Spam Problem On My Forums

tansqrx

Nov 9 2006, 05:31 PM

I’m starting to have a real problem in my forums. Apparently “midget anal porn” is the hottest new thing. I didn’t think midgets were into that kind of thing but apparently I’m wrong (apologies to any midgets out there). I knew that spam may be a problem on my board but I didn’t think that I would be a target just yet. I only have 16 registered users (including the spam bots). How in the world did they find me? Just like junk mail I figure this problem is only going to get worst since I am now apparently on the list. Does anyone have a solution to this problem?

I am using phpBB. Perhaps a plug-in is out there for this type of thing? Also does anyone know how to get the IP of a user that registered? If I had that then I could ban the subnet.

pyost

Nov 9 2006, 05:44 PM

The first step in fighting against bots is Image Validation. As you probably know, it shows a random string as a part of an image, and the user should re-type it. On my forums (IPB 2.0.0), however, bots somehow manage to overcome this obstacle. The next move is activating e-mail validation. After completing the registration, the user is sent a validation link to the specified e-mail address. That should keep them away.

Unfortunately, some of them DO get through! At least I have that problem. Now, this might be because those aren't actually bots, but rather real people spamming. But whoever it is, there is one possible solution to the problem. I don't know a lot about phpBB, but in IPB, you can hide (disapprove) posts. This is used to hide every first post of a member. That way the spam will be hidden, and you will be able to manually approve all the other posts. I know this isn't very practical, but that's the only idea I have got.

saint-michael

Nov 9 2006, 06:07 PM

Well worse case scenario you have to start banning ip addresses. But what you do is create a htaccess file banning them through that way.

CODE

order allow,deny
deny from xxx.xx.x.x
deny from xxx.xx.x.x
deny from xxx.xx.x.x
allow from all

you can also try invisionize. and see what they have for mods or some other mod site for the forum you use.

Best thing you can do is let your mods and other members report th porn spam and just ban, suspend, block those who do it.

jlhaslip

Nov 9 2006, 06:19 PM

What version of phpbb? 2.2.21 is the latest version (I think).
phpbb3 is in Beta2 right now, so problem might be solved in the new release?
I think the changes you want to make are in the Admin Control Panel of phpbb2 > Board Settings.
Force email registration and make them validate is a good idea, yes. Might even make the Forum fully private in the settings.

Check your .htaccess and place a robots file on your account, too. Any 'decent', or respectable, bot will check that file before accessing the account files, so if you still have problems, set the Forum folder to deny the problem robots in the robots.txt file, maybe. Look throught the detailed Log Report to find the entries. There should be a record of the Bots accessing the robots.txt file each time they visit. Allow the good ones, deny the others.

Also, I believe if you have Admin privleges for your User, the IP numbers are available, too. There is a small gif with "IP" on it. Top right hand side of the Posting. Click on that to view a report of all the IP's the Member has posted from.

foolakadugie

Nov 9 2006, 10:10 PM

I have noticed that this has been an increasing problem lately on some of the forums that I frequent. Apparently bots are getting smarter (and in some cases developing quite a sense of humor

)

vhortex

Nov 10 2006, 12:55 AM

QUOTE(foolakadugie @ Nov 10 2006, 06:10 AM)

I have noticed that this has been an increasing problem lately on some of the forums that I frequent. Apparently bots are getting smarter (and in some cases developing quite a sense of humor

)

lol.. i guess you have a bot magnet..

i usually use generated images for verification.. you dont know when you need to block certain access..
dont use splited images.. just draw them on the fly or use voice validation.. [recording of the validation key to be entered]

saint-michael

Nov 10 2006, 01:46 AM

I know a couple of times bots have been able to post in trap17 hosted section forum which is only access by hosted members and above.

I agree with you foolakadugie the people who are programming these because all the bots have to do is post randomly without the need for the user to type anything.

Like what has been mention all the mods and admin can do is ban and suspend those accounts and delete posts or set up a spam section in your forum and move them there.

If you do that you could get a collective idea what ip numbers to ban and what not.

Levis

Nov 10 2006, 03:20 AM

Hey budy, that truely sucks, i don't understand why you are bieng spammed so early with only 18 members. Maybe its teh content. Try the following link and see what works http://phpbbhacks.com/searchresults.php?ve...p;search_type=1

They have a lot of nice stuff for PHPBB. Hope this helps, i haven't used PHPBB for about a year so i don't can't say much.

tansqrx

Nov 14 2006, 10:36 PM

I know there are a lot of add-ons for phpBB. Any recommendations?

tansqrx

Dec 15 2006, 10:23 PM

As a follow up to my question I am posting what I have done to help with the SPAM on my phpBB forum. In the course of my investigation I found that most of the SPAM is not to advertise to my members but to get a better search engine ranking. Below is a list of procedures. I’m not sure if any of these will work; I will eventually give an update.

Update – I updated my phpBB version from 2.0.19 to 2.0.21. There didn’t seem to be any security related fixes for my current problem but it is always a good idea to stay current.

Enabled User Email Confirmation – I should have done this from the very beginning. Under the General Configuration option there is “Enable account activation” which was set to none. By setting this to user, a user will have to verify their email first.

Stop Spambot Registration Mod – (http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=435694) This is one of the many mods out there that tries to stop SPAM bots. The comments were pretty good for this one. Basically it displays “do not add any profile information” and if you do then you get canned. This compares with some other mods that have a hidden field for the URL and if they enter it then they get canned (no human would see it anyway). There are some comments that the bots are catching on to this so I will have to just wait and see. Installation was fairly straight forward although I do no use the sub_silver skin and had to modify the skin that I use.

Admin Userlist Mod – (http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=117359) This isn’t strictly a SPAM mod but it is a good administrator add-on. It lists all of the users and lets you quickly ban or delete. I think this should have been added a long time ago. Fairly easy to install and no problems.

Latest Entries

Running With Scissors

Sep 17 2008, 05:39 PM

Running With Scissor’s Five Steps to a Spam Free Forum.

1. If you forum allows you to enable admin approval of accounts enable it. That way you can stop the spam bots before they even get in. You can typically tell by the email address and things that it is not human.

2. Don’t use phpBB. Most of the people I here talking about spam bot problems on there forums all have one thing in common they are using phpBB or an out of date forum software. Upgrade to the latest version of a reliable forum company. I like SMF because it’s good when it comes to security and it’s free.

3. Make sure you have to be registered to post on the forums.

4. Ban the spammers using this * as it works as a wild card. Example: 219.7* will ban 219.734.3434 and 219.7342.343 as well as any other ips starting with 219.7. This feature allows you to ban an entire area and computers that have ips that always change.

5. Some forums have the option of only allowing active members or members with a certain amount of posts to post links and or send private messages. This will cut down on a lot of the spam and should be turned on.

Try these things and see if they work. I have had trouble in the past with spaming on phpBB but then I did some of these things and its not bad any more. I am now using SMF which is so far a really great forum. Hope my five steps help.

Blaind

Jul 2 2008, 12:02 AM

Download some Spam Prodection

WaLhEZ

Sep 8 2007, 05:39 PM

First to avoid the spam you have to of changing of phpBB to a much better forum as Vbulletin or SMF this is it better and that in addition have few bugs, and possesses small systems to prevent it from taking placespam, since to add a small image in the system register. The phpBB are good but they are very insecure, like that that my recommendations that you were changing.

xboxrulz

Sep 8 2007, 04:48 AM

I'd have enough with these spammers. I was creating ease of use for my visitors to drop support requests or improvements they want to suggest without registering. However, the spammers are abusing that, so on my forums (powered by Quicksilver Forums) is now registered-only users can post.

xboxrulz

thingiwhant2know

May 3 2007, 10:58 PM

Thats the same thing with my forum site althoughth iam new but i used a differnt Forum hoster

well i just postto say that Spam is overloading all forums