Spambot issues

[Jaosals]

Okay, on one of the forums I admin, http://thevalentineempire.com/ we've been having a real big issue with spambots. We have email activation on now, but even so, there have been two spambots register recently. I have access to the ACP, but not Cpanel. What needs to be done?

They keep persisting. About half of the members were on their way to being spambots...

 

[CyberFreak]

When you say, you don't have cpanel access, is that because your are on a free host or because you are only a co admin on that forum or something and therefore some one else you know has cpanel access?

Are you running 3.0.5? If so there is some new CATPCHA settings to make it harder such as lower case letters and wave. 3.0.6 is coming soon which will have a new plugin system for CAPTCHA's which will solve your problem. A mod might be good for the time being but you will need to uninstall any anti spam mods before you update to phpBB 3.0.6. If you are on a free host though, you can't install mods and you will use phpBB 3,0.6 when you host decides to so if you are on a free host ignore them 2 things.

 

[Jaosals]

I'm a co-admin and the site is on a paid host. I've asked already the founder admin to upgrade to 3.0.5 (they use 3.0.4) but nothing yet

 

[CyberFreak]

3.0.5 would near enough solve the problem. That is the problem when you use out of date software. You miss on on the latest features and security fixes aswell as bug fixes.

 

[birdy]

The new phpBB 3.0.6 Captcha is great I have it (RC) but it doesnt stop the bloody Chinese and Indian Spammers I am battling with right now - real people spamming like crazy getting about 4/5 a day right now 🙁

 

[CyberFreak]

Mass block the IP ranges they are using through the htaccess file. That is what i used to do here and that reduced it massively. Not the best way to deal with them but as they are humans it is near enough impossible to do it in a way it wouldn't affect many innocent Chinese users.

 

[Jaosals]

http://www.okean.com/chinacidr.txt

I banned several IP's from China using this list (on my own personal site that is, so I don't affect someone else's), so I don't have too many problems from there.
Only problem in doing something like that is just, not everyone from eastern countries is a spammer...

 

[CyberFreak]

That was kinda my point. The spammers won't come from all of them ranges. All it takes is to block 1 or 2 of the main ranges they use and the number of them that get through is alot lower.

 

[Jaosals]

The Valentine empire's main issue now though, are spammers from Ukraine, Germany, Romania, and Russia... And I don't know how the forum root admin will feel about banning users from there, as several of our past authentic members were from there too...

And is it just I, or does the email banning system in phpbb not work as effectively as it ought to? I've banned the (as phpbb states it) wildcard email "@porntube4us.info" but we're still getting guys with those emails coming...

 

[CyberFreak]

Don't ban them countries. There us more chance of getting members from those contries. Those are probably mostly bots and will be sorted out with easily with either phpBB 3.0.5. Human spammers tend to come mostly from China. I can't remember seeing any human spamming members from outside China here for a while before i left. The always seemed to be China. As for the emails, that might of been a bug in 3.0.4 or the users registered before that ban was entered or it might have been entered incorrectly.

Did you enter the wildcard email ban as *@porntube4us.info (Note the * before the )?

 

[birdy]

Thanks for your comments Fowler and Jaosals - I have to try something as its getting ridiculous - the whole forum was spammed by one chinese guy this morning 🙁

Only started 3 weeks ago most odd - that was when I upgraded phpbb to the latest version.

 

[Jaosals]

Don't ban them countries. Those are probably mostly bots and will be sorted out with easuly with either phpBB 3.0.5. As for the emails, that might of been a bug in 3.0.4 or the users registered before that ban was entered or it might have been entered incorrectly.

Did you enter the wildcard email ban as *@porntube4us.info (Note the * before the )?

No I didn't. If that works, then thanks. :great:

 

[CyberFreak]

That is your problem then i believe 😉

 

[Jaosals]

That is your problem then i believe 😉

Took that into account, and the number of spammers has decreased greatly, even without mods.

+rep