board Spamers

News and comments about this board.
User avatar
adx666
Posts: 4348
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 3:43 pm
Favourite Vehicle: Transperth Mercedes O305

Re: board Spamers

Post by adx666 »

I wonder how other sites combat stuff like this, I mean any site large enough would have these issues. I wonder what skyscapercity does, they have over 400,000 members
Sad sad days with seas and seas of silver sh!t :evil:
User avatar
Ken
Posts: 2610
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 11:03 pm
Favourite Vehicle: MAN SL200
Location: Ammo room
Contact:

Re: board Spamers

Post by Ken »

Any forum on the Internet is a candidate for spam.

It just depends how good the software is, and to a lesser extent how good the people running the forum are, as to whether spam is noticeable on a forum or not.
User avatar
Douglas
Posts: 1199
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:31 am
Favourite Vehicle: Denning Landseer

Re: board Spamers

Post by Douglas »

Ken wrote:Any forum on the Internet is a candidate for spam.

It just depends how good the software is, and to a lesser extent how good the people running the forum are, as to whether spam is noticeable on a forum or not.
The forum I run quite often gets spam bots registering. Having said that, not one of them has bothered to activate their accounts, and when I noticed them, I installed an add-on called Stop Forum Spam that compares the user names they've chosen, the IP addresses they sign up from and the email address they registered to their database. It eventually comes to a point where I've got a pile of spambot users who've signed up who I'll just delete, and that's that done.
Douglas, Professional Nerd, At Your Service.
User avatar
Fleet Lists
Administrator
Posts: 23803
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: The Shire

Re: board Spamers

Post by Fleet Lists »

I see it is nearly two years since this was discussed.

Over that period the admins have been very busy deleting as many as 20 potential spammers a day, as they needed their first post approved or even before that as they came from places which would not normally post on this board.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been doing an analysis of the IP's used by such posters before they were deleted and as a result have identified a pattern in the IP's used which have been many.

So it was fairly useless banning individual IP's - BUT over the past week I have banned IP's in groups such as 110.82.*.* so that any IP starting with 110.82 will automatically be banned.

So far we have banned about 30 such groups which has resulted in the number of identified spammers who need to be deleted, dropping down to 2 or 3 a day.

There are still more to be identified - for instance from the two so far deleted today another two such groups have been identified. So hopefully this will make the work of the admins in this area a lot easier.

Before a group is banned a check is done to ensure that no current user uses IP's within that group.
Living in the Shire.
User avatar
drpeps
Posts: 413
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:52 pm
Favourite Vehicle: UQB605 & TP1044
Location: Kalamunda Hills Area

Re: board Spamers

Post by drpeps »

Thanks for that information Fleet Lists.

I certainly did not know that such daily effort (and voluntary, I assume) was required by all Admins of this Board to get rid of such low life in order for us to enjoy the benefits that this Board brings to us bus enthusiasts.

drpeps
User avatar
Fleet Lists
Administrator
Posts: 23803
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: The Shire

Re: board Spamers

Post by Fleet Lists »

Despite all the best laid plans, things do not always go right.

Since yesterday morning we have had a wave of over 120 spammers registering on the board using IP's which had not previously been recorded as potential spam IP's.

The new IP's now used are recorded as mainly being in Russia and the Ukraine which were not previously regarded as SPAM generators. But they certainly are now.

So we have been busy deleting them. Hopepfully we have trapped the majority of the new IP's used but I am sure there will be more.
Living in the Shire.
User avatar
Fleet Lists
Administrator
Posts: 23803
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: The Shire

Re: board Spamers

Post by Fleet Lists »

The flood of spammers is contimuing.

Wit a combination of banning IP's and email addresses on a generic basis we are attempting to reduce the number which get through to the admin level for approval.

Unfortunately yesterday I made a typo in one IP which caused one of our members (and possibly more) to be banned - Fortunately he advised us by email and we rectified the situation.

So if any other member finds he/she is banned for no apparent please let us know email so that we correct the situation. The inclusion of the IP concerned will help.
Living in the Shire.
User avatar
Fleet Lists
Administrator
Posts: 23803
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: The Shire

Re: board Spamers

Post by Fleet Lists »

And 6 weeks on from there, they are still coming. By now we have 623 groups of IP's banned - some groups contain 256 possible IP's but most contain 256*256= 65536 IP's so we have already banned a lot of IP's but I feel sure there are still more to come.

A prosperous 2013 to everyone except the spammers.
Living in the Shire.
User avatar
Fleet Lists
Administrator
Posts: 23803
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: The Shire

Re: board Spamers

Post by Fleet Lists »

And since then things have changed again - Over the past few days PRT 065 has developed linkages to SPAM databases when a new member tries to register - this negates the need for the IP banning which I mentioned previously.

As at yesterday we had 674 ban groups in place but as a result of the latest changes I have deleted 40 of those and just a little while I noticed that the new software had banned a new member who would previously have been banned by one of the IP bans.

Since the new software was implemented we have not had one spammer get through - let us hope that continues - keep fingers crossed. And if one gets through software is also in place to report the spammer for inclusion in the respective databases.

I will progressively delete more of the IP bans if things continue to go well.
Living in the Shire.
User avatar
R44
Posts: 601
Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:12 pm
Favourite Vehicle: MO-8205

Re: board Spamers

Post by R44 »

Fleet Lists wrote:And since then things have changed again - Over the past few days PRT 065 has developed linkages to SPAM databases when a new member tries to register - this negates the need for the IP banning which I mentioned previously.
I was going to ask if that was possible.
User avatar
Fleet Lists
Administrator
Posts: 23803
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: The Shire

Re: board Spamers

Post by Fleet Lists »

Yes - it has been succcessful for some months now. The IP banning was removed some time ago.
Living in the Shire.
User avatar
R44
Posts: 601
Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:12 pm
Favourite Vehicle: MO-8205

Re: board Spamers

Post by R44 »

Fleet Lists wrote:Yes - it has been succcessful for some months now. The IP banning was removed some time ago.
That will teach me to not read timestamps.
Post Reply

Return to “News & Administration”