#1 2008-03-17 4:20 pm

VinceTheAlive

Member

Registered: 2008-03-17

Posts: 4

Trying to catch this ONE guy...

Hey guys, I've been managing the user list for Alive.com and I have one repeat offender that I can't ban because he/she/it isn't leaving any posts, just putting up bulk registrations following the following scheme: First name, underscore, lastname, underscore, 4-6 digit hexadecimal code.  And as always, the user name does not match up with the provided e-mail address.  Eg: username= John_Smith_13a3. e-mail= Sarah_Connor_0829@gmail.com.

I'm using phpBB (ver 2.022, waiting for the IT guy to upgrade to 2.023), and it seems that I can't figure out where he's coming from because phpBB won't allow me to see the IP address unless they put up a posting.  And sadly, I can't ban the e-mail domain name, as all of the spammer e-mail addresses are coming from gmail.com, which is legit.

So far, I've banned specific keywords and domains (just about anything with .ru, .biz, "cialis", "tramadol", "viagra", etc.), but these ones are slipping through the cracks. Anybody know which IP addresses I should ban?

Ultima

Member

Registered: 2008-03-17

Posts: 1

Re: Trying to catch this ONE guy...

Hello, VinceTheAlive.

I know what you mean, many spambots do come from Gmail.com
But you could block gmail.com and tell users to either.

A.Ask you for registration if not possible to register on another email.
B.Use another email provider or a temporary one.

susato

Member

Registered: 2007-12-01

Posts: 18

Re: Trying to catch this ONE guy...

Try the search function here, using a selection of names and email addresses associated with your spambots. 

If any of them have been reported by others, the IP addresses should show up in the search. Then you can figure out the most frequent ones and ban them.

Can you tweak phpBB to show the IP address in the registration record?

julz

Member

Registered: 2008-02-25

Posts: 13

Re: Trying to catch this ONE guy...

Can you tweak phpBB to show the IP address in the registration record?

The smartest idea. I modified my board to record the IP address with which a user registers and it's been very useful.

VinceTheAlive

Member

Registered: 2008-03-17

Posts: 4

Re: Trying to catch this ONE guy...

Thanks for the suggestions...today I only had to get rid of 4 bunk registrations.

Aphrodite

Member

From: Aust,Brisbane

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 3

Website

Re: Trying to catch this ONE guy...

Can you tweak phpBB to show the IP address in the registration record?

The smartest idea. I modified my board to record the IP address with which a user registers and it's been very useful.

Hello,

thanks Vince for this question as I have the same problem. 

Julz could you please tell me how to do that tweak?

julz

Member

Registered: 2008-02-25

Posts: 13

Re: Trying to catch this ONE guy...

Can you tweak phpBB to show the IP address in the registration record?

The smartest idea. I modified my board to record the IP address with which a user registers and it's been very useful.

Hello,

thanks Vince for this question as I have the same problem. 

Julz could you please tell me how to do that tweak?

In a nutshell, how I did it was add a field to the users database (for the IP address), and then in usercp_register.php just tweak the INSERT command (look for "Get current date" comment and it's just below). Add the new IP field to the series of fields into which data will be inserted and add '$_SERVER[REMOTE_ADDR]' between commas according to where you place the new field...so this is inserted into the IP row.