Spammers Getting Around Image Verification

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  • Ohiosweetheart
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2005
    • 1965
    • 3.8.x

    Thanks Floris, but it's not guests that are spamming me, it's new registrants.
    I've been using Human Verification for quite some time now. They got past that a couple of days ago.
    Peggy
    ~ normal is overrated ~

    One Buzy Mama!

    Comment

    • Floris
      Senior Member
      • Dec 2001
      • 37767

      Change from the image to the Q+A method. I've linked to suggestions earlier in this thread I believe.

      Comment

      • Ohiosweetheart
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2005
        • 1965
        • 3.8.x

        Thanks Floris.


        Ok to those who suggested banning email extensions such as gmail.com, hotmail,com, etc...... give it up, imo.

        It's not going to work when you have a site like this - email.com. Here, my friends, you can register an email address with an extension of email.com or mail.com OR..... any other of thousands of email extensions. Take a peek. Click on the link that says Get Your FREE Email Account here.

        So if you ban one extension, they'll just go get another. It's a losing battle
        Peggy
        ~ normal is overrated ~

        One Buzy Mama!

        Comment

        • Sarthek
          Senior Member
          • May 2006
          • 615

          Same here, before 2 days we had at least 15 new spam registrations.

          Now we put Q+A.

          I have question on that. If we made simple questions, but are on foreign language (not english, german, spanish, italian...), this should prevent far "english speaking spammers) shouldnt it?

          Comment

          • Floris
            Senior Member
            • Dec 2001
            • 37767

            Yes, but might be tough on the non-english speakers of course.
            And no, because once the scripts support live translation, it might not work.

            A simple question can still be asked in a creative manner that makes it easy for a human to rationalize, while it's garbage to the bot.

            Comment

            • Sarthek
              Senior Member
              • May 2006
              • 615

              Well I made questions in the manner: "which is the main city of our country"
              "which is the highest mountain in our country"... So far it seems to work

              Also - is there (if not it would be welcome) an option to put new posts into moderation, until admin approved them (or moderator).

              Comment

              • Floris
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2001
                • 37767

                Yes.
                Default usergroup: always moderate new content
                New usergroup: additional usergroup with same permissions, except now do not moderate.
                New promotion, based on default usergroup, based on 2 or 5 approved posts, to upgrade to additional usergroup to get proper permissions.

                Now all new registered users posts are moderated, upon approval, their postcount increases, when over a certain amount, the script auto updates them, so future posts dont need to be moderated.

                Comment

                • Sarthek
                  Senior Member
                  • May 2006
                  • 615

                  Thanks, I guess I shall look better into that, if spammers become active again. Is this working for blogs too?

                  One of spammer flood the blog, without posting on forum.

                  Comment

                  • joeychgo
                    Senior Member
                    • Mar 2004
                    • 2021
                    • 5.6.4

                    I did a write up -- HowTo Reduce spam on your forum --

                    It worked for me, give it a try...
                    Building my Automotive Forum Network...
                    Lincoln vs Cadillac - Mopar Forum - E Body Mopar Forum - B Body Mopar Forum - Pick Up Truck Forum - C Body Mopar Forum - FMJ Body Mopar Forum

                    Comment

                    • jschefdog
                      New Member
                      • May 2002
                      • 22

                      My site got hit as well. Thanks to everyone for all the tips. By enabling all the image options and adding a profile question I was able to stop the spammers (so far).

                      One thing I noticed which may help others sort out spammers from legitimate registrations. The spammer accounts were all different but seemed to have one feature in common, they all had the time zone set to "(GMT -12:00) Eniwetok, Kwajalien". That is the first time zone in the list and a pretty unusual choice since it is in the middle of the Pacific ocean. So you might want to ban or delete any new members set for that time zone.

                      Comment

                      • Freddie Bingham
                        Former vBulletin Developer
                        • May 2000
                        • 14057
                        • 1.1.x

                        Originally posted by beishe8
                        It has been implemented but it is week:Human Verification Questions and Answers.

                        Months ago I thought that there was a bug in it but the answer was that it was not a bug,it has been designed that way.

                        Nospam question: This forum's name is v***letin
                        Answer:bul

                        Giving the answer "bull" :rejects it

                        Human Verification Q@A question:This forum's name is v***letin
                        Answer:bul

                        Giving the answer "bull,bulk,bulldozer":happily accepted.
                        That would only happen if you put "bul" into the regex option as is. If you want to only accept "bul" then create a proper answer using the answer system. If you want to use the regex option then you need to understand how it works.

                        Comment

                        • DGMayor
                          New Member
                          • Jan 2003
                          • 8
                          • 3.7.x

                          Originally posted by Chippie
                          Wow, I thought I was the lucky one!

                          I typed russia in the seach on this forum and got this thread right away.

                          I have been getting hammered also, deleting them as they happen.

                          What I noticed that was constant is the time zone in the user area once they joined. (GMT - 12:00) Eniwetok, Kwajalein this was on every single one so that's how I sorted the good from the bad.

                          I just added the extra question so we will se how that goes.
                          Mine all register with a Beijing time zone. I run a private gaming site (started with EQ, now it's warhammer) and the majority of my spams have been gold sellers for the online games, with the occasional viagra or porn thrown in.

                          Comment

                          • beishe8
                            Senior Member
                            • Oct 2005
                            • 6782
                            • 4.2.X

                            Originally posted by Freddie Bingham
                            That would only happen if you put "bul" into the regex option as is. If you want to only accept "bul" then create a proper answer using the answer system. If you want to use the regex option then you need to understand how it works.
                            Sorry Freddie,I really don't understand how the regex option works or what it is.
                            What I know is, that after setting them up,nospam works,Q&A does not.

                            Going to check the options for Q&A now...


                            vB5 is unequivocally the best forum software, but not yet...

                            Comment

                            • Freddie Bingham
                              Former vBulletin Developer
                              • May 2000
                              • 14057
                              • 1.1.x

                              Originally posted by beishe8
                              Sorry Freddie,I really don't understand how the regex option works or what it is.
                              What I know is, that after setting them up,nospam works,Q&A does not.
                              On the page where you specified the question, there are two input boxes.

                              Question
                              Answers are added after the question is created.


                              Regular Expression
                              You may require the input field to match a regular expression (PCRE).


                              A regex answer allows you to use code to specify multiple answers. You need to leave that blank and save your question. After you save, you will see your question and then a new "Add Answer" option beneath it. If you specify "bul" as an answer then the only answers that will be accepted is

                              bul

                              Answers are case insensitive so BUL (and so one) will also be accepted.

                              Comment

                              • beishe8
                                Senior Member
                                • Oct 2005
                                • 6782
                                • 4.2.X

                                Originally posted by Freddie Bingham
                                On the page where you specified the question, there are two input boxes.

                                Question
                                Answers are added after the question is created.

                                Regular Expression
                                You may require the input field to match a regular expression (PCRE).

                                A regex answer allows you to use code to specify multiple answers. You need to leave that blank and save your question. After you save, you will see your question and then a new "Add Answer" option beneath it. If you specify "bul" as an answer then the only answers that will be accepted is

                                bul

                                Answers are case insensitive so BUL (and so one) will also be accepted.
                                Thank you Freddie,I'll try it.


                                vB5 is unequivocally the best forum software, but not yet...

                                Comment

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