Spammers/scammers

[iCe]

Hey all,

I notice a lot of spam/scam post the last few weeks and they seem to increase.
I keep reporting them and also ignoring them, but it's getting out of hand it seems.
Maybe an option that new members can only make new posts after 5 replies or something like that? That might not be fair for 'real' persons wanting to post something, but just an idea...

Thought i'd make a topic about it, maybe more people share this and the mods can chime in

 

[Jonathan Curtis]

Yes, I'd noticed it too. It has become worse recently.

I suppose they're "bot" accounts. Perhaps some kind of "are you a robot" test for posting for the first five posts from a new account, something like that?

 

[C. Dave Run]

Some sort of function that homed in on keywords in the thread title and wiped it out. For example, the word "Keto". Its not a word that drummers use. If a spam poster/bot starts a thread with the word Keto, as soon as the thread gets posted the forum software checks for keywords, and eliminates threads that contain said words.

Gummies would be another one.

It would have to be titles only. If someone asked inside an existing thread, "what are those gummie things called that dampen heads?", we want that to remain so someone can reply Moongel.

 

[Liam]

I have noticed most if not all of the spam threads have a link in a title, so maybe their is a way to prevent putting a link in the title.

 

[Supergrobi]

We check against Akismet (which costs us actual money), we check against StopForumSpam, we check against our internal spammers database, we have a google account for running reCAPTCHA, I've set up a few regex around some common terms, there's quite strict settings for new members and much more to stop this current flood, but seems that nothing helps 100% (although > 90% is filtered). Well, Akismet, our latest member of the pack, is doing a good job by now, but it still requires moderators interaction, since the plugin also only reports the spam and doesn't automatically clean it up. My guess is that we have a spammer on our back enslaving real humans from poor countries to spam us, which no technology as of today can do that much about. And then there's also bugs in all of this software... Ongoing fight.

Thanks for all the suggestions! If there's no such feature built in or available as plug-in, I don't have the time to code it. But if you guys would like to volunteer you'd do us all a great favor!

 

[Supergrobi]

Just as an example, why it's not just looking up "http" in a posts title: The following (incomplete list of) encodings are all valid to be sent to the server, all representing the same string:

• This is always the same string
• This+is+always+the+same+string
• This%20is%20always%20the%20same%20string
• This is always the same string
• This is always the same string
• VGhpcyBpcyBhbHdheXMgdGhlIHNhbWUgc3RyaW5n

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

this forum is NOTHING like many of the sports forums I used to go on....often times, those will get blasted with hundreds of spam threads in a second...so many that it completely fills 2 pages of the "new posts" section

I think it helps if people DONN'T click on or look at those threads as well right?

 

[Supergrobi]

I think it helps if people DONN'T click on or look at those threads as well right?

Well, just don't click on their links. Reading such a posting doesn't do any harm to your system nor does it affect the spam in any way. For reporting you have to open it anyways afaik.

 

[cbphoto]

When I see a spam post, I report it. Easy-peesy.

 

[GruntersDad]

At the top of my page is the Word, Moderator, where new memberships show up with any history of spam activity. I click on that report, it brings up a page that says, IP address Spam related history, and I click on Spam, and that bans them and erases any previous posts. Also this is wher reports are sent, I click on those, and read the ,members report, 99.99 are correct, and ban the member. It is much better than it used to be, but we keep at it. Please keep reporting.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

it is so weird that it had been so long since I had seen a spam post, when they started to show up here, I was like "oh yeah...I forgot about that crap"

so that is super Kudos to the DWF MP!!!!

 

[GretschedHive]

This thread reminded me that when I first finally joined DW, after lurking without an account for years, I instantly got banned, because my name seemed too suspiciously scammy. I think I now feel attacked.

 

[iCe]

We check against Akismet (which costs us actual money), we check against StopForumSpam, we check against our internal spammers database, we have a google account for running reCAPTCHA, I've set up a few regex around some common terms, there's quite strict settings for new members and much more to stop this current flood, but seems that nothing helps 100% (although > 90% is filtered). Well, Akismet, our latest member of the pack, is doing a good job by now, but it still requires moderators interaction, since the plugin also only reports the spam and doesn't automatically clean it up. My guess is that we have a spammer on our back enslaving real humans from poor countries to spam us, which no technology as of today can do that much about. And then there's also bugs in all of this software... Ongoing fight.

Thanks for all the suggestions! If there's no such feature built in or available as plug-in, I don't have the time to code it. But if you guys would like to volunteer you'd do us all a great favor!

Wow! I can only imagine how much is filtered beforehand then! Great job!
I had no idea how much work goes into keeping this spam free, so much kudos from me!
Very enlightening your replies and from @gruntersdad, thanks for that

I will continue to be a true Drummerworld Patriot and report those who defile our board