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Spambots

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linuxlove

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
1,018
Location
Auburn, AL
It's a fact of Internet life: There are spambots. But recently here, I've noticed a lot of spambots.
Any reason why such bots are attacking? Usually when the staff gets to a bot, it's gone and I don't see it returning.
 
No kidding--and I'm a little put off by the "you must wait 60 seconds before you flag a post again".

Perhaps it's time to set up a slightly more advanced registration scheme?
 
I would volunteer to delete them but I don't want to be a moderator. I've got a permanent window with VCF on it so I see the spam right away and report it. What I notice is that the ones in the evening are not deleted until the next day. I understand why, but another couple of people in different parts of the world (or on different schedules) would fix that.
 
Id be happy to be a mod and help with the spam issue (I'm a mod in other forums), but I haven't asked because I know Erik doesn't know me well.
 
Chuck(G) said:
No kidding--and I'm a little put off by the "you must wait 60 seconds before you flag a post again".
Click to expand...
I've run into that problem too. However, I think if a moderator is simply warned that there is any spam then all the other spam posts all over the board will be immediately obvious. They usually are to me.

Perhaps it's time to set up a slightly more advanced registration scheme?
Click to expand...

They put some questions on the Kubuntu forum. Something like "what is the capital of France" and "what it the country bordering on the south of USA?" I think it is working, but there are sometimes people complaining on other forums that it is too hard to sign up. hehe Like I often say, it's amazing how many people don't have Google. :)

Unknown_K:
It seems that every time I am browsing after midnight (EST) there is spam showing up.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Nobody's "on duty" in the evenings. I'm always up until at least 2 am Pacific time, so I always see it. I would guess that our European members are frequently looking at spam here.

Nevertheless, there generally isn't that much spam here. Our moderators do deserve kudos for doing a good job. :) In the end, the problem is not really the amount of spam on VCF, but that it is so irritating.
 
Ole Juul said:
...They put some questions on the Kubuntu forum. Something like "what is the capital of France" and "what it the country bordering on the south of USA?" I think it is working, but there are sometimes people complaining on other forums that it is too hard to sign up.
Click to expand...
Well, no wonder, if you're going to ask tough questions like that...
 
There a few add-ons for vbulletin that will compare new sign up IP addresses (and other anti-spam tools), with online forum spam databases.

I can't find the list I had of tools that did that, but if i do, i'll post it here.
 
Ole Juul said:
I would guess that our European members are frequently looking at spam here.
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Correct - and often these are the only new posts we see at that time (for which we should blame ourselves :) )
However for that reason the spam posts stand out also, so its easy for us to report them.

I'd offer to delete them too, but you are right, its not that pressing or massive that it can't wait for (your) morning.
 
Yupp, I get to see a bit of the spam that hits. But they are usually really easy to spot so I report them and they go away after a while, no big deal.

Something I've been thinking about, it would be somewhat satisfying to remove http -links from the first ten posts of any user, that would make the spam less meaningful to the spammer. However... some people do have meaningful links in their first posts.. so perhaps not such a good idea anyway.
 
All above measures would be great. At any rate I do not believe it is an unmanageable situation.​
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I run 2 forums (phpBB) and used to have a pretty big spambot problem.
I then saw a trick where all you have to do is change the default behavior of the signup process to something that a bot would fail, but a human would pass.
The example used was changing the sign-up section where there was a checkbox where you have to agree that you are at least 13 years of age. Change the text to "Check this box if you are a spam BOT" and then invert the check in the code that is done.

So the bots come along and always click the checkbox (because that's what they are programmed to do to get signed up), but the php code rejects their application!

My forums have been up for about 4 years now, and I have not cleaned up after a spammer in at least 2 years.
Obviously any human spammer is going to get in, but those are a lot less annoying than bots.
 
So the bots come along and always click the checkbox (because that's what they are programmed to do to get signed up), but the php code rejects their application!
Click to expand...

That's an old trick, but I'm glad to hear that it actually works. I've had an experimental forum (PunBB) on-line for half a year and that's what I did. I've had absolutely no spam, but I wasn't sure if it was because the forum was still idle or because the signup process worked. (See signup page here)

I had to go rooting through the PHP code to find the "tick", and I forget what it was called, but a little fiddeling with search and it should come up once you find the right file. Not everybody is comfortable using a text editor on the code though.
 
linuxlove started this thread on the 10th. Even though we're not getting the ads for medicinals, we still got more spam. Note this article on elReg:
Rustock (which specialises in spamvertising unlicensed pharmaceutical websites) is the biggest single source of global spam. Its return on 10 January resulted in the doubling (98 per cent increase) of global junk mail volumes over the course of just 24 hours
Click to expand...
 
Looks like our friends over at the HP Computer Museum were getting hit really hard by those damn spammers. Go to the forum and this has been posted:

"Unfortunately, the forum has been overrun by spam. As of January 2011, over 95 percent of new entries were not related to the scope of the museum. The forum will be off line until March, 2011."

What a shame.
 
Shutting down isn't an option for us - we're being more vigilant and deleting things as soon as we see them.

Just another reason to luv your moderators even more ...
 
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