Fighting spam bots

den4b · 2010-08-14 12:40

The amount of spam bot registrations on this forum is growing rapidly. I have to delete and ban 3-5 users a day now. Surprisingly, they even bypass the "(9 / 3) + 5 = ?" sorts of questions. I am investigating alternative ways of preventing this from happening, but it will be a while before I put in place a better solution.

Meanwhile, I want to warn all users:
All registrants with 0 posts will be removed and possibly banned if they don't post something within 24 hours of their registration. There is no need for having an account if you are not going to post anything anyway. I will start removing accounts in couple of weeks time.

SafetyCar · 2010-08-14 15:38

Mmm... probably there is a fluxbb mod for http://www.captcha.net
I think is the most common solution.

Some days ago I read about a technology with video captchas but I think it's not developed yet

skiwi · 2010-08-14 20:56

Actually, some of us register, just so we can comment if we should ever want to, and to signal our interest on the forums. Just cause we don't post doesn't mean we aren't interested.
I appreciate the problem with spam though, captchas are good, how about expanding you captcha question, eg what colour is the sky at sunset, which is bigger earth or moon, what is the best product for renaming files?

den4b · 2010-09-07 20:28

I've been in contact with developers of FluxBB and have been monitoring access logs for a while, trying to establish how bots get in to the forum. Well, there are good news and bad news. The good news is that all of my attempts do stop spam bots. The bad news is that nothing can stop human spammers - which is what keeps getting to the forum.

Here is a link to the discussion, if anyone is interested: Simple bot registration barrier.

Here is a good article about spammers: State of Web Spam.

skiwi wrote:

Actually, some of us register, just so we can comment if we should ever want to, and to signal our interest on the forums. Just cause we don't post doesn't mean we aren't interested. I appreciate the problem with spam though, captchas are good, how about expanding you captcha question, eg what colour is the sky at sunset, which is bigger earth or moon, what is the best product for renaming files?

I understand that there are some users who register just to express their support and I greatly appreciate that. Unfortunately, most of accounts with 0 posts were not created for such good reason. Current anti-bot solution seems to be very effective against bots. I will just have to update the questions over time to keep it the bots away. No captcha solution will ever stop human spammers.

SafetyCar · 2011-01-04 10:04

Something against spambots that I remind now.

Would it be posible for members with less than certain number of posts, to be blocked from accessing to the signature config?

I think If they can't add a signature, some won't post or at least it will be clearer it's for spam purposes when they add the link inside the post.

Andrew · 2011-01-05 15:09

I agree that something needs to be done. I just reported a bunch of posts (that stupid 60-sec. wait is still there unfortunately). Most people post stupid 1 liners simply to include links in their signatures and the website field in their profile. They think they're being sneaky and that no-one will delete their posts this way. So if both these are blocked, many won't bother to post, and the rest that place links in the post itself can be banned.

auwebio · 2011-01-08 13:42

Surprisingly, they even bypass the "(9 / 3) + 5 = ?" sorts of questions

I was just about to say that you could always use the same "disguise techniques" the spammers use themselves on the questions (if the robot can't figure out what you're asking, he won't be able to answer): instead of "(9 / 3) + 5" you could ask "if I take ni-ne and divide by t-hree and then add f-ive" (you could randomize where the "-" would appear in each word representing the numbers), but then I saw you already solved that problem...

Andrew · 2011-01-08 16:28

As noted above auwebio, what we're facing now here is an influx of human spammers, so nothing will be able to stop them unless there are restrictions placed on what new members can do.

auwebio · 2011-01-08 16:53

Andrew wrote:

As noted above auwebio, what we're facing now here is an influx of human spammers, so nothing will be able to stop them unless there are restrictions placed on what new members can do.

Oh, I see...
Maybe then there could be used some keywords to prevent those "human spammers" (I could think of a better term for them, but I think it's impolite to use it here) from posting "spam-related topics" and actually using the board for their "advertisements".

For instance, the topic "Pokerstars Real Money - Learn How to Win Today!" in the General Section, the words poker and money in the name of the topic is plenty excuse to block it (we don't even need to look inside). My guess is that there is already someone that has thought about this long enough and came up with a solution to prevent at least the most common forms of spamming, just like this "Pokerstars" example.

Anyhow, it's so sad that anybody at all has to waste their time trying to prevent those "people" from misbehaving... It must be really infernal trying to keep the forum clean of these guys.

Andrew · 2011-01-09 11:56

Yes, it's sad indeed, and what's worse is, nowadays even this is outsourced by the spammer groups so people in poor countries for a few cents a day spend their time spamming in different forums.

As for your keyword filter, I don't know how effective it can be. After all, they can use any innocent-sounding words at all to try and hide their spam links. Still, maybe there's a FluxBB plugin that Denis can use...

den4b Forum

#1 2010-08-14 12:40

Fighting spam bots

#2 2010-08-14 15:38

Re: Fighting spam bots

#3 2010-08-14 20:56

Re: Fighting spam bots

#4 2010-09-07 20:28

Re: Fighting spam bots

#5 2011-01-04 10:04

Re: Fighting spam bots

#6 2011-01-05 15:09

Re: Fighting spam bots

#7 2011-01-08 13:42

Re: Fighting spam bots

#8 2011-01-08 16:28

Re: Fighting spam bots

#9 2011-01-08 16:53

Re: Fighting spam bots

#10 2011-01-09 11:56

Re: Fighting spam bots

Board footer