or two.  By then you should have the honey pot going.  :)
I have been truly inspired by the SUGGESTIONS as I sit on my throne and contemplate the wisdom imposed upon me.

Utech22

Nice post, I will continue reading it tomorrow.

DoctorMalboro

Excellent tip, i'm sure i will use it :P

Quote from: Arantor on April 29, 2010, 01:57:50 PM
* Arantor is curious to know the site to see if it considers me a spammer...
Someone should code the "Arantor Prevention Mod" :P

Arantor

Arantor Prevention Mod? Really, it's quite simple.

All you have to do is insult me, my work and so on until I get so annoyed I leave. Almost happened here a few times.

DoctorMalboro

Quote from: Arantor on May 09, 2010, 11:48:04 AM
Arantor Prevention Mod? Really, it's quite simple.

All you have to do is insult me, my work and so on until I get so annoyed I leave. Almost happened here a few times.
Yep, but, someone could create a mod that automatically do that every time you post, as simple as that :P

Arantor

There's always the Annoy User mod :P

societyofrobots

I was wrong, it wouldn't take them 6 months to get around it. It took them 8 days.

The same spammer is hitting me on a daily basis now, every day he has a new email and IP so he bypasses the Stop Spammer database.

My theory is that he is using a bot network and not a proxy. Or the proxy just isn't being properly blocked. Or maybe the Tor network?

On the bright side, it appears only one of the spammers have so far beaten the system.

Project Honey Pot is also still down. Even so, my money is on the spammers ability to get around it, to be honest.

sigh . . .

Raize

I would like a way to trigger a ban when a user adds a link to their signature.


saibaworld

hi all, this post is greeeeeat!!!  i been looking all over for this kinda post.

i have a forum at allnigeria.info, and i noticed that some users keep posting the same stuff, esp adverts, attimes 4 or more times at the same period or over some days in different boards of my forum. this can be irritating. and i am tired of constantly deleting these annoying posts.

my question is: are there mods that can help prevent posting the same stuff over and over on the same forum?

thanks, as i wait in earnest anticipation
"The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing." - Ben Okri
"The one being carried does not realize how far away the town is." - Nigerian proverb

ANF Forum  ||  Study & Scholarships || Jobs & Careers || The Internist

Kill Em All

I don't think so, but there are mods to help prevent those users from registering. Take a look here:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;type=19


My Site: KEAGaming.com

Manual Installation of Mods
Prevent Spam and Forum Attacks
Please do not PM or email me for support unless offered, help should be publicly displayed to others.

Tippon

Quote from: butchs on April 29, 2010, 01:57:15 PMBesides blocking all Countries that are not in my target area I have the following spam prevention installed:

How do you block countries? This is my biggest problem at the moment, as I'm getting loads of spam registrations from overseas, but it's a pretty UK specific site.

Thanks for any help :)

butchs

If your host uses GeoIP you can set up your htaccess file to block many countries.  So ask your host if they offer GeoIP?

I have been truly inspired by the SUGGESTIONS as I sit on my throne and contemplate the wisdom imposed upon me.


Tippon

#38
I'm not sure about GeoIP, but they seem to have something similar that they call IP Deny Manager:

[nofollow]

So I'll so some reading up and see if that'll do it. Thanks for the advice :)

Flapjack: I've just seen your links while posting this reply, so thank you :) I'm gonna have some food and then get my reading head on :)


EDIT: Added a .htaccess file to deny what appears to be the most common I.P. address ranges that I'm having problems with, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks again guys :)

jhenai29

QuoteThanks for sharing this tips! I got an idea about this spam! Hope more tricks to come from you!

Advertisement: