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  • wii
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2000
    • 1036
    • 3.8.x

    Spammers

    Would it be possible to refuse registrations of members with numbers in user names and/or mail addresses? That would help a lot, re-captcha doesn't help that much...
  • donald1234
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2011
    • 1953
    • 4.1.x

    #2
    Not sure that would help as a lot of real members have numbers in their username.

    Better to use Q&A instead of recaptcha and a good antispam plugin like stop-forum-spam.

    Comment

    • wii
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2000
      • 1036
      • 3.8.x

      #3
      I just saw that it should be possible by using:

      Username Regular Expression:

      You may require the username to match a PCRE-type regular expression.

      (Do not start or end the expression with an escape character)

      Examples:

      ^[A-Z]+$ - Characters from A-Z only
      ^[A-Z ]+$ - Characters from A-Z including space
      ^[A-Z0-9 ]+$ - Alphanumeric characters including space
      ^((?!&#\d+[\x20-\x7E])+$ - ASCII characters from 32-127

      Q&A was hacked just as fast as ReCaptcha

      Comment

      • Mark.B
        vBulletin Support
        • Feb 2004
        • 24286
        • 6.0.X

        #4
        If your Q&A was cracked (not hacked, wrong term), then it is likely your questions were too easy to guess, and there weren't enough of them.

        There's no way in the default software to exclude usernames with numbers, and that won't solve your problem anyhow, since any bots will try different combinations of username until they find one that works.
        MARK.B
        vBulletin Support
        ------------
        My Unofficial vBulletin 6.0.0 Demo: https://www.talknewsuk.com
        My Unofficial vBulletin Cloud Demo: https://www.adminammo.com

        Comment

        • Mark.B
          vBulletin Support
          • Feb 2004
          • 24286
          • 6.0.X

          #5
          Here's our advice on proper use of Q&A to combat spam:

          We have determined the most effective "Human Verification" currently built into vBulletin is "Question and Answer" verification.

          To enable this go to your Admin CP -> Settings -> Human Verification Manager. (In VB 3.x it is Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Human Verification Manager)

          Click on this link.

          On the new page choose the option for "Question & Answer Verification."

          If this is the first time you are using it you will need to add one or more questions and answers. To add your first question click on the "Add New Question" near the bottom center of the page.

          On the next page enter a question. Do not make this a math question (what is 2+2?)- Math questions are absolutely worthless. If your forum is about a specific topic try to make the question something someone interested in your niche would likely know. If not still make a question that requires a human to answer- creativity helps here.

          An example question would be: If there are three people in a room how many total toes are likely in the room?

          Leave the box for "Regular Expression" blank. Use it only if you understand Regular Expressions.

          Hit "Save"

          On the next page there will now be a button "Add New Answer" - Press It.

          The next page is one simple box marked "Answer." Enter the answer to the question. Questions can have multiple correct answers.

          Answers are NOT case sensitive so if you put "thirty" in as an answer both "Thirty" and "THIRTY" will also work.

          Enter "thirty" as the answer (without quotes.)

          Save.

          Now you will be back on the page where you can press the "Add New Answer" again, press it.

          This time add the answer: 30
          And hit "Save" again.

          If your forum is multilingual you may want to continue adding answers to cover the word "thirty" in different languages.

          When you believe you have set every possible correct answer you can click on the Admin CP Menu to go back to "Human Verification Manager" and repeat the process to add additional questions.

          The more questions you have the better you will be- five is a good minimum, 10 or more is better.

          In general avoid any questions where the answers may be common among many sites even if the question is different- That is to say no matter how hard the question is if the answer is "3" or "Blue" avoid the question. Spam bots may try common answers even if they can't understand the question just to see if they get lucky. Avoid answers that are low or common numbers, basic colors, and the like.

          We have found forums that implement good Q&A questions stop nearly all "bot" spam. (We have documented drops of a 90% reduction in registrations, all of which were spammers.) There will always be spam created by humans though who cannot be blocked by easy questions. If you feel you still have too much spam to handle please check out various "anti-spam" mods available on vBulletin.org:

          VB 5.x Anti-Spam Mods:


          VB 4.x Anti-Spam Mods:


          VB 3.8 Anti-Spam Mods:


          Please note like all vBulletin modifications we do not provide official support for 3rd party mods, you will need to ask for help in the threads of the mod in question if you need help installing, configuring, or using the mod.

          Overall the best defense against spam is to have an active and vigilant moderator staff able to find and delete spam quickly. Educate forum users on how to use the "Report Post" button to report spam. Do not let the forum run without a moderator or administrator making regular visits to keep an eye on things. It is much easier to delete small amount of spam often then wait until a forum has been overridden and try to delete it all at once.
          MARK.B
          vBulletin Support
          ------------
          My Unofficial vBulletin 6.0.0 Demo: https://www.talknewsuk.com
          My Unofficial vBulletin Cloud Demo: https://www.adminammo.com

          Comment

          • wii
            Senior Member
            • Sep 2000
            • 1036
            • 3.8.x

            #6
            Sorry, cracked, but the code above just work, it may not solve the problem, but a quick view of my banned members nearly all have numbers in the username, by excluding numbers in username it should help just a little.

            We use to use Q&A, but the questions were cracked after a while, they were not too easy and unique for our forum, but I do believe humans are behind some of our spammers.

            Originally posted by Mark.B
            If your Q&A was cracked (not hacked, wrong term), then it is likely your questions were too easy to guess, and there weren't enough of them.

            There's no way in the default software to exclude usernames with numbers, and that won't solve your problem anyhow, since any bots will try different combinations of username until they find one that works.

            Comment

            • Paul M
              Former Lead Developer
              vB.Com & vB.Org
              • Sep 2004
              • 9886

              #7
              Unless you want to turn away large numbers of valid users then dont think about blocking e-mails with numbers in them.
              Baby, I was born this way

              Comment

              • Wayne Luke
                vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                • Aug 2000
                • 73979

                #8
                Try this addon if other options don't work: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248470
                Translations provided by Google.

                Wayne Luke
                The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                vBulletin 5 API

                Comment

                • wii
                  Senior Member
                  • Sep 2000
                  • 1036
                  • 3.8.x

                  #9
                  Thanks.

                  Comment

                  • wii
                    Senior Member
                    • Sep 2000
                    • 1036
                    • 3.8.x

                    #10
                    It's a small forum, so I'm not worried about that, blocking numbers in usernames have helped a lot, if I could do the same with e-mails, then I would be happy. I believe this would require some modification, I asked you Paul to help me getting access to vbulletin.org, I've changed my mail address and can't login.

                    Thanks

                    Originally posted by Paul M
                    Unless you want to turn away large numbers of valid users then dont think about blocking e-mails with numbers in them.

                    Comment

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