Boring spam

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Boring spam
started by: WDef

Posted by WDef on Feb. 27 2007,15:21

Lately this board seems to be getting hit with boring pr0n and online pharmacy spam of the usual kind. I'm wondering if this is an automated attack of some kind or do they actually have people sitting around joining forums and posting this dross.

If automated, I imagine there are blocking mechanisms?

Posted by roberts on Feb. 27 2007,16:04

Everything is getting worse, email and fourm.
Not only new topics, but now too, replies.

Other ikonboard are having this problem.
Recommended solution is to queue new users for review.

That is a John decision not mine.

I believe it is script kiddie's bots on compromised machines and the approach I would take is to also write a bot (cron job) to combat. I have suggested this to John. I don't have access to attempt such.

I am very disgusted that this is happening. It is crude and rude. They have their place if people want it. They don't need to graffiti all over the net.

Posted by Winter Knight on June 22 2007,15:24

The wiki has been suffering too, for the past few weeks. Actually, it was being spammed every couple of weeks from Romania, since it was re-opened. For the past few weeks, someone from China has been spamming several times per week.

For the wiki, at least, I don't think it is people consciously deciding to spam it. I think it is a bot, coupled with Chinese/Romanian children filling in the CAPTCHAs for 50 cents / hr.

Posted by fodder on June 28 2007,20:28

Hey guys,

I had the same problem with a gaming forum using PHPBB. We used to get 2-3 spam threads a day - which was annoying to try and keep up with, not to mention deleting all the bot accounts.

I completely solved the problem by just adding something unique to our registration page. It has now been almost 5 months without a single spam thread or post.

I was kind of surprised that it completely eliminated it and was fully expecting to have to periodically change it as the spammers figured it out. But I guess everything has become so automated that they only take the time to spam standard board setups.

I'm not going to explain here what I did (no reason to tip anyone off - even though it's extremely simple) but if you would like to try it out, PM or email me and I'll get you the info.