inherit
260402
0
Dec 13, 2023 13:08:45 GMT -8
treewit99
10
February 2020
treewit99
|
Post by treewit99 on Dec 13, 2023 13:22:42 GMT -8
For the last several months I have had tons of spammers on my Forum. It takes forever to ban, delete, etc. Is there anything else I can do to keep them off my Forum? So frustrated! Thank you in advance, Teresa
|
|
#e61919
Support Staff
224482
0
Member is Online
1
May 9, 2024 8:13:03 GMT -8
Scott
23,351
August 2015
socalso
|
Post by Scott on Dec 13, 2023 14:31:45 GMT -8
treewit99 - If you have guest posting, I would recommend disabling that (set your board permissions so only members can create threads and reply to posts). I would also recommend enabling the Restrict Registration option so you can vet new members before they are able to participate on the forum.
|
|
inherit
229057
0
Dec 14, 2023 4:05:42 GMT -8
glenngk
16
February 2016
glenngk
|
Post by glenngk on Dec 14, 2023 4:01:03 GMT -8
How do I restrict / moderate who becomes new members of my forum. I can find nothing which shows me how to do this.
Glenn
|
|
inherit
262913
0
May 4, 2024 9:35:53 GMT -8
frootloop
61
December 2020
frootloop
|
Post by frootloop on Dec 14, 2023 5:07:29 GMT -8
Ever since the last "Angry Bear" issue we have been getting 5-10 spammers every day. They become a member first, and then they post spam on as many threads as possible. They have normal email addresses on their profile but if you go to WMIP it says they are from Russia or Singapore. If you look at the Guest IPs at any given time, there are 20-30 guests that have an IP from The Russian Federation or Singapore (each address is a slightly different number) We didn't have any issues-None-Zero-until that last angry bear on November 26 (which lasted an unusually long time) The spammers started creating memberships a few hours later and haven't stopped since! thewoodsforum.boards.net/
|
|
#e61919
Support Staff
224482
0
Member is Online
1
May 9, 2024 8:13:03 GMT -8
Scott
23,351
August 2015
socalso
|
Post by Scott on Dec 14, 2023 7:57:30 GMT -8
|
|
inherit
262913
0
May 4, 2024 9:35:53 GMT -8
frootloop
61
December 2020
frootloop
|
Post by frootloop on Dec 14, 2023 8:11:28 GMT -8
I realize I can restrict members from joining but I don't want to make new people wait to join or jump thru hoops. We are a gaming forum and we get a lot of developers who want to join on the day of the release of their new game so they can answer customer questions, not to mention that most developers are not from the US and would have to wait until the following day because I'm from the US. As I said, I believe the sudden onslaught of spammers is related to the angry bear situation because we never had this issue EVER, until a couple of hours after that last angry bear which affected most of the forums for nearly 3 hours.
|
|
#e61919
Support Staff
224482
0
Member is Online
1
May 9, 2024 8:13:03 GMT -8
Scott
23,351
August 2015
socalso
|
Post by Scott on Dec 14, 2023 8:18:57 GMT -8
I realize I can restrict members from joining but I don't want to make new people wait to join or jump thru hoops. We are a gaming forum and we get a lot of developers who want to join on the day of the release of their new game so they can answer customer questions, not to mention that most developers are not from the US and would have to wait until the following day because I'm from the US. As I said, I believe the sudden onslaught of spammers is related to the angry bear situation because we never had this issue EVER, until a couple of hours after that last angry bear which affected most of the forums for nearly 3 hours. Spammers always increase this time of year unfortunately and the fact you noticed it after the last err bear issue is coincidence. According to the forum's security log the forum has been dealing with spam accounts prior to err bear as well.
|
|
inherit
262913
0
May 4, 2024 9:35:53 GMT -8
frootloop
61
December 2020
frootloop
|
Post by frootloop on Dec 14, 2023 8:38:18 GMT -8
cottYes, we've had an occasional spammer here and there but nothing on a daily basis (with the exception of the infamous Ammar, who is well-known to everyone on Proboards cuz he gets around ) I'm not blaming Proboards, I'm just wondering if the angry bear issue opened up a vulnerability?
|
|
Kami
Forum Cat
Posts: 40,057
Mini-Profile Theme: Kami's Mini-Profile
#f35f71
156500
0
Offline
Jul 24, 2021 11:48:29 GMT -8
Kami
40,057
July 2010
kamiyakaoru
Kami's Mini-Profile
|
Post by Kami on Dec 14, 2023 12:32:29 GMT -8
Scott Yes, we've had an occasional spammer here and there but nothing on a daily basis (with the exception of the infamous Ammar, who is well-known to everyone on Proboards cuz he gets around ) I'm not blaming Proboards, I'm just wondering if the angry bear issue opened up a vulnerability? There really isn't anything PB can do to stop spammers before they spam, it's honestly just coincidental timing on the influx versus an unrelated issue that caused loading problems. To be a bit more granular, there are 2 kinds of spammers: bots, and real people. As a rule, spammer bots are stopped pretty quickly via the captcha system -- this applies to both the captcha system required when creating an account, as well as when trying to post as a guest. Bots are really just automation; someone has created a program that says, "go to websites, and if they have a place for you to submit content, submit the following: [bot message here]". Bots can't think or follow external / unprogrammed instructions, so something like a captcha or "what's 2+2 but spell it out" will prohibit them from progressing further. But, none of this stops a human spammer. Human spammers are basically the digital equivalent of a telemarketing cold call (assuming you are old enough to remember landlines), except instead of sitting in a cubicle-laden call centre, they're probably at home. Human spammers, by virtue of being human, can pass captchas and follow external instructions that make it seem like they're legitimate users, including activating their accounts. Then they copy paste whatever things they've been instructed to, and get paid for their output. Because human spammers are, in fact, human, there's nothing PB can do to stop them until they misbehave. Until they post, or unless they're using an email address provider that historically has been used by other spammers, they can't be identified. So to sum up - the timing just sucks because spammers increase activity during holidays that people shop for, which obviously happens quite a bit for december across multiple demographics, and the spammers this time are probably real people that are trying to eke out a living so there's nothing you can really do about them until they do something wrong.
|
|
inherit
250926
0
Dec 30, 2023 21:01:19 GMT -8
termitehunter
7
November 2017
termitehunter
|
Post by termitehunter on Dec 28, 2023 22:35:38 GMT -8
I have chosen to welcome them (the human ones) See my post in Fighting spam or visit my site for the visual of how I did it. I don't think you will miss it. The spammer didn't. Read my Fighting Spam post first before visiting my forum. Still an experiment but the first spammer followed the rules The Greater Charlotte Geocaching Club
|
|