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#26 2019-04-22 5:07 pm

kpatz
Member
Registered: 2008-10-09
Posts: 1,437

Re: Introduce yourself

Welcome Bernie!  What BBSes did you run?  I wonder if I was ever on any of them back in the day.


Spam happens when greed meets stupidity.

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#27 2019-04-22 5:59 pm

NT2C
Member
Registered: 2019-04-22
Posts: 4

Re: Introduce yourself

In no particular order:

  • Ahoy! Magazine BBS

  • Brooklyn After Dark

  • The Underground

  • Undy II

  • The Depot

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#28 2019-04-22 6:02 pm

Papa Parrot
Member
From: Mexico
Registered: 2011-08-19
Posts: 1,826
Website

Re: Introduce yourself

NT2C
    Member
    Registered: Today
    Posts: 1
    IP address logged
    Email

Re: Introduce yourself

Greetings all, my friends call me Bernie----snip---

Welcome, hope you find SFS usefull.

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#29 2019-04-22 6:28 pm

NT2C
Member
Registered: 2019-04-22
Posts: 4

Re: Introduce yourself

So far, so good.  I reported one new spammer that showed up on our foums today and I posted a message in our moderator's areas encouraging my fellow mods to also use this service.  Once your PayPal issues are worked out I'll also be making a modest (I am retired after all) donation towards your expenses. Sorry, I don't do digital currencies.

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#30 2019-04-23 1:19 pm

kpatz
Member
Registered: 2008-10-09
Posts: 1,437

Re: Introduce yourself

Just make sure that you only submit spammers who posted actual spam on your forum, or put spam links in their sig/profile.  An easy way to ensure this is to always submit with evidence (text of spam or spammed links).  If you have no evidence, don't submit.

Sometimes newcomers aren't aware of this until they're warned (usually with the threat of being banned... it can be offputting to a newcomer).


Spam happens when greed meets stupidity.

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#31 2019-04-23 6:12 pm

NT2C
Member
Registered: 2019-04-22
Posts: 4

Re: Introduce yourself

I'm unusual in that when joining a new forum or making use of a new device or service, I actually read things like instructions and FAQs.  I find that it usually makes the whole process easier and less painful. cool

A look at both spammers I've reported so far would show that evidence has been included both times. wink

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#32 2019-04-23 8:04 pm

Papa Parrot
Member
From: Mexico
Registered: 2011-08-19
Posts: 1,826
Website

Re: Introduce yourself

That is unusual, reading the readme first, faq's, etc,... in fact reading anything seems to be a skill that is rapidly disappearing  in these modern times.
Way back when I was in school, had many lousy teachers, but did have one that was pretty good. The one good teacher, gave us a test one day, the instructions were simple and very clear, (if the person actually reads).
Also, we were required to use ink pens, no pencils, or erasable pens allowed. And there was a tight time limit on how long we had to complete the test. We all were told not to communicate with the other students in any way, and the teacher watched us like a hawk, to make sure no one looked around, or did anything that might be a form of communicating, or copying the others.
The instructions started with:

Please read all of the test pages and questions , before answering any of them.

The first questions were very easy, but I resisted the temptation to start answering them, in spite of the time limit,the test was several pages, and it did seem like we would just barely have time to read all of them first, and then start answering them, well, on the second page, and still really silly questions , but easy to answer, I decided to look at the last page, and that is where I saw the "cruncher", near the bottom was a statement, or instruction, it said " Do not answer any of the questions, just read them, if you have answered any of them, you have failed this test, do not try erasing your answers." 
I started to look around, and the teacher , warned me, "Mr.Garry, no looking around!",.. ok well , I did get the chance to notice there was 1 or 2 others, sitting there with smug smiles, doing nothing, but most of the others were frantically writing, and marking, trying as hard as they could to get as many questions answered as they could,...  That 1 little test taught me a very valuable lesson, that has helped me all my life,.. out of a class of about 30, only 3 or 4 students actually passed the test. The others were furious, claiming it was not fair, bla, bla,....I don't think any of them grasped the point of the test, and most not only failed it, but never learned a valuable lesson,.. Follow the instructions.

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#33 2019-04-26 5:15 am

Traces of Texas
Member
Registered: 2019-04-26
Posts: 2

Re: Introduce yourself

Hola, my friends call me Jac.  I created a brand new forum called Traces of Texas and, without advertising it at all, I've already been overrun by spambots who have registered without posting anything.  The forum was created using WPforo software.  A lot of what you guys are talking about is over my head, at least for right now, but I do have an extensive technical background in networking.  I wonder if there's a tutorial somewhere that will teach me the basics of how to defend my forum against spammers and bots. Right now I'm just banning them as soon as they register but as soon as I announce on my various social media pages that I've created the forum I have a feeling its going to get crazy. I'd like to proactively implement whatever measures I can in order to head these spammers off at the pass, before they ever get close to touching the forum.  So what can I do?   Also, if I may ask a very rudimentary question: what is their endgame here?  What's the point of having creating accounts on forums and then never using them to post something?  I guess I just don't understand what they're getting out of it.  Thanks!

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#34 2019-04-26 1:32 pm

kpatz
Member
Registered: 2008-10-09
Posts: 1,437

Re: Introduce yourself

Hi Traces (Jac), welcome to SFS... first question, what forum software are you using?  If you google the software + "SFS plugin" or "anti spam plugin" you're likely to find something you can start using to protect yourself.

If your forum is PHP based ZB Block works well to keep most of the dumbest bots out at least (which is like 95% of them).  The original author seems to have gone MIA but some other folks have taken over support, if you search this forum you can find out more about it.  It keeps out a lot of other nasties besides just spam bots... it blocks many forms of hacking attempts, rogue IP ranges, SQL injections, and various nefarious behaviors.

As for why they're registering and not posting (yet)... maybe they're just scoping the site out before hitting it hard.  Or they're just stupid.  Spammers are amongst the stupidest living creatures on planet Earth, and the bots they use can be no smarter.

Last edited by kpatz (2019-04-26 1:33 pm)


Spam happens when greed meets stupidity.

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#35 2019-04-26 1:53 pm

Traces of Texas
Member
Registered: 2019-04-26
Posts: 2

Re: Introduce yourself

Hi Kpatz,

Nice to "meet" you.  I am using a free Wordpress software called WPforo.  I'm going to do a google search for the SFS plug-in or anti-spam plugin.

Thanks for your kindly response.  I am a bit overwhelmed by all of this.

Jac

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#36 2019-04-26 2:28 pm

Papa Parrot
Member
From: Mexico
Registered: 2011-08-19
Posts: 1,826
Website

Re: Introduce yourself

Hello and welcome,
It can seem overwhelming , as for this:

a tutorial somewhere that will teach me the basics of how to defend my forum against spammers and bots.

There are quite a few:
a tutorial somewhere that will teach me the basics of how to defend my forum against spammers and bots
Hint, the results can be narrowed down more if you include "Wordpress software called WPforo'

I'm going to do a google search for the SFS plug-in or anti-spam plugin.

for example include :

SFS plug-in or anti-spam plugin, for Wordpress software called WPforo

We have some listed here, but many of those are out of date:
https://www.stopforumspam.com/mods

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#37 2019-08-20 1:35 am

Dr.Flay
Member
From: Kernow, UK
Registered: 2017-10-12
Posts: 22
Website

Re: Introduce yourself

Hello fellow humans.
I am definitely not a bot. Nope, all carbon-based and made of meat.
I eat human food like humans do, not electricity no way.
OK. sometimes I may lick a 9v battery, but that's nothing to be concerned about.

I have been using this service for a few years as I am admin at a few forums, but recently... holy crap what is going on in spambot land ?
Surfs up for the robot hoards !

I used to be reporting the odd spammers that made it in and did their dastardly work, but recently I'm just clearing known spammers sat in our holding pen at one of the sites (I have asked the site owner to make use of SFS, but...).
The main forums I moderate are hardly new as they relate to the Unreal Tournament and Quake worlds and ut99.org is possibly the most used of the ageing UT scene. We don't get a huge amount of traffic these days but we a very much on the radar.

I have actually stemmed the tide of spammers at the UT99 site by changing our custom captcha questions and lowering the amount of fails to 3.
This may be a useful tip for others who have a forum based on a product of some sort, but want to avoid using things like googles recaptcha due to privacy concerns (no way I'm unleashing it on our users)
All our questions relate to basic knowledge of the game UT99 or static features of the forum portal.
A human can go and look up the required info if they don't know the answer. This meant until recently all our rare spammers were real people.
With a decent size list of questions and a small amount of allowed fails, you can make collecting and spreading the questions and answers take a while.
Our initial small set of questions and 5 allowed fails has served us well for many years, but as always it is a game of numbers and eventually someone had spread the details (or enough to beat the odds of the fails) to make signups with bots possible.

Unless we have a breach, that site should hopefully be free of spambots for another 10 years, or unless someone really puts the effort in with making failed accounts.
At which point we simply change the questions.

I often use Pulsedive to check IPs and domains as it uses Shodan and VirusTotal to add any extra info.
Recently I have been adding a link to the IP info here at SFS when I see that the IP is very active for a few days, and especially when I can see the IP is residential or only setup with RDP and VPN.

BTW. thanks for the useful links in the newbies info thread. I wish I'd looked before as "Forum Spam List Checker" is now downloaded !


"I am a genius trapped inside an idiot"

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#38 2019-08-20 2:20 am

Dr.Flay
Member
From: Kernow, UK
Registered: 2017-10-12
Posts: 22
Website

Re: Introduce yourself

Apologies for the double-post but I don't have permission for editing yet.

To whom it may concern.
I just looked up my details again.
Cheers for removing my email address from the database.
(your breakfast cereal is now safe).
MWAHAHAHAHAaaaaa.. *cough*


"I am a genius trapped inside an idiot"

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