Help me stop the spammers!

[hdflame]

Hey guys and gals,

Just checked this morning and we had 18 people (spammers ?) wanting to join the site.  Yesterday there were 8.

What I'm trying now is requiring new members to activate their account.  If this doesn't stop the spammers I have one other option.  I will require EACH one to answer a question about why they want to join the site.

If anyone sees any spam, please click on the "notify" button so I'll be sure to know if this is working.  I'm determined to stop some of this junk from getting through!  Hopefully ALL of it.

[Mojo]

I seen this on another forum and thought of you and thought I would pass it on to you Bobby. :)


I wish I may
I wish I might
create a spammers hell tonight
A place so dark
a hole so dank
filled with feces so that it deeply stank
gather those spammers
gather them all
line em up , and let them fall
deep in the smelly hole
down the putrid ravine
never again to be heard or seen

[PDQ]

Wouldn't a simple random question be better than requiring new members to state why they want to join the site? Your suggested method mean that you will need to waste your valuable time vetting each new members question before acceptance?

Is there not an addon for random questions?


For example:

Random question:

How many letters are in the abbreviation "FWD"?

You may either enter the digit or the spelling of the number.

Answer: I'm a bot. how the heck do I know

If answer = false Then "The answer given for the random question was incorrect."

[wind_rose_2]

Bobby, everyone l find l inform you of..some are rediculous others subtle but the can be gotten rid of with vigilence of our members.
Dave

[hdflame]

Wouldn't a simple random question be better than requiring new members to state why they want to join the site? Your suggested method mean that you will need to waste your valuable time vetting each new members question before acceptance?

Is there not an addon for random questions?


For example:

Random question:

How many letters are in the abbreviation "FWD"?

You may either enter the digit or the spelling of the number.

Answer: I'm a bot. how the heck do I know

If answer = false Then "The answer given for the random question was incorrect."

I wish it were that easy.  I have not been able to find an option to add a random question.  Maybe I can get Ken to ask his website forum support people.  Since I don't actually own the site, it's harder for me to do some things.

I get reports from a lot of you already.  I just wanted everyone to be aware of the reporting option available to them.

I hate the spammers as much as everyone else.  Just wanted to let everyone know I was trying something different.  Maybe this last change will be all that I need to do!

[fragged8]

hiya

this being an SMF forum there is a support forum

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php

you may find something there ?

Rich

[Mojo]

Bobby:

I contacted my son who owns a large software and server company. They produce forum software similar to PHP. It is a high end forum program used mainly by large clients such as Yahoo, NASA, and many other big corporations. I explained to him that you were getting hit hard with Spam and this is what he said:

Not all spammers use robots to automatically sign up as new members. Spammers pay young people in China, Russia, etc. a certain amount ( pennies ) for each registration they make. Once they are able to make a successful registration then the spammer attaches a bot program to the site which hits you with more Spam. The only way to rid yourself of the spam is to switch software packages ( his program is not cheap ) or go to an admin approval process. This will require the Admin to approve all new members.

Him and I discussed the forum here and he felt it would be easier to go to the Admin approval process since we do not get many new members signing up every week. I could probably get him to sponsor this site with new software and server space but it requires someone on your end to have a great deal of expertise with forum software.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions PM me and I can take those back to him or I could put you in touch with him via e-mail.

Chris

[gene]

How do we know this thread was not started by a spammer, just pretending to be Bobby???

If this is really you Bobby, thank you for your hard work. I read recently that as much as 95% of all emails are spam. Forums are certainly a major target for spammers.

If this is not Bobby, please let me know and I will "notify" the real Bobby.

Gene

[sofadoc]

If this is not Bobby, please let me know and I will "notify" the real Bobby.

Gene

Wait a minute.  ???      How do we know this is really Gene?
Also, if we are going to report Spam, I think we should report "Beanie Weenies" as well. And how about those Vienna sausages in that little can? You can NEVER get the one in the middle out without poking your finger through it!

[hdflame]

If this is not Bobby, please let me know and I will "notify" the real Bobby.

Gene

Wait a minute.  ???      How do we know this is really Gene?
Also, if we are going to report Spam, I think we should report "Beanie Weenies" as well. And how about those Vienna sausages in that little can? You can NEVER get the one in the middle out without poking your finger through it!

You're supposed to leave the middle one till last! ;D

Believe it or not, in the last couple of days that I've started monitoring this closer and requiring admin approval, we have had about 10-20 new members signing up a day!

What I'm doing now is checking to approve members but requiring them to activate their account.  I think this actually sends an email that they have to respond to.  Maybe that will stop them.

[hdflame]

It seems there has been a reduction in spam.  Anybody seen any in the past few days?

[mykoo000]

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[PDQ]

It seems there has been a reduction in spam.  Anybody seen any in the past few days?

Nope, not seen any whatsoever.

[hdflame]

Well, I can see from the above posts, someone has a sense of humor! ???

Humor or not.......they're banned now!