Discussion: New or other system for registration to stop spam ?

[G_M_C]

Lately I reguarly see "ghost-accounts" that are only registered to spam our forums. Frts thos "ghosts" seem to open their own threads to spam, but lately they seem to post in several threads just to spam (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1339033#post1339033).

Pesonally I hate spam, i've got the feeling that i'm not the only one. But i also know that you can't put up a moderator-team specifically to remove posts like that & disabling corresponding accounts (*I would be up for the job btw ;)*), and even if you did have such a team; They cant be around 24/7.

I opened this thread just for thought about this, maybe some way to catch stuff like this at registering is another idea; Or maybe a combination of measures.

My hope is that we manage to stop spam on this board as good we can (to stop it completely will not be possible, but we can get as close as we can :) ).

[Adub]

My question is how are these bots registering? If in fact they are a bot, it sounds like the image verification captcha has been broken.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

My question is how are these bots registering? If in fact they are a bot, it sounds like the image verification captcha has been broken.

There are several ways to circumvent CAPTCHA protections. If they can't "break" it via OCR, they can still let a real human do it.

For example they can send spam mails and offer free porn or whatever entraps people. Then they tell the "victim" to enter the CAPTCHA to get access.

This way the victim will solve the CAPTCHA for the spam bot without even realizing what's actually happening ;)

Of course they could also go to some third-world country and hire an army of low-wage workers to solve registration CAPTCHA's day and night...

[G_M_C]

Yes, true;

I remember I had to wait few days before i could post. Are bots also made to be able to wait the few days before posting ?

[Gavino]

Are bots also made to be able to wait the few days before posting ?
Obviously - how could it be otherwise? If it was possible to distinguish bots from 'real' members, they could be prevented from registering in the first place.

[Audionut]

I doubt there bots as there is only ever 3 or 4 posts from what i've seen.

My guess is that's it's someone who is peeved about rule 6 or the like.

[G_M_C]

I doubt there bots as there is only ever 3 or 4 posts from what i've seen.

My guess is that's it's someone who is peeved about rule 6 or the like.

If he is, or they are, not on dynamic IP, an IP filter could be a usefull addition ?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

If he is, or they are, not on dynamic IP, an IP filter could be a usefull addition ?

It should be clear that IP's don't map to users 1:1.

As soon as a router is involved, an undetermined number of users may use the same "external" IP address. Just think of universities, companies, residential accommodations and so on.

Even worse: Some ISP's redirect all HTTP traffic through a proxy, so all of the ISP's customers will actually contact the Forum server from the very same IP.

Therefore IP filters could only be helpful if an enormous amount of Spam attacks can be tracked down to a single IP. Otherwise the danger to lock out innocent users is far too huge!

[Inventive Software]

This could be one way they're doing it, and I don't condone it under any circumstances. Humans register the usernames, don't post for ages, accumulate loads of accounts then feed the accounts to a bot to spam with.

[mr soft]

Out of the sites I visit , Doom9 has the least spam.
When some does pops up, it's not up long. The funny thing is , on a PC forum I see those convert x format to y type of spam , here I've seen clothes importers and shoes. :D which suggests product placement , and that rules the bots out , no ?

[clsid]

Yes, there is hardly any spam here. And most users here are smart enough to recognize it and report it.

[neuron2]

You folks would be amazed to know how alert and active the mod squad here is to spam. I can't think of a better way than to have 15-20 guys and gals monitoring threads on a continuous basis.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

One idea: The first few posts (e.g. let's say the first 5) of a newly registered member won't be released to the public, until reviewed and approved by a moderator.

This will be additional work for the mods and probably isn't worth the effort. But it should work, as it's highly unlikely that a spammer writes at least 5 useful posts before starting to spread spam.

[laserfan]

One idea: The first few posts (e.g. let's say the first 5) of a newly registered member won't be released to the public, until reviewed and approved by a moderator. This will be additional work for the mods and probably isn't worth the effort. But it should work...I don't *live* here at doom9 forum but I visit most every day, and while I've seen a couple of spam posts lately, they seem to disappear quickly and so I can attest to the attentiveness of the mods. Dunno why any new/special procedures should be required or even considered...

[Tagert]

I use the vbStopForumSpam plugin for the vbulletin forum:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=222536&highlight=stop+spam

which checks with the:
http://www.stopforumspam.com/
online spammer database everytime a new user registers on a vbulletin forum that this plugin is installed.

On my community forum. Very nice tool, since the captcha doesn't seem to keep the buggers out :P

I must say it's doing its job mighty good :)

[neuron2]

Unbelievable...

I just deleted a spam post to this thread!

[kypec]

I personally had reported ~5 spam posts during the last month... Mods are very responsive, hail to them :thanks: