Remove URL with hyperlink

[Zerling]

Hello, i don't know if i should post this here, but if i'm wrong i hope u wont find trouble moving it.

I have a problem with some people stealing the password of others by sending them PM's with a false url, which is attached with an hyperlink redirecting to another website (which is exactly the same in appearance than our forum), so, when you click in the url you are being redirected to the this fraudulent site where you are not logged in, or it say something that makes you log (and people tend to believe they are just logging again in OUR forum). Fact is, we want to turn off the feature that make this kind of scam possible.

So, here's my question, is there any mod that do this? Maybe a function i have not seen in SMF? If there is no way to do this, can you PLEASE make some script? how much i'd have to pray ?

If you didn't understand what i'm talking about, i leave u an example:

Koodi [Valitse] Laajenna

Hey, look at this please, they are just not being fair with that boy [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Least,_at_Last]http://i.imgur.com/qYS7IO6.jpg[/url]


As you see, the link pretend to be just an image in imgur, but its not, is just a wikipedia random article

[radu81]

I don't know if there is a way to disable links in private messages, maybe someone more expert than could answer that.

On one of my forum I disabled private messages for member with less than 10 messages. If somebody wants to contact me and has less than 10 messages could use the contact form.

You could also use captcha when sending a private message
Admin > Features and Options > Basic Features tab > "Post count under which users must enter code when sending personal messages." (0 for no limit, admins are exempt)

[kat]

Is the fraudulent URL always to the same site?

If so, it could be dead easy to screw that.

If, say the URL's to http://www.fakesite.com you could use the word-censor to change it to, say, your own.

If the URL's longer, just censoring the first part should be enough. It'll just come-up with a "URL not found" error, instead.

Though, what Radu suggested is worth doing, anyway, I would say.

[Kindred]

Of course, many people turn off the word censor...  Or the hacker could change one character and bypass it...

There is an antispam mod that prevents new users from including any URL...  Like we use here.

But there is no current mod or feature to stop urls from being included in pms.

[kat]

Of course, many people turn off the word censor...

Easy enough to prevent that.

[Zerling]

Thanks a lot for your answers!

To radu81, how can i disable the PM-sending if they don't have less than "x" messages? . And i know about the captcha, but it won't work in this case /: (And btw they can only send 3 messages per hour in our forum, so that's not the problem )

K@ Thx for the welcome! . They always change the fake url, using a new .tk site or some blogspot crap, but we always use the censor function to evade the same fake-site to scam more people.

Kindred Can you tell me exactly what mod is that? I think it could help anyways in my forum security, i'd like to think all our members are good and honest people but... You know, its not to hard to make a new account and post some of this fraudulent links right in our faces.

Do you guys think it would be really hard to make a mod where you can disable the links in PM's ? Or, at least the hyperlink, so you can just put the normal link and the other person copy/paste it to the navigator.

Once again, thank you all! Your answers are really helping me a lot

[Kindred]

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2404

[Zerling]

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2404

Thanks!

By the way, do you know if there is some mod where you can put something like "Your are exiting hxxp:thisforum.com [nonactive]" when somebody click a link (or hyperlink)? I think that would be very helpful!

[Kindred]

nope... no such thing.

[Pipke]

By the way, do you know if there is some mod where you can put something like "Your are exiting thisforum.com" when somebody click a link (or hyperlink)? I think that would be very helpful![/b]

nope... no such thing.

yes, there is...

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2562

[Kindred]

hmmm.... interesting - I didn't know about that one....
(and, quite honestly, I think it's a bad idea... but it apparently does exist)

[Arantor]

It's a bad idea for a variety of reasons. Hurting SEO, limiting user experience, increased server load, what's not to like?