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General Upholstery Questions and Comments => General Discussion => Topic started by: hdflame on July 22, 2010, 06:45:59 am

Title: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: hdflame on July 22, 2010, 06:45:59 am
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.
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: Mojo on July 22, 2010, 07:18:48 am
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
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: PDQ on July 22, 2010, 07:56:53 am
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."
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: wind_rose_2 on July 22, 2010, 09:18:06 am
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
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: hdflame on July 22, 2010, 01:01:26 pm
Quote from: PDQ on July 22, 2010, 07:56:53 am
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!
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: fragged8 on July 22, 2010, 02:44:59 pm
hiya

this being an SMF forum there is a support forum

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

you may find something there ?

Rich
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: Mojo on July 22, 2010, 04:44:44 pm
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
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: gene on July 22, 2010, 06:32:22 pm
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
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: sofadoc on July 22, 2010, 08:50:32 pm
Quote from: gene on July 22, 2010, 06:32:22 pm
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!
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: hdflame on July 23, 2010, 05:39:59 am
Quote from: sofadoc on July 22, 2010, 08:50:32 pm
Quote from: gene on July 22, 2010, 06:32:22 pm
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.

Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: hdflame on July 29, 2010, 10:31:06 pm
It seems there has been a reduction in spam.  Anybody seen any in the past few days?
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
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Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
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Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: PDQ on July 30, 2010, 03:51:22 am
Quote from: hdflame on July 29, 2010, 10:31:06 pm
It seems there has been a reduction in spam.  Anybody seen any in the past few days?


Nope, not seen any whatsoever.
Title: Re: Help me stop the spammers!
Post by: hdflame on July 30, 2010, 05:11:46 am
Well, I can see from the above posts, someone has a sense of humor! ???

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