First Spam Bot

[Gizmo]

I had my first spam bot at movie planet. I almost felt like partying as it only took one second to remove their topics/posts. 🙂

Anyhow what phpBB mods/addons etc do you recommend if they come more often? I see quite a few spambot tools at phpBB but I am unsure on what is the best/what is the worse etc. I also know I do have captcha removed but that will be sorted if I get hit again.

Anyhow what should I do if they hit more and more?

 

[Joshua Farrell]

One thing I have been using on my forum for anti-bot registrations, is custom questions on registration. Like math questions, history, or whatever. With the questions, you can even make them look through your forum for the answer to that question.

 

[AquaTeen]

A dropdown box will stop spam bot signups. I have had 0 true spambots, but have had human spammers. I don't use email verification or anything you need to fill in. I see them trying to register but none of them can figure it out.

Just take a look at my site and look at the registration page. It's made very simple for human use but still the bots don't know how to work it.

 

[Mr.Hazey]

Your captcha ain't good enough if your getting spam bots, it is not something to brag about. Look at adding more stuff to the registration field to stop them, the harder you make it for them to register the better, use a decent captcha like sortables ad also always have new accounts to email activation as well.

 

[Gizmo]

Your captcha ain't good enough if your getting spam bots, it is not something to brag about. Look at adding more stuff to the registration field to stop them, the harder you make it for them to register the better, use a decent captcha like sortables ad also always have new accounts to email activation as well.

I also know I do have captcha removed but that will be sorted if I get hit again. 🙂

It had not happened for a few weeks so I just let go of Captcha. Then it was fine for a few weeks.

 

[Mr.Hazey]

Why? that is a very strange thing to do.

 

[D]

if one has found you im sure hundreds will be on there way very soon 😉

 

[Gizmo]

Well then maybe I will wait. I'm not a failed admin who sits on their butt while getting spammed and doing nothing about it. When I find spam I deal with it then and there.

 

[AnAccount]

That's never a good idea to let your guard down. Just because you haven't been hit in a while, doesn't mean it'll stop completely. If you aren't keen on adding more mods, I'd at least get a better captcha. Having a bot register is not something to brag about, as Rich has said. The more security measures you have, the better off you are.

 

[el canadiano]

You should at least consider the Question and Answer system over phpBB's CAPTCHA. The advantage there is that you're creating your own stuff.

Consider your spam a warning, cause you're bound to get a lot more spam messages in the long run unless you do something about it.

 

[Mik.]

Aahah! I removed Captcha to get off the bug it had. If I do get a spammer I'll have to fix it.

 

[NBK*Twitch]

Your captcha ain't good enough if your getting spam bots, it is not something to brag about. Look at adding more stuff to the registration field to stop them, the harder you make it for them to register the better, use a decent captcha like sortables ad also always have new accounts to email activation as well.

It isn't only because of the captcha,infact most if not all captchas has been cracked.

@OP here is a list of great phpbb security mods.

http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/modif ... ti-spam-9/

Here is a decent one from that list.

http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/a ... 890de49288

 

[Mr.Hazey]

Your captcha ain't good enough if your getting spam bots, it is not something to brag about. Look at adding more stuff to the registration field to stop them, the harder you make it for them to register the better, use a decent captcha like sortables ad also always have new accounts to email activation as well.

It isn't only because of the captcha,infact most if not all captchas has been cracked.

@OP here is a list of great phpbb security mods.

http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/modif ... ti-spam-9/

Here is a decent one from that list.

http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/a ... 890de49288

I know I was simply referring him to my preferred one :great:

 

[Deleted member 4320]

Set up a custom profile field that needs to be unchecked to stop the spammers. Can be easily set up in the ACP and you can set it so it's hidden, so once people pass the registration page you can't see it anyway so it doesn't get in the way.