Russian Spam Bots

[Computer Hack]

Please note this is the second time I have had to type this post because of your "I am not a robot" capture.

I thought that the robot capture image was an add but by the time I realised it wasn't, what I had already typed was gone. I had just clicked on post and If I had known I would have at least copied my post to the clipboard.

Please warn others to save them a bit of time!

However, my post is to ask what I can do to stop "Russian Spam Bots" from signing up on my forums! The forum in question has only one mod installed and that is the spam bot mod that displays a picture of letters and mine was set to medium and I had three questions setup.

I checked the logs and most of the "IP" addresses were from Russia and most of the email addresses were from hxxp:yandex.com [nonactive].

I added a fourth question to the signup procedure but the next day another 30 new spam members were signed up.

What I have done now is to implement a ban on hxxp:yandex.com [nonactive] emails and also I have changed the settings to admin approval only (which I don't really want to do!) and the spam seems to have stopped.

I don't really want to add more mods as I think the core version of SMF is stable and gives me just what I need. The more mods you add the more risk you are taking that is the way I see it!

Any help without more mods would be appreciated!

Thank you for your time!

[Arantor]

Please see: Spam - my forum is flooded with spam, what can I do

[Computer Hack]

I did not realise that you could set 10 questions and then select how many the user had to answer. I thought you just created a number of questions and the user had to answer them to gain access.

[a10]

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=531660.msg3776163#msg3776163

Make 15-20 questions in that style (use imagination to make up type of questions). Set 2-4 active. Say goodbye to bots, instantly stopped, with zero problems for real people.

Now, a few "humanbots" may show up now and then (seen 1 during the last 6 months on my forum :O). If a nuisance, evaluate adding a spam look-up mod (f.ex. stopforumspam.com).

[Computer Hack]

I thought a few humans might have been involved because once I changed the three question to four about 30 new accounts were created and I thought that was pretty low for a spam bot so I thought they might be trying to confuse me by using both spam bots and human intervention. Some of the emails were from gmail but most were from hxxp:yandex.com [nonactive] which I have googled and found it to be a Russian company.

[Kindred]

seriously.
pool up 30 questions
ask 1-2 for registration.

poof. very few, if any, bots for at least a year...

[a10]

Try the question system mentionned above, and report back.
Millions of bot registations attempts stopped on my forum over the years (counting action=register in server logs), while only having to deal with something like 5 human bots pr year.

If practical for one's type of forum, keeping registration admin aproval on is a good extra wall that will pick up any human rats. Do lookups on ip's etc on google, stopforumspam \ cleantalk etc will surely show up if a spam hit.

[GigaWatt]

Please note this is the second time I have had to type this post because of your "I am not a robot" capture.

It's common practice on many forums. The first few posts of any new user have to pass a captcha verification in order for the user to submit his post.

However, my post is to ask what I can do to stop "Russian Spam Bots" from signing up on my forums! The forum in question has only one mod installed and that is the spam bot mod that displays a picture of letters and mine was set to medium and I had three questions setup.

As Steve posted in another thread...

To expand on the 'verification questions' portion in the link Sh@mbles gave you:

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=531660.msg3776163#msg3776163

EDIT: Oh, a10 already posted .

Follow a10's advice, I've had 0 bot registrations since I've implemented his questionnaire template

[delta5]

Install the stopforumspam.com mod. Set it to check everything. I use it and haven't had a spam bot get through yet.

Guest
Apply Filter: Only show the error messages of this IP address 192.88.135.15   
   Reverse chronological order of list Today at 12:57:36 AM
Apply Filter: Only show the error messages of this session 63d2d215655d325a741ea2976565ed77
Apply Filter: Only show the errors of this type Type of error: General
Apply Filter: Only show the error messages of this URLhttps://www.fedupwithliberals.com/index.php?action=register2Apply Filter: Only show the errors with the same messageThe user Stephania9 with Email [email protected] (IP 192.88.135.15) is a Spam, please contact forum administrator.
   Apply Filter: Only show the error messages of this member Guest

The spammer IP is not showing correctly, because of our sucuri firewall.

[Computer Hack]

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have posted here to help me out! I am truly grateful!

First I would like to tell everyone that I took the advice and increased the number of questions asked to 3 and I increased the possible answers to about 20 and the spam sign ups seem to have stopped.

I also reviewed the type of questions so they did not include straight yes or no answers and did my best to avoid using the answer in the question.

I am now trying to think of another ten or twenty questions I can add to my list to make it even harder for the spam bots.

I consider this problem solved and hope others can learn from my mistakes!

THANK YOU ALL!