spammers

[Jeff Jilg]

Dear forum members

We are getting spammed from one or more guys from Russia who must have a lot of time on their hands. Later this week I'll institute a new policy. The new policy will force new users who are registering for the first time to get their registration approved by Steve or myself.

I'll handle most of the registrations since we don't really get that many new users each week. This will work to keep the bozos off the forum. Probably after awhile we can lift the registration approval process and go back to normal.

In the meantime Steve and I will keep deleting the spam messages, and banning the advertisers. Chris Wright from Woodturners Resource has been getting the same thing. Who would'a thought we would be a spam target?

 

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Jeff, as if you didn't have enough to do.

 

[pencheff]

Who would'a thought we would be a spam target?

Don't let it go to your head. 'They' would spam the American Association of Belly Button Lint Pickers (AABBLP) if they had more than two regular posters. 🙄

 

[Larry Marley]

There are a bunch of IP addresses from Russia and China that are notorious for this. They even hit my "contact me" form on my web site.
One way to slow this down is to check the user IP and block known addresses i.e. make a list as they occur. Also requiring new users to request a login that requires a conformation via email also help to control this.
🙂

 

[Steve Worcester]

One way to slow this down is to check the user IP and block known addresses i.e. make a list as they occur. Also requiring new users to request a login that requires a conformation via email also help to control this.
🙂

The quick way is to require validation by administrators. While all the other options are great, it has to be an option that currently exists in the software. Unfortunately most of the options we wanted to take didn't.

Of course, I just wanted to block specific domains, that wasn't feasible either.

 

[Andy Coates]

what a pain...

They are a real pain nad cause havoc everywhere. Most are posted by an automatic system rather then some sad Russian (or other) typing out messages. Your course of action will (should) put a halt to it for the time being.

My own site is tiny in internet terms and yet I receive a small mountain of spam...Nigerian solicitors telling me I've been left millions and fora small fee they'll collect it for me, a Swedish Lottery Company (Yeah!) telling me I've won millions of Euros...and all without a ticket!, and the most worrying (in case it's SWMBO who has passed on my email address 🙁) the ever present sales pitch for Viagra!!

My real concern about all this cr** is that surely the fact that they continue to send it must mean that some people actually respond! The mind boggles...

Andy

 

[Chris Wright]

possible solution

Jeff & Steve, check the support forums for your software to see if anyone is writing hack mods you can use. I located one for mine and am trying to track down a copy that will allow me to isolate and ban specific ISP domains such as mail.ru, which seems to be the biggest culprit.

So far we are averaging about 2-3 postings a week of this type, but with 1 admin and 3 moderators running various hours they don't last more than an hour or two.

 

[Claude]

Why don’t you use, as it is quite popular now, a registration number which is partially disguised and cannot be read par computer programs which are expressly done to register in an automatic way on all possible forums. Their only objectives being to be recognised faster by the search engines?
We recently introduced this procedure on a forum (not dealing with wood)

 

[Bill Grumbine]

I have to deal with a similar problem, although it manifests itself differently. Someone has been using my domain name as a spoof email address in the reply to field for their spam, so every day I get hundreds of emails that are "returned" by spam traps, or because the address is no longer valid.

 

[Jeff Jilg]

Thanks for the kudos and information.

New members are now moderated. In English this means that when a new member tries to register, either Steve or I have to approve the application.

In the nearterm we will be rejecting Russian applications since that is the main set of spams that have recently been happening. This policy will be in effect until it is no longer needed.

Chris (and all) - there are some hacks to the VBulletin software which would allow domain blocking. I am swamped. I don't have time to install and test any new software until the AAW software project is implemented. That will occupy my time thru the end of July. Alternatively at that time I may also consider upgrading to the newest VBulletin version. I have put that upgrade off until we absolutely needed it - in case problems arise during the upgrade process.

 

[Mark Mandell]

Happy & Sad

Thanks for the kudos and information.

New members are now moderated. In English this means that when a new member tries to register, either Steve or I have to approve the application.

In the nearterm we will be rejecting Russian applications since that is the main set of spams that have recently been happening. This policy will be in effect until it is no longer needed.

Jeff,

I'm happy that the Cabbage Patch kids won't be sending us further coded messages, but also a little sad.

It was kind of fun working up the replies 😀

Thanks again for your and Steve's hard work.

M

ps: Hey, Steve check your PM box.

 

[Jeff Jilg]

Just blocked our first (repeated) Russkie spammer! Yeah!!!

 

[underdog]

Thanks guys...

Sorry you're having all this trouble. Makes ya mad don't it? I've been having my online filter fill up with crud lately, after a long time with no problems.

It's ok tho. I have several levels of protection. I haven't had a virus email hit the online inbox in over two years, and only two spam emails hit the online inbox in the last year.

Neither one can get on my hard drive inbox unless I let it download.

 

[Mark Mandell]

Haaaa!

Just blocked our first (repeated) Russkie spammer! Yeah!!!

Take THAT Igor! 😛