#1 2008-01-09 8:42 am

r0g

Member

Registered: 2008-01-09

Posts: 3

Anyone got some spare spam?

Hi There,

Firstly Hello! I'm new here, my name is Roger. Well done to all of you fighting forum spam & keep up the good work!

I'm after some data to test a forum spam detector I am writing, could anyone here maybe send me a few Mb of forum spam, or maybe point me towards a source? Either pure spam or mixed kosher/spam would be good, any format is fine. In an ideal world a sql dump of the message body fields of a spam infested forum would be ideal but anything would be useful.

I notice your focus seems v.much on preventing spammers signing up in the first place so maybe no-one has this lying around but I figure it's worth asking here before I have to create a honeypot!

What I'm trying to do...

I am trying to build a holistic (& heuristic) forum spam solution that blends blocklisting, whitelisting, keyword filtering and premoderation. If I meet with any success I will happily open source the code.

Thanks for reading,

Roger Heathcote - www.technicalbloke.com

fspamlist

Member

Registered: 2008-01-06

Posts: 33

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

I would be happy to help. I've got a honeypot phpbb2 installation out there with about 900 articles on it, but only 45 registered users. Would you need the `phpbb_posts_text` table dump? Let me know if I can help.

Edit: On second thought, you might want to try and contact the owners of these forums for they have humongous honeypots:

http://flytrap.freehostia.com/phpBB2/

&
http://www.sumbit.com/phpBB2/index.php

But I will supply you with my data if you still wish.

Hi There,

Firstly Hello! I'm new here, my name is Roger. Well done to all of you fighting forum spam & keep up the good work!

I'm after some data to test a forum spam detector I am writing, could anyone here maybe send me a few Mb of forum spam, or maybe point me towards a source? Either pure spam or mixed kosher/spam would be good, any format is fine. In an ideal world a sql dump of the message body fields of a spam infested forum would be ideal but anything would be useful.

I notice your focus seems v.much on preventing spammers signing up in the first place so maybe no-one has this lying around but I figure it's worth asking here before I have to create a honeypot!

What I'm trying to do...

I am trying to build a holistic (& heuristic) forum spam solution that blends blocklisting, whitelisting, keyword filtering and premoderation. If I meet with any success I will happily open source the code.

Thanks for reading,

Roger Heathcote - www.technicalbloke.com

Last edited by fspamlist (2008-01-09 3:13 pm)

r0g

Member

Registered: 2008-01-09

Posts: 3

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

Hi fspamlist,

Thanks, that would be really helpful :-] I don't know phpbb but that sounds like the right table to me i.e. the one containing the rubbish they post! If you could put it up somewhere and send me a link via the contacts box at my domain technicalbloke dot com, or zip it and mail it to any address you like at the aforementioned domain I would be grateful.

Also, thanks for the tip off about the bigger honeypots, I'm sure that will be very helpful a bit further down the line.

Yours sincerely,

Roger Heathcote.

r0g

Member

Registered: 2008-01-09

Posts: 3

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

Just thought... if you do zip/mail it to me better put a password on it (say 'spamlist') so as not to give my/your spam filters a seizure! ;-)

fspamlist

Member

Registered: 2008-01-06

Posts: 33

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

Check your mail r0g. I've sent the password protected zip file containing the table `php_posts_text` to the address fspamlist {a.t.} technicalbloke {d.o.t.} com

The password is the one you've suggested.

Last edited by fspamlist (2008-01-11 4:41 am)

Russ

Guest

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

I've started a honeypot here, as a matter of fact. Rather than denying registration to spammers I'm allowing them now and dumping them into a special 'spammer' usergroup where they only have permission to post in the honeypot forum.

I'm waiting to see if any of them take the bait.

fspamlist

Member

Registered: 2008-01-06

Posts: 33

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

Do you automate their addition to your database? You might have to get their IP by using $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] or similar if you are using phpbb2 as the trap, and just use the supplied username and e-mail to accompany it.

I've started a honeypot here, as a matter of fact. Rather than denying registration to spammers I'm allowing them now and dumping them into a special 'spammer' usergroup where they only have permission to post in the honeypot forum.

I'm waiting to see if any of them take the bait.

Russ

Guest

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

Yep, they still get added to the list when they try and register.

I'm actually using this same board as a honeypot, just segmenting the spammers off into their own group. I made sure anyone who is in that group gets rel="nofollow" added to any links so their link spam is no good here.

I caught one tonight already: http://www.stopforumspam.com/search?q=Layertaxy

Just waiting to see if they'll actually try and post anything.

fspamlist

Member

Registered: 2008-01-06

Posts: 33

Re: Anyone got some spare spam?

Oh I see, that's a good idea with the rel=nofollow. I've chosen to just break their links by replacing www. or http:// with [THIS MAY BE SPAM].

Yep, they still get added to the list when they try and register.

I'm actually using this same board as a honeypot, just segmenting the spammers off into their own group. I made sure anyone who is in that group gets rel="nofollow" added to any links so their link spam is no good here.

I caught one tonight already: http://www.stopforumspam.com/search?q=Layertaxy

Just waiting to see if they'll actually try and post anything.