invision power board spam

[KarlG]

anyone else getting issues with this?

lots of bots posting ****** links etc

i dont really want to have to confirm everyones signup, the gap for them waiting seems to make people lose interest in posting...

[eUKhost.com]

Hello Karl,

Thats a matter with all forums. There's no way to stop this bots. Even we need to delete many spam posts daily.

[KarlG]

hmmm, have stuck user email validation on for now which i thought was on, there seems to be something about bots always post in 'forum 1' so make forum 1 a closed one or something, might try that oot...

[paul]

I think an improved CAPTCHA images can minimize bot posting, if they are human you may just go on deleting.

[Ben]

I really don't know how bots can get through the CAPTCHA verification. Try adding a maths question upon signup (i.e. Bot Anti-Verification - What is 1+1?). I think this works.

[paul]

Yea, you are right, exactly that's my point but still there is no appropriate solution if someone hire human spammers those register 1000 forums and start spamming over there.

[Brian]

Check their IP's. Most of are frot hat country, India, Russia etc. If you dont need ppl from there, Wildcard all teh IP ranges

[KarlG]

Surely their newer version has some sort of spam protection? My version is 1.2, they have a v2.2 out now!

Im getting more spam signups & posts than i am actual members, which i'm sure is putting them off.

[paul]

On the cpanel server use mailscanner + spamassassin +clamav, I think this will filter spam in greater way.

[hairyfreak]

As has been previously suggested, try implementing a captcha verification to the registration page. This tends to stop bots and automated scripts from being able to register, thus preventing most spam problems. If, however, the problem persists, you may be suffering from human spammers. I can't think of any way to block them except, perhaps, banning their IPs from your server.

[KarlG]

thats the thing i was thinking of "captcha", how on earth do you go about adding it to the board tho? Ill have a google on it, but if you know a simple way please drop a post

ive been having a very shite week i must say. my front page was hacked the other day diverting all visitors to some activex installer (and adding a folder full of porn php pages into a folder), and at this moment in time i also have no ftp access.

I loves it, me.

[paul]

Originally Posted by hairyfreak

As has been previously suggested, try implementing a captcha verification to the registration page. This tends to stop bots and automated scripts from being able to register, thus preventing most spam problems. If, however, the problem persists, you may be suffering from human spammers. I can't think of any way to block them except, perhaps, banning their IPs from your server.

With captcha one of the problem is if you try to use better Captcha- it is hard to read, so you need to give some solution to reload the image. For human spammers you can set rule that a new member can only post urls once they've made X number of posts or they have been active for Y days, you can also scrutinize them by limiting the rights of new members. Also you need to add more moderators to keep watch on human spammers.

[KarlG]

im not convinced these are human, and i run the website alone so more moderators wont help. Like the idea of "new member can only post urls once they've made X number of posts" shall look thru the options and try and find that.

I cant find any captcha implementation for the old version of IPB i have, only 2.1 upwards.

[hairyfreak]

The following URL should help in your search for a captcha modification:

mods.invisionize.com/db/index.php/c/197

I'm not entirely sure of the version of the forum software you own, so, unfortunately, cannot provide a link to a working plugin.

[KarlG]

cheers for the reply, i'm on 1.2, seems theres nothing for my version. I've asked eukhost to update it twice but they never have.

Suppose the next step is install a different board myself and try and merge the old users... ugh!

cheers for the help

[fgames1]

those are spam bots you have to change your permission setting to required members only so guest wont be allowed to post again and again

[DPS Computing]

Originally Posted by fgames1

those are spam bots you have to change your permission setting to required members only so guest wont be allowed to post again and again

I think the problem is that the bots are managing to register. I assume the forum in question already has guest posting disabled as a precaution!

[KarlG]

updated the board myself and now have had no single spam signup at all

[DPS Computing]

Originally Posted by KarlG

updated the board myself and now have had no single spam signup at all

Congratulations! . I'm pleased for you. A forum that I have set up for somebody was recently targetted with spam and I had to delete over 50 members and 4500 posts for them. It was a time consuming task sorting out the spam from the real posts and the spam members from the real members. The annoying thing is is the spam posters ip changed every couple of posts so theres no chance of using an IP block on them unless I block a fairly huge range, which they do not want.

[KarlG]

yea it was as bad for me, i was getting up to 10 signups a day, some managing to post images your mum wouldnt like all over innocent topics. very irritating. that old IPB is rather crap for doing anything about it. The new one i have Captcha and a simple maths question (idea i saw on a forum) that signups have to answer too, seems to have sorted it out nicely