PHPBB spam - UK Web Hosting | Dedicated Server Windows and Linux VPS Forum

**Zammo** · #1 (**permalink**) 21-03-2007, 09:07

I know there are more appropriate forums out there for phpbb, but as I am a member of this forum, and as there are normally many people who are only too eager to help I thought I'd post here initialliy.

I'm running a phpbb forum on my website. Installed it from the control panel, found a nice skin and bang! up and running in no time, brilliant.

Now this is a small forum with only 24 members and it isn't advertised anywhere, but I've started to get spam accounts being registered, normally a couple a day. I tend to login daily and delete them but it's pretty irritating. On top of that the email addresses they use are of course fake, and any emails they get automatically are being bounced back to my account.

Anyone experienced the same thing? How did you deal with it?

Cheers, Zammo.

**Ben** · #2 (**permalink**) 21-03-2007, 10:09

Hello Zammo,

www. phpbb.com - website has some modifications which prevents these spam accounts being registered. In addition, try enabling e-mail validation. Spam is very annoying, and somewhat happens on phpBB forums more frequently than other BB's.

**Ryan** · #3 (**permalink**) 21-03-2007, 10:18

Hi Zammo,

One way of dealing with spam on forums is to use image verification at the time of registration. E-mail validation is a good suggestion too and can reduce spam considerably.

**Zammo** · #4 (**permalink**) 21-03-2007, 10:26

Well I have image verification enabled, but this made no difference. I also have admin validation required now. So the spam accounts can no longer post, but they can still create accounts. The main pain is the email problem. I'm getting loads of undeliverable messages from tucano.eukhost.com because they use fake email addresses. I'm just a bit worried that I'm going to get my knuckles rapped somewhere for continual attempts to send emails to these fake addresses (even though the emails are being sent automatically by phpbb).

I have added a mass delete hack to the admin panel so I can at least delete them all in one go.

**narutorasengan16** · #5 (**permalink**) 21-03-2007, 19:29

the best bet for you is to ask this question on the phpbb.com support forum, good luck

**Hallief3** · #6 (**permalink**) 21-03-2007, 20:10

I run a phpbb on a website and have the same problem.

There has been an increase in spammers on the website i manage over the past few weeks. When deleting the accounts esure to ban the e-mail that was used for registration.

e.g ban e-mail *@cashette.com, we have had a lot of .info domain spammers.

**eUKhost.com** · #7 (**permalink**) 21-03-2007, 20:43

This are cheapie spammers hired from Russia. All emails used for setup of user accounts are from mail.ru.

Now you will get shocked with my perfection

**narutorasengan16** · #8 (**permalink**) 22-03-2007, 01:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hallief3

I run a phpbb on a website and have the same problem.

There has been an increase in spammers on the website i manage over the past few weeks. When deleting the accounts esure to ban the e-mail that was used for registration.

e.g ban e-mail *@cashette.com, we have had a lot of .info domain spammers.

for some reason i never had that problem, before my first hosting went down, i had the phpbb3 forum for about 2.5 months, but it never had such problems, and now, after i got new hosting, and instaled it again, it still doesnt get those problems, i wonder why u all are getting them, u should report it to phpbb because they might be able to do something about it in future releases...

**todaytechnews** · #9 (**permalink**) 04-04-2007, 16:38

You could start banning/blocking the spammers ip addresses. Click on the link "Go to Administration Panel" and then under "User Admin" then "Ban Control" you with find how to ban ip and users.

**shadows** · #10 (**permalink**) 04-04-2007, 17:27

yeah..but i know the program how to do this..!!I'M NOT A HACKER!! just saw it in some hackers forum once.. hmm banning ip won't work..e-mail neither.. they use proxies..and fake mailz! hmm you should try to get some mod for it.. that's all i can say!! or that they need to validate registration..

I had this too long time ago..

**hairyfreak** · #11 (**permalink**) 04-04-2007, 22:44

If you have image verification enabled and the spammers are still signing up, they are real people signing up rather than an individual using a script. This may mean that you could look at the product they are wishing to advertise, then attempt to block all emails related to that or something similar.

What I am trying to say is that, as they are actual people signing up, it is either a single indiviual or hired individuals, meaning that they will most likely be wishing to advertise a single product. If you can find out what this is then you may be able to block it. However, if you continue to delete the spam messages/users then I'm sure that the spammers will simply become bored/realise that their attempts are useless after a while, and will cease to attempt to spam your board.

Good luck.

**todaytechnews** · #12 (**permalink**) 05-04-2007, 17:02

I think there is a mod over at phpbb.com where it will look at the posts and see if its spam and deletes it for you.

**hairyfreak** · #13 (**permalink**) 07-04-2007, 19:20

Do you happen to know or remember the name of this modification? I would be interested in securing it for myself as I am planning on setting up several phpBB forums in the not-so-distant future, and would love to have the extra security.

**todaytechnews** · #14 (**permalink**) 08-04-2007, 19:32

Sorry I cant recall the name of the mod. And now since they redesigned their website its harder to find it. I wish now I did download it.

**hairyfreak** · #15 (**permalink**) 09-04-2007, 16:45

Ah, okay. If you do happen to recall the name of the modification then please be sure to let us know.

If you are looking for additional modifications, or 'hacks', you may wish to have a look at the following page:

phpbbhacks.com/category/10/

There are some incredibly useful modifications that you may like to use with your forum in order to further secure and protect it.

**todaytechnews** · #16 (**permalink**) 18-04-2007, 21:43

Just looking on the net and found this mod. The other thing is it will slow down the spammers and it may make them life.

bbantispam.com/

I will continue on posting these anti-spam mods when I find them

**sprint66** · #17 (**permalink**) 19-04-2007, 10:26

I found a mod where you could add a question to account signup. In my case the answer was obvious to the users of my website, but the answer could we be on the page, the bots won't know. This has stopped my phpBB spam complete.

**eUKhost.com** · #18 (**permalink**) 19-04-2007, 16:09

I hope you have no problem in disclosing what mod it is

**sprint66** · #19 (**permalink**) 19-04-2007, 20:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by eukhost.com

I hope you have no problem in disclosing what mod it is

Sure its myVIPcode, very quick and simple.

Spam on phpBB is often discussed and well documented on the phpBB forums. Here is a good place to start reading about it.

Chris

**Brian** · #20 (**permalink**) 19-04-2007, 21:46

I have deleted my PHPBB2 forum and installed 3. So far i have no spam at all. Try upgrading to that.

If there was a mod that wouldnt allow people to put URLs on their profiles or posts utill say, they make 10 posts and become a "Junior Member" rank or something similar that would deter them.