Visiters spaming by registering.Need help

[lovepreet39]

My website is under attack.
Some peoples are registering again and again and adverrtising their websites .
I deleted about 110 users yesterday.
to stop this i  turned off ragistering.
Please help me.

Thanls

[CapadY]

Use post moderation for the first few messages.
When their posts aren't published posting is no longer fun.

[Illori]

you could also use verification questions on registration to try to stop some, as well as the mods for anti-spam on the mod site.

[lovepreet39]

my problem is Spamers are Doing everything to register.
Thay are not posting.Thay are using signature to spam.
And some of them are just registering and agian registering.
Please give me any idea to overcome or tell me any MOD.

And please also recomment me good sitemap gernater for smf

[Illori]

you can set your forum to use post count based groups and deny those with low post count from editing their profile.

[LynnB]

Why does a poster/spammer care about a signature or their profile? Who goes around looking at all the other registrant's profiles?

[Illori]

more links back to their spam site so they get more people to visit. same reason why you would want to post links to your forum on others sites/forums.

[LynnB]

Is there a way to disable signatures and profiles? In other words, html can be posted only in the body of a regular post?

[searchgr]

My website is under attack.
Some peoples are registering again and again and adverrtising their websites .
I deleted about 110 users yesterday.
to stop this i  turned off ragistering.
Please help me.

Thanls

This is what u need: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1665

[Illori]

that mod will not stop spammers from registering or anything related to the op's issue. you need to use some anti-spam mods from the mod site, and you can use post count based permissions to disable editing of the profile so the spammers can not add links there.

[LynnB]

Post count based permissions, ok. I looked in admin for anything on profiles but saw nothing - will look again. Will this stop a new registrant from adding links to a profile? What about the profiles that already have links? I'd like to just wipe out profiles entirely.

[Illori]

you would have to manually edit those profiles that have links already, or delete the accounts.

[LynnB]

OK thanks, and I promise this is the last question. I've looked through some of the members who have IPs on the forumspam database. Many of them have no profiles or links at all. And they keep returning to the site but not even trying to post. I assume these are bots but what are they accomplishing? If they aren't hurting anything I don't want to manually go through a few hundred accounts and delete them.

[Angie on Dialysis]

OK thanks, and I promise this is the last question. I've looked through some of the members who have IPs on the forumspam database. Many of them have no profiles or links at all. And they keep returning to the site but not even trying to post. I assume these are bots but what are they accomplishing? If they aren't hurting anything I don't want to manually go through a few hundred accounts and delete them.

What some forum owners do when they have a spam problem and don't know if some that haven't posted yet are spammers or not as there is no proof (yet) is they create a member group that is limited until they make their first post. If the first post is spam, then you know what to do with him. If the first post reveals it is a real person, they go into the normal group.

Also don't feel bad about asking so many questions. So many forum owners do not take responsibility for the spam problem on their own forums yet you do. So ask away!   Oh wait .. I just realized this isn't your thread lol. Yeah if you have any more questions starting your own thread is always good.

My website is under attack.
Some peoples are registering again and again and adverrtising their websites .
I deleted about 110 users yesterday.
to stop this i  turned off ragistering.
Please help me.

Thanls

Stop Spammer works great to flag them to make it easier. Also permissions to prevent spam by making their membergroup so they can't use BBC until after a certain post count or edit their profile until a certain post count.

[LynnB]

I won't start a new thread for just ONE more question, and I think it is on topic with the OP. Does having such links in my forum in signatures of spammers, hurt my website from an SEO perspective? Because I know none of my real members are looking at profiles and caring what links are there. If they are hurting in some non-ovious way like SEO, THAT would motivate me to hunt them down and delete the accounts.

[Angie on Dialysis]

I won't start a new thread for just ONE more question, and I think it is on topic with the OP. Does having such links in my forum in signatures of spammers, hurt my website from an SEO perspective? Because I know none of my real members are looking at profiles and caring what links are there. If they are hurting in some non-ovious way like SEO, THAT would motivate me to hunt them down and delete the accounts.

hehe okay
Hmm.. well I think it could. I don't really know SEO stuff that much but what I have noticed is many spammers joining forums with links to other forum profiles. Not sure how this effects SEO ratings but with spam sites linking back to your site and your site hosting spam links back to their sites, I don't think it could be that positive.

This is interesting reading:

The danger for the site is that the search engines do not give much respect to sites that link to bad neighbourhoods and there is no doubt that these spammers are linking to bad neighbourhoods, but many of the SEO kiddies see this as legitimate SEO and their sites as not being bad neighbourhoods.  We are responsible for the links on OUR site (and it does not matter who put the links there). See this Google blog post on Fake User Accounts and Profile Spam.

http://www.forumdr.com/the-curse-of-the-profile-spammer/891/

[LynnB]

The OP mentioned turning off registration completely. I'm seriously thinking of doing that so the accounts I'm deleting won't just re-register. I have a small number of real members and don't mind making them jump through a few hoops - so I'm thinking of just putting up a READ ME titled how to register. I'll have them email me and I'll register them myself.

So, how can I keep guests from registering but still be able to register them manually as admin?

[Illori]

you can disable registration in admin -> registration -> settings method of registration employed for new members registration disabled, and in that same area register new member. but overall most admin just look to some of the anti-spam mods or the verification questions which do a pretty good job of stopping spammers without disabling registration.

[LynnB]

Great, thanks much for all your help!

[lovepreet39]

But problem is not solved.
Turn off registering effecting my forum.

[Illori]

not solved in what way?

[lovepreet39]

Ok i enabled the registrato again.

Now i am watching in the Who online. Some gusets are tring to Login again and again.
But there is only 1 registered members on my website which is sleeping

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Set your method of registration to 'Admin Approval' - people can still register, but admin must activate the account to complete reg.  That way you can screen the new registrations and bounce the ones that look like spammers before the accounts become active.

[Illori]

lovepreet39 which version of smf are you running? if you have not updated to RC4+security patch or RC5 please do so, there are some patches for some of the login issues you may be facing.

[lovepreet39]

I am using RC5

[Illori]

then i would not worry about the login attempts at this time unless it starts causing issues for your users.

[lovepreet39]

Today i am viewing Who online.
There are some guests may be spamers.
First guest states is unknown.
2nd  is tring to register.
3rd states is  - Nothing and nothing you can see.

Now spamers are hidding themselfs and attacking on my website.
But main point is My websites is totaly new so why spamers are attacking on my website.

and whats about 1st and 2nd  guests states.

[mariusfv]

Like Angie KidneyKorner say's I suggest you too to install this mod:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1547 the mod to work you must register here: http://stopforumspam.com/ and get your API key, copy/paste the key to mod site area and done!
+ Use SMF default captcha(better then reCaptcha who was bypassed by Russians and software is for sale).
+Use additional questions for register and activate captcha and questions for first 15 posts.

I had your problems few months ago, after I read SMF tutorials now I have 1 spammer/month and before 70-80/day!

[lovepreet39]

Yes i am doing the same

[Vince S]

Just as an alternate view I have the good luck to live in Australia, a country with (as far as I know) very few spammers. Plus we are a geographic interest group so our forum only needs locals to register. So I leave all registrations on Admin approval and, if I suspect in any way the name they have chosen, I click on the IP number which tells me a country of origin and then put a registration ban on it. This way progressively the spam issue has dropped to one every few weeks which is great!

Now this is a bit of a ham-fisted approach as some IP ranges cover multiple countries. If I suspect that I will just test a few IP's, maybe just ban the specific problem range or some obvious sub-set. The safety mechanism is the disclaimer which tells people what to do if they have been wrongly banned. Oh dear, as I type this I am wondering if a banned person gets to see it...? I set this up months ago, did I miss that? Heck, you can see for yourself how it works at http://hunterdog.org.au/DiscussionBoard/index.php?action=admin;area=regcenter;sa=register - if you want to test register with some obvious test name go right ahead, I will even tick the email notice for rejection which I don't usually do.

Just for reference purposes of anyone interested below is the list of IP's currently banned from registration, I don't claim it is perfect but it will do. I have seen that you can subscribe to services that maintain comprehensive IP databases, but stumbling along making my own for free is what got this lot together. If they have 0 Hits that means only the one spammer came from that IP since it was entered, you get that!:

Banned entity    Ban name    Hits    
1.*.*.*    1. India    0    
24.*.*.*    24. Charter Communic    5    
46.*.*.*    46. Middle East    2    
58.180-255.*.*    58.180-255. China SE    0    
59.*.*.*    59. China India    0    
60.0-223.*.*    60.0-223. China    3    
62.*.*.*    62. Russia    1    
64.*.*.*    64. United States    38    
66.*.*.*    66. Canada    3299    
67.*.*.*    67. United States    0    
68.*.*.*    68. United States    51    
69.*.*.*    69. United States    3    
70.*.*.*    70. United States    0    
71.*.*.*    71. Finland & US    4    
72.*.*.*    72. USA    1    
74.*.*.*    74. Texas    77    
75.*.*.*    75. USA    1    
76.*.*.*    76. Finland (?)    5    
77.*.*.*    77. Russia    66    
78.*.*.*    78. Great Britain    53    
79.*.*.*    79. Israel    2    
80.*.*.*    80. Austria    2    
81.*.*.*    81. Norway    3    
82.*.*.*    82. Russia    3    
83.*.*.*    83. Germany    0    
84.*.*.*    84. Russia    4    
85.*.*.*    85. Sweden    46    
86.*.*.*    86. Belarus    1    
87.*.*.*    87. Finland    1    
88.*.*.*    88. Finland    6    
89.*.*.*    89. Germany    224    
91.*.*.*    91. Ukraine    71    
92.*.*.*    92. Ukraine    242    
93.*.*.*    93. Netherlands    3    
94.*.*.*    94. France, Italy et    767    
95.*.*.*    95. Russia    432    
96.*.*.*    96. USA    4    
98.*.*.*    98. USA    6    
109.*.*.*    109. Russia    5    
110.*.*.*    110. Pakistan, China    3    
111.0-219.*.*    111.0-219 Pakistan    3    
111.221-255.*.*    111.221+ Bangladesh    1    
113.*.*.*    113. Nepal    1    
114.*.*.*    114. India, Japan    0    
115.*.*.*    115. India SE Asia    0    
116.*.*.*    116.* China Korea    0    
117.*.*.*    117. China    1    
118.*.*.*    118. China SE Asia    1    
119.*.*.*    119. Pakistan    1    
120.*.*.*    120. China SE Asia    0    
121.44.106.63    aleheaterof    0    
122.0-99.*.*    122.0-99.* China SE    0    
122.100.16-255.*    122.100.16-255.* Chi    0    
122.101-103.*.*    122.101-103.* China    0    
122.112-255.*.*    122.112+.* China SE    0    
123.112-127.*.*    123.112-127 China    0    
123.212-242.*.*    123.212-242. SE Asia    0    
124.0-107.*.*    124.0-107. China    1    
124.192-255.*.*    124.192-255. SE Asia    0    
129.*.*.*    129.* USA    4    
173.*.*.*    173. United States    47    
174.*.*.*    174. United States    3    
175.*.*.*    175. Malaysia    0    
178.*.*.*    178. Ukraine    5    
180.*.*.*    180. China Japan    3    
184.*.*.*    184. Unspecified    1    
188.*.*.*    188. Latvia    16    
189.*.*.*    189. Brazil    1    
194.*.*.*    194. Virgin Islands    1506    
195.*.*.*    195. Latvia    8    
196.*.*.*    196. West Africa    1    
201.*.*.*    201. Brazil    17    
202.131.96-255.*    202.131.96-255 SE As    0    
202.132-133.*.*    202.132-133. SE Asia    0    
203.197-200.*.*    203.197-200 India    0    
204.*.*.*    204. US    4    
205.*.*.*    205. USA    0    
208.*.*.*    208. USA    1    
209.*.*.*    209. USA    1    
210.23.64-127.*    210.23.64-127    0    
211.232-255.*.*    211.232-255. Korea    0    
212.*.*.*    212 Israel    14    
213.*.*.*    213. Russia    2    
216.*.*.*    216. USA    1    
217.*.*.*    217. Germany    39    
219.91-255.*.*    219.91-255 SE Asia    0    
221.*.*.*    221. China    0    
222.*.*.*    222. Japan - China    19    

[vich]

I have the same problem on my forum. I have it set to manually approve new members, but it's a HUGE pain to have to sift through hundreds of fake accounts a week in order to find the few legitimate ones. I've actually disabled registration on the forum and I *still* see new accounts being created!

http://screencast.com/t/E2q6G5tym [nofollow]

I'm sure I'll get dogpiled by people who love SMF, but frankly I think it's ridiculously vulnerable to spam. I've tried a bunch of different methods for stopping spam registration and NOTHING seems to work worth a damn. The fact that spammers can still register accounts even with registration turned off is troubling to say the least. I know a ton about Wordpress but not much about SMF - if I did, I would just rename or move the appropriate files so that spammers couldn't use the defaults to attack my forum. That seems like a simple solution, but again, I don't know enough about SMF to fiddle with file names or directory names.

Currently I have installed:

- No Spam by Guests!
- Bad Behavior
- httpBL
- reCaptcha for SMF
- Stop Spammer

This list does not include packages that I've tried, have done nothing and have uninstalled.

It seems I may as well have nothing installed and left the door wide open. This has been an ongoing problem and frankly, I'm a bit disgusted by the whole thing. Yes, there are spammers, but the apparent ease with which they can get through SMF is pathetic. I run a number of very popular Wordpress sites and spam is 99% under control on those.

Vic

[Illori]

please open a separate thread for your issue, this thread belongs to someone else.

[vich]

I only posted it here because I thought it was appropriate since I've had the same registration issues. Trying to follow correct protocol.

[Illori]

and the protocol would be to start a separate thread as your issue may not be exactly the same as the ops issue. also it is not the best idea to bump a thread that is several months old either.

[2babies=tired]

Lynnb

it used to be that bad links would effect your ranking in google, but I was reading up on it recently and new info suggests that google has changed and it doesn't penalise sites that have outgoing links to bad sites.