Help Spammers Are Killing My Forum!!!

[Oba]

My forum is just a month old and our new members numbers never stop increasing, but my biggest worry are spammers which make up to 10%.

These guys are just too clever for me, i keep banning them but they keep coming back with a different IPs and host names how?

If may ask what are the spammers using to get a new IP and host name because i need to figth them to the end, they are ruinning by forum image by posting pornos and viagra stuffs.

From my investigation there email address finish with .cn and .ru which mean China and Russia, and there host names come from different countries which give me the impression that they connect to innocent people computer and send there spamming post from there.

My forum is a SMF.

Webmasters in here should help me out, Thanks.

Regards.

[jbennet]

they are using a thing called a proxy

[Oba]

they are using a thing called a proxy

Some explanation please?

[jbennet]

they pass through another system, which relays data between them and you in order to post , therefore the IP shown is the one of the other system (the proxy) not them

[Oba]

I find it difficult to understand you.

Ok, how do i figth them?

[jbennet]

moderation is the only way

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server

[Hafsoh]

Thanks for the link jbennet, i hope it will be useful

[ithelp]

Disable posting live links, disable signature.

[rahulroy]

Dear,

Spamer are not your individual problem. It is global.

1) You can save your forum by following ways.
Use keyword sensor = In your blog there is keyword sensor if any one use bad word sesor will replace / show as good word. make a list of the all spammeres frequently using words so all words will be repaced. even in there link/url bad word will be replaced.

2) Your visitor = Check Your forum contain and your traffic comes from . If traffic comes search engine from porn words. or you advertising your site from adult sites .

3) Daily check of forum/ site and delete which is not useful.

4) Disable live link / file upload

5) Back up site daily or frequently.

Try it you will guided your own too,

CBclickbank.com

[Oba]

Disable posting live links, disable signature.

You can't disable signature in your forum, how do you encourage new members to register in your forum if you disable signature? all the top webmasters forums do allow signatures, it's another way of increasing your members.

[cscgal]

I'm not sure if SMF supports this, but if you want them to stop keeping them from coming back, make it harder for them to re-register.

Make sure that no one can post unless they supply a unique, valid email address. Make them click on a link in their email before their accounts are activated, in order to make sure the email address is valid.

Also, use CAPTCHA images during the registration form. If they're using bots, this will prevent the bots from reregistering.

[Oba]

I think i have found a solution, in a bid to increase the numbers of new members in my forum, i disable the visual verification image because new members are too lazy to type in the letters, this open the door for spammers who use an automated bot to register.

Since i re- activate the visual verification image, spammers have disappear.

[cscgal]

Yup ... the visual verification image, or CAPTCHA :)

[Oba]

thanks for your time sister.

[crtbs]

Spammers are a challenge for everybody.

There are very productive ways to identify bots and reject them. The problem is with humans. If you ban their IP they can connect through proxy and get back to you. If you save a cookie on their computer, they can erase it and are back to you.

One solution that we are working on right now is to identify the computer name or network card number from the computer that connects to your website, and use that to ban the access.

Hopefully that will solve 99% of the problem.

Chris.

[Oba]

Spammers are a challenge for everybody.

There are very productive ways to identify bots and reject them. The problem is with humans. If you ban their IP they can connect through proxy and get back to you. If you save a cookie on their computer, they can erase it and are back to you.

One solution that we are working on right now is to identify the computer name or network card number from the computer that connects to your website, and use that to ban the access.

Hopefully that will solve 99% of the problem.

Chris.

Wao that will be great, when is't coming out?

[crtbs]

Well, we are working on it. There are still some tests we have to run.

Another way to flag potential spammers is to check their time on the computer vs. the time from the location of the IP address. If they don't match, it is a question mark.

Chris.

[Oba]

I'm waiting for the release.

[techno t]

CAPTCHA codes work very well for me, also the more difficult they are the less you get through the doors so to speak.
Unfortunately the more difficult ones I struggle to read, lol so it's a balance really

*

[cscgal]

Well, we are working on it. There are still some tests we have to run.

Another way to flag potential spammers is to check their time on the computer vs. the time from the location of the IP address. If they don't match, it is a question mark.

Chris.

While I can see the objective is to catch people who use proxies, I don't think this is an ideal solution. What about professional forums that target business people who frequently take business trips? It's very likely they're not going to be adjusting the clocks of their laptops every other week.