Preventing Spam in phpBB 3.0.6 and Above [*Read First Post*]

[GameVixenZone]

I am currently using re-captcha on a large forum. I get so much spam signups I feel like it's even more so than the gd captcha. Is there a way to set the board to have QA with recaptcha without installing a QA mod (since one already exists within 3.0.6)

[dicks]

OK, so it seems I will still need to install my three MODs to make sure 3.0.6 is as spam free as our 3.0.5 boards atm.

[Mick]

I am currently using re-captcha on a large forum. I get so much spam signups I feel like it's even more so than the gd captcha. Is there a way to set the board to have QA with recaptcha without installing a QA mod (since one already exists within 3.0.6)

You can use custom profile fields with reCAPTCHA.

[GameVixenZone]

Alright I did that. But I don't know how much of use it will be as it just says it's required if you select the wrong answer. Then you don't have to put the captcha in again if you get it wrong.

[stevemaury]

You will when you resubmit the answer.

[Kerrith]

I've been hit hard by spammers of late on my small board. New members are invited so I know the email address of a new user before they even get on and have them with a user name that will be recognized. I have 6-12 spammers register everyday so I went to the measure that they would have to be admin approved to start posting. I don't find it any harder to do that than to have to delete their accounts anyway. If I simply ignore the requests to become active by these spammers will the backlog do anything bad to my forum? There should also be an option to deactivate the account instead of just one to activate.

Same concern:

I've too have set admin approved but I receive some email notification activation requests that are questionable, it might or might not be a genuine client. Each day I get about ten spam registrations with user names such as terbmble or dobtterqsa which I just ignore, but I also get one or two with reasonable looking user names, with these I have to drill down to view their email address which most always is bogus.

I wish there were an email address validation system that would check and bounce invalid addresses when they press the submit registration button.
Kerry

[Mick]

@whoman69 & Kerrith

The point is, what have you done to stop it?

And no, the backlog of inactive users shouldn't make any difference to your board.

[Darth Wong]

I was surprise to see one of those Spam food today at the store. I thought they were 1950's.

LOL, no, in fact since the word 'spam' has been coined to mean the abuse of electronic messaging sales of Spam the product (since 1937) have rocketed.

Do you ever watch Anthony Bourdain's travel/food show? He did an episode in Hawaii where he talked to the locals and discovered that Spam plays a big part in a lot of local recipes (he generally avoids tourist traps and tries to find out what the "natives" eat in any given place he visits).

[Darth Wong]

I am currently using re-captcha on a large forum. I get so much spam signups I feel like it's even more so than the gd captcha. Is there a way to set the board to have QA with recaptcha without installing a QA mod (since one already exists within 3.0.6)

I personally don't like the visual CAPTCHA systems. I use the Q&A CAPTCHA plugin and my spam signups are pretty much nonexistent lately. I have a rotating group of questions; the trick is that I use (very simple) mathematical word problems. If you use a math problem written like a grade school drill, like "2+2*8", then bots can easily work through that. But if you use a simple mathematical word problem like "Cheryl buys two packs of Girl Guide cookies for $2 each and pays with a $5 bill; how much change should she get back", then bots seem to choke on it. The Q&A CAPTCHA can accept multiple questions too, so you can have four or five rotating questions (it randomly picks one each time).

As some have pointed out to me, it's possible that certain low-IQ humans might choke on a question like that too, but I quite frankly always thought a board would be better off without such stupid people being able to join anyway.

[Mick]

As some have pointed out to me, it's possible that certain low-IQ humans might choke on a question like that too, but I quite frankly always thought a board would be better off without such stupid people being able to join anyway.

You are almost certainly right I have had users email me:

"my friend tried to join today and couldn't work out the anti-spam question(s)"

[draexo]

I had set up a forum with phpBB 3.0.5. It took about a month, but the spam bots hit us. Now its a daily battle. I turned new user registration off for now. I decided to upgrade to phpBB 3.0.6. But now all the spam mods I see say they are for 3.0.5 and that I should not use them for 3.0.6. What to do?

[dicks]

If you install the three I mentioned you will have no more spammers. But you'll need to test them on 3.0.6 and see if they work. Otherwise wait for updates before you upgrade to 3.0.6.

[Darth Wong]

As some have pointed out to me, it's possible that certain low-IQ humans might choke on a question like that too, but I quite frankly always thought a board would be better off without such stupid people being able to join anyway.

You are almost certainly right I have had users email me:

"my friend tried to join today and couldn't work out the anti-spam question(s)"

Please tell me you E-mailed them back saying "Get smarter friends"

[LordStDennis]

On my board, *link removed* I have a forum called, "Sell your stuff here!" and that's where all the SPAM goes. Most Users respect that, including robots.

The SPAM doesn't hurt anything and it makes people feel big knowing that their product is on the market receiving free advertising. After all, this is America - the land of the Dollar Bill.

Anyway, after a month's time, the Sell forum gets pruned to reduce over-buildup of SPAM. The system worked great on my last phpBB until a bug in the program wiped out all the SPAM at once! But that was no big deal as the SPAM'ers put their stuff right back.

I've recently upgraded to 3.0.6 and kind of lost everything from an earlier version due to a bug in the backup/restore commands, so my board looks new but really its been in operation since March this year and I'm very happy with my Users.

Grace, Peace & Love;

Lord Saint Dennis Charles Smart
*link removed*

[HostPost]

hello forum

I have not yet run a phpBB3 board. But I have in past years run a couple of version 2 boards. The longest one was in operation for nearly two years in each case the board was virtually rendered unusable by ever increasing spam post.

I had tried so many plug ins and methods of controlling it but I just could not win. It became a daily chore to clean the board which was just not practical to keep up. Soon I was receiving as many complaints from members about the spam as the spam itself. At that point pulling the plug was the only option.

I never figured out how the spam managed to bypass the admin account approval and as the majority of the spammers at that time had a .ru domain extension I tried to filter that as well with no joy.

I am about to start another board very soon so I am keen to hear how the spam fighting story is going now.

regards
David