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Forums under attack

Posted: Tue 14.11.2006, 22:49
by Berendol
The forums are under attack from spammers. I think I've kept it pretty clean. If anyone really wanted to see evidence that I do something around here, there you go :-P

It looks like the spammers who were deluging the Internet with junk mail from cashette.com back in 2004 have now targeted our forums.

So, I banned all email addresses *@cashette.com from the forums. I also deleted five members from that site, and some zero-post count members who were basically ads for porn sites with obviously faked email addresses. This brings my kill count to the double digits this week.

Happy forum-ing :)

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Fri 17.11.2006, 04:55
by Berendol
Wow, another 24 tonight...

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Fri 17.11.2006, 11:06
by Warrior
Good work Berendol.
I hope it's not gonna get out of control.
Do they make some kinda automatic signup bot or are they all signing up manually?

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Fri 17.11.2006, 13:12
by Berendol
It looks automatic, because they never successfully log in after they make their accounts.

We do the whole confirmation email thing here, so when they sign up with bogus email addresses, they can't use their new accounts. That saves us from a lot of spam!  ::)

Remember to use confirmation emails if you set up your own forums someday. They are worth the annoyance they cause new members.

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Sun 19.11.2006, 15:47
by Avenger
Take a look at this site, basically what it does is generates an infinte series of links and bogus email addresses for any spambot that follows it. Might help with the current spam problems.

http://www.monkeys.com/wpoison/

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Tue 21.11.2006, 14:39
by Warrior
Massive increase in spam to my inbox the last couple of days.
like 250+. well, luckily all caught by spamfilter, but still.

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Wed 22.11.2006, 21:21
by Berendol
Since this forum is accessible to guests (aka non members), you may wish to hide your email address from the public. Check your profile, there should be a box to change that.

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Thu 23.11.2006, 11:29
by Warrior
Yes, I know, I've just wanted to keep it here in case anyone wants to contact me. And spamfilter is kinda effective. Just mentioned the increase for information really. :) But I think I'm gonna have to just change it to mangband at gmail bla bla or something.
Thanks
;)

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Fri 01.12.2006, 12:59
by Berendol
Crimson... help!!

The volume has been increasing hugely in recent days, and I came back from a 1 week vacation to see over 80 new zero-post members from the same spam addresses.

Could you analyze traffic to the website and see if maybe there is a way to stop these folks from spamming our member list?

I'd love to have a feature in YaBB that would expire a user account if it hasn't been activated 7 days after it's creation.

I think maybe it is time to consider an upgrade to the software.

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Fri 01.12.2006, 22:36
by Fink
Yeah, every time I check the forums, I see a new user listed - the avalanche has begun. Perhaps its time for some escalation of authentication?

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Thu 21.12.2006, 13:41
by grisu
please dont delete me again, I validated the acc and even posted.

Re: Forums under attack

Posted: Fri 22.12.2006, 01:43
by Berendol
Sorry about that. There isn't a way to tell whether someone completed registration other than their post count... I'll make sure all your posts are counted.

(edit) Done, and some forum maintenance completed.