Spammers

[caserri]

Some of you may have noticed that we've been targeted more often by people trying to sell pharmaceuticals, porn, or financial products. This activity is an unwanted byproduct of the new software. Now that we are running a higher profile software, it makes us a target for these degenerates.

First, let me apologize for the unwanted posts. I am very thankful to my mods for being on top of this and removing the posts.

Unfortunately, I now have no choice but to require admin approval of all new members. I will do my best to weed out the garbage before they have an opportunity to post. Obviously, some will slip through so I would appreciate everyones help by using the "report to mod" link on any post you feel is spam. This will send me an email with a link to the post so I can delete it immediately.

Steve

[lurtsman]

Good to hear Steve. I don't suppose you're able to use any kind of logging feature to see where the majority of the attack accounts are coming from and create specific restrictions accordingly? It's sad the kind of spam bots that people are setting up these days. This reminds me of a thread in bulk vending regarding if it is worth doing business with people we know to treat their customers poorly. If the company ignores all our rules and wastes our bandwidth to post their undesired junk on our forum, why on earth would anyone seeing the link think "I want to give that company my credit card number and do business with them, I bet that will be a great idea!"

[caserri]

Lurts,

It appears that the majority of these people, or bots, are from oversees, namely Russia. It makes it very difficult for me to figure out who is legitimate and who is not if a potential member is from Europe.

I have been deleting about 80% of the new signups for one reason or another. Most are blatant spammers that use email addresses like soandso@myonlinedrugstore.com or similar. Others are a bit trickier. I know some will get through but hopefully I can catch them quickly before they load up the board with garbage.

[MrEen]

In the old days, once a spammer got in, they spammed as much as they could, as fast as they could. Now, at least on some other forums I'm on, many are waiting 1-2 weeks after getting in before posting. Like in Steve's example, you "KNOW" it's a spammer, but right now we're waiting for one that joined back on June 4th to teach us how to get the best mortgage possible based on his/her website. (We're not supposed to delete accounts until AFTER the AUP has been abused.)

I'm thankful Steve didn't restrict himself from deleting accounts proactively! I know this will probably piss some new users off, but I remember back in the nineties when many "forums" (BBS, forum, email list, etc.) required someone to approve your POST (not just your registration) before anyone else could see it. Don't see much of those anymore.

Scott

[caserri]

Just to let everyone know, I have resorted to using the "Big Guns" 

Manually checking the new registrations was really becoming cumbersome. I needed a better way and think I found it. I have begun using 2 different tools to combat spammers.

I have linked our forum up with a third party spammer database. Each time a member tries to register on our site, their IP, email, and username is sent to http://www.stopforumspam.com/ and is checked against the database. If they are known spammers, their membership will need to be manually approved before they can post.

The second tool I am now using is the ReCAPTCHA program. Many of you may be familiar with CAPTCHA. ReCAPTCHA is a unique program that not only protects forums against spam but also helps to digitize works of literature! Check them out to find out how. http://recaptcha.net/

Hopefully with these tools we'll be free of the spam degenerates. 

[lurtsman]

GO STEVE!