Spam problem

[DuncanWatson]

Every morning I start my forum browsing with reporting about 4 new spam posts a day. It is obvious that spammers found they can create accounts easily and abuse them.

Tools I have seen other forums use:
1. multi-step verification process for account creation.
2. Limits on posting html links until post count X reached.
3. Limits on html links in signatures.
4. deputizing forum members for forum policing.

1-3 work well. 4 can cause problems of its own but also can work if the right people are involved and are realitively hands off. I am not sure what weakness of this forum is being exploited but it does get annoying.

 

[Zzzorse]

It's the rare forum that gets dental spam. My guess is our administrator is busy at the moment and will soon return to deep six the nonsense.

 

[castlerobber]

Every morning I start my forum browsing with reporting about 4 new spam posts a day. It is obvious that spammers found they can create accounts easily and abuse them.
<snip>
I am not sure what weakness of this forum is being exploited but it does get annoying.

That it does. Reporting the spam and ignoring the spammers is part of my morning routine now.

The one that gets me is "Brianvoges". Two themed posts per night, regarding either forums in general or "biking" (including motorbikes), with the spam link in the signature instead of the message body. What made it look almost legit at first was the night it posted references to Cruzbike. Either this bot is scraping posts from random forums and depositing them here, or else it has better AI/natural language programming than most.

I could just ignore "Brian", but it's semi-interesting to watch how it learns.

ETA: Finally thought to pick out phrases from the postings and Google them. The bot is indeed scraping posts from other forums. "Rans Xtreme or Cruzbike" is from BikeForums.net, "Cruzbike Vendetta vs. others" is from BROL, "Can I shift to first gear" is from Kawasaki Ninja 300, "what do you do if you get pulled over" is from klr650.net, "How to swap street plastics" is from S1000RRForum.com, etc., etc.

 

[Jeremy S]

On the other hand, the anti-spam filtering on the old forum was pretty annoying. I was blocked from posting or editing many times, and forced to count down the seconds until I was allowed to try again, often to be blocked again for no apparent reason.

It would be nice if the manual process for reporting spam and blocking a user were a little more streamlined, as in one link/button that says "Spam" that reports the post as spam, blocks the user, and sends me back to the previous page in a single click.

 

[ratz]

Just any update on the spam problem. I've been granted the limited ability to dispatch the spammers to join zod in the phantom zone. I'm pretty ever present (surprised aren't you) but I do sleep. if you use the report button it takes me about 10 seconds to deal with them when I visit the forum; otherwise I have to spot them just like the rest of you. So report away and rest assured I will squash them the minute I am online.

 

[BentAero]

I've been granted the limited ability to dispatch the spammers to join zod in the phantom zone.

Hallelujah!

They're pretty easy to spot without even reading them, I've been hitting 'ignore' so at least the same user-name won't come back.

 

[jond]

Just any update on the spam problem. I've been granted the limited ability to dispatch the spammers to join zod in the phantom zone. I'm pretty ever present (surprised aren't you) but I do sleep. if you use the report button it takes me about 10 seconds to deal with them when I visit the forum; otherwise I have to spot them just like the rest of you. So report away and rest assured I will squash them the minute I am online.

ratz there is just no way i can believe you sleep. dispatch away with alacrity superman i mean ratzsuper.

 

[ratz]

ratz there is just no way i can believe you sleep

Keyboard make great pillows.

 

[jond]

Keyboard make great pillows.

bob qwertyuiop pankratz

 

[Eric Winn]

Keyboard make great pillows.

Ah so those are keyboard key dimples...

 

[Rick Youngblood]

Busy morning Bob?

 

[1happyreader]

Busy morning Bob?

Ratz is probably paying the bills !
Given the noticeable volume of "wordy spam with links" I gotta wonder if there is a XenForo forum out there with a solution or viable strategy to combat the spammers without keywords ?

 

[Zzzorse]

Given the noticeable volume of "wordy spam with links" I gotta wonder if there is a XenForo forum out there with a solution or viable strategy to combat the spammers without keywords ?

Are spambots posting this stuff? I joined a XenForo forum where there was an image you had to assemble from parts -- presumably a task a bot would have difficulty with.

 

[ratz]

I was traveling over the weekend and so of course I'm catching up. I'm usually up much later than most of you in the U.S. (trying to fix that) and again earlier than I would like. We get about 6-10 spam per day. Just haven't had time to research a new plugin; the one I knew of and sent over to Lucia is defunct. Anyone that wants to research one feel free to let me know what you find; just do it in a PM so it's not public what we might select. The puzzle idea is interesting.

 

[Zzzorse]

The puzzle idea is interesting.

This is it,

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/keycaptcha-interactive-captcha.987/

 

[Charles.Plager]

Ok. This problem isn't getting better is it.

Suggestions (in addition to above):
1) Move to model where new users are approved. At the very least, they need to have a valid email address where they can click on a link that is sent to them.
2) Limit what new users can post without approval. (E.g., if a first post has links and no recognizable white list words such as Cruzbike or a model name, send it to moderator before posting it live).

The first suggestion shouldn't be too hard to implement and would make a huge difference.

 

[Rick Youngblood]

Let them know what's waiting for them in the end!

 

[Zzzorse]

Too generous, make it a blazing 14.4K.

 

[SamP]

300 baud... with an acoustic coupler

 

[LarryOz]

110 baud, with a max of 8K of RAM!

.... and

cut off their fingers!