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D' Rosemont
New User
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 8
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 Posted: July 19th 2007, 11:17 am Post subject: Blocking Spammers? |
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| Is there a way to block spammers, porners and telemarketers, perhaps by IP address? I am having a terrible problem with this, and am spending more time deleting these people as they attempt to join, than enjoying my message forum with those who are really there to be genuine members. |
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babydreams
Well Known User
Joined: 21 Dec 2005
Posts: 190
Location: Somerset, UK
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Patrick
Admin/Webmaster
Joined: 11 May 2001
Posts: 12597
Location: Harbinger, NC, U.S.A.
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joeaksa
New User
Joined: 16 Aug 2007
Posts: 3
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: August 16th 2007, 3:32 am Post subject: |
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Patrick,
Is the general opinion that most of these registrations are from spam bots?
Reason I ask is that when I log onto the Admin section of my BBS I see loads of IP addresses from Russia, India and so on. Minutes later I get 3-5 new members registered and was wondering if these are "bots" or some poor sod in a 3rd world country paid to register to as many PHP forums that they can find.
They cannot post as we have locked down that function but was just working in the Med and Africa and no internet access for 10 days. When I returned there were over 200 new members, 99% of them spammers.
Thx,
Joe |
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Patrick
Admin/Webmaster
Joined: 11 May 2001
Posts: 12597
Location: Harbinger, NC, U.S.A.
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joeaksa
New User
Joined: 16 Aug 2007
Posts: 3
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: August 18th 2007, 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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Patrick,
Thanks and any ideas on how many registrations are bots and how many are a real person? 50/50% or 75/25% bots vs humans?
Thx,
Joe |
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~HG~
Dedicated User
Joined: 08 Nov 2003
Posts: 3184
Location: Australia
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| Posted: August 20th 2007, 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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Recognising bot registrations can become second nature after awhile especially if you look at their email address which is generally the first five away and the second is if they post a website link.
_________________
~HG~
|| rodneyangell.com || My Hacks || Tutorial - Stopping Spam Bots |
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Quiff Boy
Dedicated User
Joined: 07 Feb 2002
Posts: 502
Location: Leeds, UK
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| Posted: August 21st 2007, 2:04 am Post subject: |
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| ~HG~ wrote:
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Recognising bot registrations can become second nature after awhile especially if you look at their email address which is generally the first five away and the second is if they post a website link.
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i agree that you do gain an instinct for spotting them after a while.
usernames are either a random selection of letters or an attempt at creating a generic "real", in camel case (eg: either "xghsrtssghj" or "JamieHudson")
also, they almost always use the same fields in their profiles - their occupation is often a single word (eg: "doctor"), and is usually repeated as their signiture 
i also find that they always set the time zone to be the last option in the drop-down box (GMT-12)
but i dont quite catch what you mean by "their email address which is generally the first five away" - the first five away? :?
_________________
Heartland - The Sisters Of Mercy Discussion Forums
http://www.myheartland.co.uk |
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joeaksa
New User
Joined: 16 Aug 2007
Posts: 3
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: August 21st 2007, 8:02 am Post subject: |
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| ~HG~ wrote:
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Recognising bot registrations can become second nature after awhile especially if you look at their email address which is generally the first five away and the second is if they post a website link.
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If their putting a website URL in the registration is the key, then I would say that about 99% of my spam registrations are by robot. In fact that is the first thing I look for is someone adding a screwy URL to their registration.
I do have some members (member list on my BBS is here: http://www.joea.com/phpBB2/memberlist.php?mode=joined&order=ASC&start=0&sid=14f9868fd193fdb8e71f219e17349f13)
who put a URL on their registration but its usually less than 10 out of 50 on our site.
The last 3-400 registrations on my board out of 1000 members listed are almost all spammers as I have been working overseas for a while and the internet was down where I was for a week, and they simply overwhelmed my ability to delete them one by one. Now looking for a way to delete them "en masse" so to speak!
Thanks for the help!
Joe |
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~HG~
Dedicated User
Joined: 08 Nov 2003
Posts: 3184
Location: Australia
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| Posted: August 21st 2007, 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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I dont know that there is any hack available that will prune only bots but it could be a good idea.
Most hacks for pruning users only allow for pruning in certain categories such as "inactive users"
_________________
~HG~
|| rodneyangell.com || My Hacks || Tutorial - Stopping Spam Bots |
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