Page 1 of 1

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:44 am
by Zazaban
I'm not SURE this is spam, so i'm not going to lock it YET.

But I have moved it to the appropriate forum.

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:58 am
by Baha'i Warrior
These bots are getting more complex, having ICQ numbers and such.

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:26 pm
by Jonah
Thanks, guys

I discovered yesterday that the captcha upgrade (human-readable visual confirmation) I installed a couple months ago, to prevent bots from registering to the forum, had gotten reverted to the old template. I replaced the newer files, so our captcha system is back in place (you see it when you logout, then click Register, then are asked to type the string of random numbers/characters).

This captcha system worked great, for about 2 months we didn't have a single bot register. They only started registering again recently, when my upgrade got reverted. But the bots that did get in during that brief window may continue posting spam for another couple weeks, till we catch them all.

-Jonah

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:13 pm
by Baha'i Warrior
Jonah wrote:But the bots that did get in during that brief window may continue posting spam for another couple weeks, till we catch them all.


Let's get 'em! :chainsaw:

J/K

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:34 pm
by Jonah
I got 'em. :banned:

I went into the database and deleted all users who were (1) inactive, never having posted and (2) had given a URL in their sig or "website" field. They all, judging from the URLs and usernames, were spambots. Out of 3900 users, 2850 fit this category.

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:12 am
by Baha'i Warrior
There are a few more bots still posting (especially the sicko ones), but they're being taken care of.

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:33 am
by Jonah
more bots still posting

I didn't want to take a chance on deleting active real users, so I only auto-deleted the users who had never logged in or posted. Spam-bots that have logged in I wouldn't have caught then. Thanks for keeping your eye out.

And if they do start breaking through this phpBB registration system with the captcha, there are some upgrades to it which are said to be quite effective.

:turban: Yeah, I like the new smilies too. (Users - click "View more emoticons" for a small sampling of the thousands that are out there.)

-J

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:41 am
by Baha'i Warrior
Bot bashin' time!! :aufsmaul:

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:54 am
by Jonah
The bots are back. New bots, that are getting through the captcha system -- which is still working. I've been deleting spammers that registered just today.

But I see there's a new, probably final beta version of phpBB3, maybe I'll just move up to that. It says not to use in a production environment, but I can always switch back to the old if the new doesn't work. http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=507324

-J

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:03 pm
by Baha'i Warrior
I hope this can be taken care of soon. There was one post I just deleted, and it had a very explicit picture which I won't even say what it was because of mixed audience. Luckily there was only one 1 view. But I'm checking/deleting as often as I can. It's funny that these perverts don't even realize that no one on a religious forum is with all likeliness going to be a porn consumer—they are targeting the wrong audience. Granted, these bots may be indiscriminate.

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:36 pm
by Zazaban
Baha'i Warrior wrote:I hope this can be taken care of soon. There was one post I just deleted, and it had a very explicit picture which I won't even say what it was because of mixed audience. Luckily there was only one 1 view. But I'm checking/deleting as often as I can. It's funny that these perverts don't even realize that no one on a religious forum is with all likeliness going to be a porn consumer—they are targeting the wrong audience. Granted, these bots may be indiscriminate.
I don't think they even look at what the forum is about when they post. They justp ost it and leave. Also, a suprising about of people think that "Baha'i" has something to do with Baja California.