Lots of Spam since yesterday

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mrix2000
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Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by mrix2000 »

Hello all, since yesterday I have started receiving spam registrations on all my forums :cry: :cry: :cry:
The system I have been using is Q/A which has worked fine until now, I would add the question how many letters in the forum name etc which worked a treat but no longer :cry: has this Q/A system now crumbled ?
Thanks for any idea`s
Cheers
mrix
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KevC
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by KevC »

I've noticed a little flurry of activity from the spambots too. I just changed my question and it stopped again.
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5hocK
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by 5hocK »

You just need a better question that can't be searched, "What county is Christchurch in?" Is too easy.

OT:
The Topic Preventing Spam in phpBB3 is a little misleading as the example of a good question is not a good type of question anymore as the answer is searchable.
....you must use simple but non-obvious question and answer combinations. For instance, "What programming language is phpBB written in?" is an effective question
A thread is pretty much a topic. Stop with the pedantics will ya.
mrix2000
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by mrix2000 »

Hi as mentioned this worked for me for for at least a year, I guess the bots are a little more intelligent.
I will make the questions and answers more difficult to see if that helps as posted.
Thanks
mrix
Frib99
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by Frib99 »

This happened to all three of my forums yesterday at once. Spam was coming in out of .RU, IPS all out of .RU through RIPE. Bots were registering new accounts at about a dozen per second and spamming forums with all kinds of porn. Shut down all registrations, deleted all registered users from date forward and killed them all and messages. Then I simply changed the Q&A message around and not a single spammer has come through again.

To me this is just like last year where all the gathered up Q&A answers were logged - and a global hit took place.
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by brucedenney »

I have exactly the same problem.

I have doen the latest updates but there is a shed load coming in, hundreds of posts a day, I think something/someone has worked out an effective work around to the Q&A system

I am going to switch to recaptcha and turn on admin approval to see if that helps.
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by Bill A »

70 registration "From Russia with Love" yesterday.

I have Admin Authorization turned on so I simply delete inactive users.

But, last night I turned off registration. Since then over 80 registrations have come in.

So real users cannot register but the spammers are able to bypass the registration being turned off and submit.

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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by Brf »

Bill A wrote: the spammers are able to bypass the registration being turned off and submit.
If you have registration disabled, they cannot bypass it.
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by sakm »

I have had shed loads since yesterday too

I use the Q&A and there is no way you can google it either yet they are still getting in
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by KevC »

I suspect they've just updated their answer tables. Changing the question stopped it on both of my boards that were hit.
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by sakm »

Yes I was thinking the same

Now I'm just trying to think of a new one that can't be googled
mrix2000
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by mrix2000 »

All resolved for me as I made my question a little more personal to my specific forum, I basically just asked what the logo was showing on one forum and how many logo images I have on another and I have not received a single spam email since :D
Cheers all
mrix
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by sakm »

mrix2000 wrote:All resolved for me as I made my question a little more personal to my specific forum, I basically just asked what the logo was showing on one forum and how many logo images I have on another and I have not received a single spam email since :D
Cheers all
mrix
thats similar to how mine was and I still got loads of spam
mrix2000
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by mrix2000 »

thats similar to how mine was and I still got loads of spam
Are you all updated to the latest version of phpbb3 ?

As an elimination process I would put in a wrong answer and see if bots are still able to register regardless of of the answer, that would of been my next move if my situation never for resolved.

Best of luck
mrix
sakm
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Re: Lots of Spam since yesterday

Post by sakm »

Yes latest version and just tried that and rejects the registration as it should

I changed the question and answers and no spam for now!

there must be some user input to be getting through
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