Problems with Banning

[Rhavan]

I do apologize if this wasn't the right place to put the topic, but I'm having some difficulty with banning a particularly pesky spammer.

Starting about a week ago, a person began to create multiple names with links to car dealerships. As time went on, it slowed after banning the IP and emails.

But as of today I've noticed that our IP ban isn't working, and the blocking of the emails (Always something along the lines of @travelcaronline.com, or @ua.fm) aren't being blocked.

Anyways, what would be the best approach to dealing with this person?

[Murphy]

Miserable user

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=165961&highlight=miserable

[Rhavan]

Miserable user

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=165961&highlight=miserable


Oh, this really makes my day. Hahah.

Thanks, I'll keep this updated if it does the trick!

[MRGTB]

The person in question is most likely using a dial-up connection then. So his IP address changes each time he connects to the Internet. If that's the case, banning his IP will not stop him. And email address wise, he's most likely using free email sites to register a new account each time.

Dial-up users are the worse type of spammers, because you have no real way to ban them. Unless you ban there whole IP range, which means your banning that ISP, and anybody who uses them from your website. Which these spammers know you won't do.

[Deriel]

You also could use the "Tachy goes to Conventry" that is implemented in the plain vanilla vBulletin :)

From the vB Manual (http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/features_admin):

Global ignore user aka 'Tachy goes to Coventry' - when enabled all posts by the specified user will be ignored/unseen by other members. Automatically added to the all users ignore lists

[Chieftain]

The person in question is most likely using a dial-up connection then. So his IP address changes each time he connects to the Internet. If that's the case, banning his IP will not stop him. And email address wise, he's most likely using free email sites to register a new account each time.

Dial-up users are the worse type of spammers, because you have no real way to ban them. Unless you ban there whole IP range, which means your banning that ISP, and anybody who uses them from your website. Which these spammers know you won't do.

That depends...

I have full site security enabled, and I still get the occasional spammer who makes it through.

A couple of weeks ago, I caught a new user signing up using "viagra" in his e-mail address, and using the IP of a small electrical contracting company. I banned that specific IP, problem solved. In any case, all new users at my site require Admin approval before they can post, so there is always one last chance to stop them.

At the same time, I have a very active live spammer who keeps pounding on my door using a 194.*.*.* series RIPE Network IP. I banned the entire range for that clown to stop his illicit signups.

Obviously, you don't want to ban an entire range of IP addresses for the local Comcast or other legitimate IP service. It's pretty easy to tell after a while if you find a good IP search engine and use it rigorously when people sign up at your site. Every new user gets a quick check and if their IP comes back belinging to one of the known spammer services, that IP range gets banned, and the user account deleted.

I hear a lot of questions about how to get more users. the simple answer to that is just wait. If I never got rid of any trolls, I would have thousands of members, but 99% of them would be meaningless. There are plenty of trolls willing to steal your bandwidth, if you let them sign up at your site. I think quality is more importatnt than quantity, and a healthy dose of common sense never hurts either....

[Rhavan]

Small update, I've drastically minimized the amount of spammers. So far, they've shrunk from 4 a day to twice a week at most. And the Spammer in question for me is oddly enough also a 194 IP, usually under car dealership names, and for their passwords, one initial and a last name, or vice versa. I might've banned all of China's emails because of this, I'll probably have to go back and change that. So far it seems using miserable users with a 100+ second wait mixed with a blank screen does the trick for keeping them at bay.

Anyways, I'll post up the email addresses on the sticky I saw earlier. Thanks for the help everyone!