Spam in Private message.

[John Hunter]

Got the following spam in a BT3 PM. How do we stop this BS?

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__________________

[Black wallnut]

Spam removed, new member banned! Thanks for the heads up John!

FYI for the last week our forum has been under a stronger spam and porn spam attack than it has had in a few years. For whatever reason. We are whacking threads and banning spammers several times daily. If you should get a spammed message as a PM forward it to ME! I will take care of the offender promptly. Thanks for your help in this.

[Mr__Bill]

Spam removed, new member banned! Thanks for the heads up John!

FYI for the last week our forum has been under a stronger spam and porn spam attack than it has had in a few years. For whatever reason. We are whacking threads and banning spammers several times daily. If you should get a spammed message as a PM forward it to ME! I will take care of the offender promptly. Thanks for your help in this.

Have to give a lot of credit to the moderators for being on top of this, thanks for spending the time as frustrating as it must be.

Bill
now Spam, if it's fried in bacon grease is not bad.....

[dbhost]

Thanks for catching this one Mark...

I have been hopping on SPAMMERS today big time. We have had a LOT of junk hitting us today for some reason...

[pelligrini]

I shut off new registrations on a forum I run for our dart association today. There were 61 new spammers this morning waiting on new user moderation. A deluge of spam artists... mostly from Russia.

I got the same this morning PM that John got off an old overclocking forum I used to frequent some time ago.

[John Hunter]

I know what you mean about the spammers, I run a board and have been hit hard lately too. Mostly from an area of China.

[leehljp]

Is there any way to block a specific ISP or IP address? I think some of these are repeat spammers that just change the names in registration. And I don't think anyone at those IP addresses are interested in woodworking in English anyway.

[Stytooner]

I've only glanced at the IP addresses. Some may be the same, but some are different.
I looked around, but don't see anything. I'm sure Sam or Mark could do that though.
I have banned no less than 20 and probably 30 of them in the past week myself.

[pelligrini]

Is there any way to block a specific ISP or IP address? I think some of these are repeat spammers that just change the names in registration. And I don't think anyone at those IP addresses are interested in woodworking in English anyway.

Yes, in the User Banning Options in the Admin Control panel there are fields for IP addresses as well as email addresses. I believe there are some plugins/mods that can automatically coordinate these with a spammer database. It's been a while since I've looked at any of the VB support and modification forums.

The Recapcha verification system used to be pretty good, looks like the spam artists have found a way to get around it.

I can catch most of the spammers by using www.stopforumspam.com and by a custom field (dart number) during registration. Verifying 4 or 5 a day wasn't that bad, but I have no inclination to to 60+

[Stytooner]

I just banned another and the ban apparently goes for the IP addy too. It shows effect BT accounts and then effected IP address.
I am logging them starting now to see if we have repeat offenders. These guys only get one strike though.
The good thing is members don't see these. The bad is PM's. Just let Mark know about those.

[Black wallnut]

IP banning is possible and it might come to that. I spend some time proactively banning members who fit the profile as a likely spammer. If this wave is like the last one we'll be under siege for about a month and then they will move on to other forums. One new situation I've noticed is that now they seem to be spamming in closed polls. It formerly was mostly open polls that were spam targets as well as new topics and Articles. The spam bots would not vote in a poll but would place a spam post to the discussion. As soon as I closed the poll the spam attack on that thread would cease. Henceforth I will be locking poll threads that are older. I am guessing that the spam-bots have programming that judge threads like old open discussions polls and articles as likely targets from a mistaken notion that they are not monitored.

[John Hunter]

IP banning is good only if it is an area that has no board members. The area I banned using an IP range was an area of China that specializes in Spammers. I also get a lot from a Chicago IP but have board members from the same area so for them I ban accounts and file a complaint with their IP. These things always seem to happen in spurts. We go along fine for awhile then get hit with a bunch of them. I sure wish there was a solution.

[pelligrini]

I sure wish there was a solution.

Line 'em up against the wall!

[dbhost]

I am still hopping around killing SPAM today... As far as a solution goes. Find the spammer, roll them in thumb tacks, and dip them in rubbing alcohol should do the trick...

[John Hunter]

I am still hopping around killing SPAM today... As far as a solution goes. Find the spammer, roll them in thumb tacks, and dip them in rubbing alcohol should do the trick...

I do like the way you think!