Xrunner's Spam Xperiment

[xrunner]

Interesting.

I now have these two questions:

What does 2 + 5 = ?

Take the answer from the first question and multiply it by ten, what is the answer?

Anyone want to predict what's happening before I reveal it. 

[darkknight89]

Still getting spammers?

[Chalky]

SMF sometimes displays the questions the other way round?

[xrunner]

SMF sometimes displays the questions the other way round?

Hmmm - I checked several times and it seemed to stay the same. Even if it did reverse every so often, some of them would have seen it in the correct order. No spammers registered.

Still getting spammers?

No. After I added the second question I stopped getting spammers.


What does 2 + 5 = ?

Take the answer from the first question and multiply it by ten, what is the answer?

Why did they stop? Is it because they simply look up the question in a database without regard to the actual question even if a child could solve it?

Does the database contain the question "What does 2 + 5 =" and not "Take the answer from the first question and multiply it by ten, what is the answer?"

If that's all it takes to defeat them, they are a pretty stupid lot I must say.

[darkknight89]

If it's an automated program (and it seems to be) then my guess is that it can really only do one thing at a time so "Take the answer from the first question..." isn't really going to make a whole lot of sense to them.  I'm sure if it could think for itself it would probably think something like this: "Duhhh....what question?"

[xrunner]

Hey check out the board layout for my Spammers Haven. Doesn't it look inviting to spammers? 

Spamhaven

[Arantor]

* Arantor gets you plenty of free linkbacks.

[xrunner]

Interesting news -

A spammer just joined my forum named

Elva11H (now deleted)

advertising online bingo and answered my original "notspammer" question which is now active.

Developing ...

[Arantor]

Yup. Let's see how many more get through now this one has.

[xrunner]

Yup. Let's see how many more get through now this one has.

Hey I'd like a definitive answer to this -

If you have two verification questions listed, and both activated, are they always displayed to the person registering in the original order you see them in the admin center? Does the software ever reverse their order when displayed on the registration screen?

Thanks.

[Arantor]

The order is semi-random, yes. For two questions, eventually you will see them in reverse order 50% of the time but viewing it 10 times could just as easily give you 10 in the right order.

[xrunner]

The order is semi-random, yes. For two questions, eventually you will see them in reverse order 50% of the time but viewing it 10 times could just as easily give you 10 in the right order.

Ah OK, thanks. I needed that straightened out.

We can work with it.

[darkknight89]

Interesting news -

A spammer just joined my forum named

Elva11H (now deleted)

advertising online bingo and answered my original "notspammer" question which is now active.

Developing ...

Well that sucks.

[xrunner]

Well that sucks.

That's what I was thinking, but so far no other spammers have registered or are waiting on emails.

It may have just been a rogue spammer that actually read the question and thought for him/her self. Those are the real rascals.

[xrunner]

Overnight, no more spammers registered. I think the one that got through was an aberration.

There's another forum I help Admin that's badly infested with spammers trying to register. This one -

Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

For example I just checked and from 0716 to 0742 they got 51 spammers awaiting registration approval (they have been in Admin approval for months). Yea, 51 in less than 30 minutes. They are a heavily-attacked forum.

I'm asking the other Admins if they want to try the question there. That will be a good test for it.

[darkknight89]

That's exactly how my forum was.  It was getting kinda ridiculous.  It was real fun when I didn't have any anti-spam measures at all when I first started.  I got wise since then.  Well, wiser anyway

[xrunner]

Since I set up the notspammer question at the other forum, the spammers have been foiled, at least for the time being. It went from ~50 every half hour to zero (two snuck through at first probably were in some kind of queue).

I turned off the visual verification also.

[xrunner]

Now I got a possible suggestion/idea (I know, you thought you smelled smoke ...)

Would it not be a good thing to have a default anti-spam verification question set for all new SMF installations? In this way new forum Admins would have at least a set-up to stave off spammers for some time? Since the questions work so well, seems like a good idea.

What would the question be? Well I have some ideas if this isn't poo pooed right off the bat.

[Arantor]

Would it not be a good thing to have a default anti-spam verification question set for all new SMF installations?

It would not be a good thing.

Let's say, hypothetically, that one is created. Now let's add it to Xrumer - and *every* new installation is now vulnerable.

Questions work primarily because of uniqueness. Make it distinctly non-unique and it's straight-up low hanging fruit.

[xrunner]

Questions work primarily because of uniqueness. Make it distinctly non-unique and it's straight-up low hanging fruit.

Hold on, I have a way to make each installation's question unique and answerable by new members registering (I think). If I can do that, and people cam answer the question, would it work?