Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!

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Marshalrusty
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!

Post by Marshalrusty »

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The RAC MOD works like a charm! Bots are gone!

Post by bellmaniac »

And the code was very easy to implement. Now if bots figure it out, I can make a simple change to make them start guessing all over again. Many many thanks!
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Post by grotevoet »

ChrisRLG wrote:a. Install a MOD that is unique to your site. This does mean that it will take more work for you to do the scripting yourself, but no spammer is going to go to the length of coding a tool just for your site
First I added Live Email Validation, but none of the Russian mailservers is configured properly, it seems, so that was only a limited success. Then I made a personal adaption to the Stop Advertisement bots which seems to work very well.

What I found strange is that after adding these to my board, and stopping all attempts for about 2 weeks, it looks like the number of tries is going down. The Stop Advertisement Bots MOD send notification emails to the webmaster and I dropped from 10+ a day to one every other day.

It is almost as if these spammer all use the same tool and this tool actually removes protected/troublesome sites from their db ... :?
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by ChrisRLG »

grotevoet wrote:It is almost as if these spammer all use the same tool and this tool actually removes protected/troublesome sites from their db ...
They do !!!.

I have tried one of the tools - they are offered for download with a 30 day evaluation offering just like legit software.

I removed all the forums in the installed copys database ( some 4k+ ) and added 3 of my own to do a testing against my own forums.

So yes - for $30 dollars they are all yours.

They register - monitor an email account for activations emails, and use the activation link to activate the accounts - before posting to the 'most used' room with your spam post.

You just sit and watch the process as it does its job.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by ric323 »

Do they?
I wouldn't know, I haven't had a single spambot manage to register on any of my forums since installing the "Textual Confirmation" mod 4 months ago.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by thecoalman »

I've had similar succes with Anti Bot Question, about 8 months or longer. Appears to be about the same as textural confirmation. Bots don't think and that's why it works.

What I would suggest is that people don't get in the habit of using too simple a question such as "What color is the sky?" It doesn't have to be hard question, just unique. For example if you run a site about mustang cars your question could be "What model of car is this site about?"

Also make sure the mod allows for multiple answers, eg: mustang or ford mustang
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by jwig »

HI. I am going to start implementing these right now, but one quick question: Why should we never delete users directly from the table? I tried to check out the Admin Toolkit, but the page is unavailable. I've been deleting hundreds of spam registrations per week directly from the user table.

Thanks!

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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by Jim_UK »

jwig wrote:Why should we never delete users directly from the table?
Do not think of the tables as being stand alone - they are intrinsically connected.
To remove a user from your site requires not only their removal from the table phpbb_users but changes to some other tables.

I have seen a link to the Admin toolkit posted recently - if I find it I will post back.

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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by ric323 »

The Knowledge Base contains solutions to many common problems!
How to fix "Doesn't have a default value" and "Incorrect string value: xxx for column 'post_text' " errors.
How to do a clean re-install of the latest phpBB3 version.
Problems with permissions? Read phpBB3 Permissions
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by govinda »

Hi friends,
i got an idea 3 days ago. Since most of the bots get to recognise the characters and enter them, how about putting an image which will have 6-7 lines of confirmation codes. All in different colours and styles.. And ask the user to enter the code which is written in a specific colour.

I think most of the bots are configured to read the codes using a technique whereby the colours in the image are reduced to two colours and only contrasts are considered. Hence, the bots may find it difficult to recognise the code.

i dont know coding . Hence i will be happy if anyone can implement this. I got this idea after i read about the VIP code mod.

What do u say friends.

I think is it better to post this idea in the MOD discussions section.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by stevemaury »

I say you will really annoy the registrants, especially the color-blind ones, of which there are lots. I also say it is unnecessary, as existing MODs are 100% effective.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by bailrs »

My question now becomes, why should I have to Download something to fix this problem...shouldn't the software that has been bought and paid for do it for me?
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by Phil »

bailrs wrote:My question now becomes, why should I have to Download something to fix this problem...shouldn't the software that has been bought and paid for do it for me?
You didn't "pay" for anything. phpBB is free.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by Marshalrusty »

bailrs wrote:My question now becomes, why should I have to Download something to fix this problem...shouldn't the software that has been bought and paid for do it for me?
Firstly, as iWisdom has stated above, phpBB is free.

Secondly, bots are specifically designed to bypass the standard software (you would know this, if you completely read the first post in this topic). The solution, therefore, is to change the registration so that the bot becomes confused (once again, explained in the first post).

Finally, I took the time to write (and rewrite) the guide to help you. The least you could do is not complain about the 10 minutes it would take you to implement the suggestions.
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Re: Preventing SPAM - Bots and Humans [*Read the First Post!*]

Post by skezza »

Got to agree with marshal here, the guys at phpBB have put years into making this project and they are offering it you for free. Like he said, bots only have artificial intelligence. They only have the intelligence they are programmed with, therefore, if you can stop them from having enough intelligence to complete the form correctly to register, you will stop them altogether. My personal favourite is Textual, as it allows you to put a number of random questions which you can often relate to the topics on your board. Simple, takes 10 minutes, or 30 seconds if you have easyMod installed. Might be a good idea to start!
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