Any problems with SPAM accounts?

Sarcoth · 26th July 2010, 04:02

I was wondering if this site had any problems with the generation of SPAM accounts. I had a problem like that about 2-3 years ago and I ended up locking my forums down rather hard. If you don't have a problem, do you have some type of prevention in place? Or are you just using the vb4 general protection methods.

I'd like to know b/c I think I'm going to reopen my forums for general registration again.

Edrondol · 26th July 2010, 05:27

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=230921 is a great place to start. Make sure you also have on your Human Verification and there are also different Capcha addons you can get from vbulletin.org. But that first one for stopping forum spam...holy hell has that been great!

For example, here's the log for TODAY on my site:

Unregistered 2010-07-25 23:07:30 connietodd2@gmail.com 89.178.177.52 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 22:43:33 elioorton81@gmail.com 95.211.1.29 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 22:26:47 kontoausland@gmail.com 93.190.139.174 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 21:51:52 ronalddp@vubby.com 64.20.45.130 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 21:50:30 p.ra.hsh.az.y@googlemail.com 93.100.49.83 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 20:00:54 bloggingrolling@gmail.com 91.78.180.49 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 19:48:46 idhsu@mail.ru 41.190.16.17 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 19:39:24 bamuzafi@wp.pl 94.23.18.220 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 19:38:55 tinahmarie@wealthyaffiliateadvisor.com 217.23.11.192 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 19:35:20 zdorkras@gmail.com 212.220.70.254 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 19:34:17 jason@8000c.com 60.12.74.153 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 19:10:41 tinahmarie@wealthyaffiliateadvisor.com 217.23.11.192 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 18:35:06 Valatitte@icq.routedating.com 91.216.122.46 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 18:21:16 asdfjieieie@asdf.com 95.169.190.2 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 18:19:51 bevisbagadi@gmaaail.info 89.212.200.113 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 17:55:07 SteariDrealge@vtrue.org 80.243.153.69 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 17:29:12 info@dextenergy.com 85.229.77.60 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 17:14:18 avtovvegass@mail.ru 46.98.70.222 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
sattWrade 2010-07-25 16:56:53 wrarraspconot@krim.ws 89.248.174.76 Result on field ip - 89.248.174.76 - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 16:28:48 bamuzafi@wp.pl 94.23.18.220 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
suzansmith2 2010-07-25 16:25:14 suzzansmith121@gmail.com 122.162.22.145 Result on field username - suzansmith2 - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 16:09:34 shaun7butler@yahoo.co.uk 121.10.120.214 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 15:31:18 dixxerell@mail.ru 91.203.142.153 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 15:24:14 klsuriiqq@gmail.com 81.195.46.68 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 14:57:31 bamuzafi@wp.pl 94.23.18.220 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 14:39:21 annapoupinses@aol.com 94.142.130.191 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 14:35:10 adundaassibra@antimir.net 74.55.6.210 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 14:24:57 sdasd2321dsa@aim.com 173.242.113.178 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 14:24:41 mypaydaytoday@gawab.com 79.116.136.110 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 14:22:55 fixmenow@world-of-anime-videos.com 94.23.155.216 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 13:50:26 ramjet@the1s.com 66.109.25.13 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 13:47:30 daragesor@gmail.com 221.130.17.16 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 13:05:17 socreteethisk@mail.ru 180.149.49.114 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 12:01:26 visacg@gmail.com 213.5.70.201 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 11:11:46 papabaz@boxinf.com 213.5.64.11 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 10:47:02 bretpit7@gmail.com 85.234.36.73 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 10:35:34 bamuzafi@wp.pl 94.23.18.220 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 10:15:55 asdfgsdfghj428@gmail.com 95.134.178.31 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 10:01:54 artemvalonum@gmail.com 71.204.4.168 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 09:33:05 dfgfdg201@yandex.ru 88.230.210.218 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 09:17:39 syntacticqdmhn@gmail.com 173.242.114.2 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 09:11:00 bamuzafi@wp.pl 94.23.18.220 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 09:07:05 fkgxkmeeuhiopsx32@gmail.com 94.142.134.150 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 08:22:07 74.118.192.148 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 08:16:56 syntacticqdmhn@gmail.com 173.242.114.2 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 07:34:37 eryeryee@yandex.ru 78.160.84.156 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 07:22:44 bamuzafi@wp.pl 94.23.18.220 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 07:13:30 jzhn12763@gmail.com 218.6.9.140 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 06:53:59 visacg@gmail.com 213.5.70.201 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 06:53:09 bevisbagadi@gmaaail.info 89.212.200.113 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 06:18:21 lenkabukin@gmail.com 91.201.66.91 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 04:04:18 lowe.sowkouli.rubin127@gmail.com 95.68.64.125 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 03:13:21 hzlin05@gmail.com 59.60.30.219 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 03:11:24 dwight.odonnell@gmail.com 91.201.66.5 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 02:41:55 rachelbloomer25@aol.com 68.188.223.75 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 02:34:08 lowe.sowkouli.rubin127@gmail.com 95.68.64.125 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 02:29:50 moroz10@rambler.ru 195.78.60.1 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy
Unregistered 2010-07-25 01:56:59 faurpomsror@medmail.info 74.55.6.210 Result on field username - Unregistered - Spammer and rejected by policy

And yes, I left the spammer's IP addresses in on purpose. But you can see how the StopForumSpam works and works well. Oh, and I had to delete a bunch out because I was over the 10,000 character post limit...

Sarcoth · 26th July 2010, 05:50

Damn, that is a lot. Yea, I've been dreading reopening my forums to the public b/c of this. I was so annoyed when I had over 500 accounts created in less than a month just so they could do spam messages and profiles. After that, I locked it down where only a password could be used to register. I'm curious how this site deals and others deal with this sort of problem.

Trekkan · 26th July 2010, 06:22

I'm using that same mod to stop spam, I've had 1 get through since, that's it. I've had 5 blocked today and no one ever complain in any way about getting blocked that shouldn't.

One thing to note, I did disable the username check. There were a lot of false positives when I had that on. But the IP and email address checking are sweet.

I also use the multiple account detection addon (is for vb3.8 but works fine on vb4) to check for duplicate accounts. Very nice for gaming when you have people trying to spy, etc.

Maximilian2 · 26th July 2010, 12:43

Mhh you can add the "human verification" in addition to captcha with a personal question (not 2+2? etc.) and set the permission for deny the possibility of post links to the new users.

Dutch_Boy · 7th August 2010, 00:21

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showt...ighlight=vmail

Im waiting for that one for 4.0.x. Work really good for my forum

kolenoblata · 7th August 2010, 06:45

I disabled all capcha verifications and I don't use any mod for spam and this is how I am protected from spam.
I made special usergroup for new users and checked moderate posts for this group. So every post they make, it has to be approved by some of the staff. I also made promotions, so if someone have one post ( approved ) he will automatical be promoted to regular usergroup. I was using capcha before, but when I start using this system, number of registered users was doubled with only up to 10 spam bots per day.

RokuDaMerlin · 7th August 2010, 12:26

i have install the VSa - Advanced Registration .. the users go to register and give there email .. the email become a code .. the code Copy and paste the user in the adv. register field .. and add the chapter from a random queation (mathe or a personal text) where is 2010 the president from us or so .. when a user not can add the right answer this can not register and give in next 7 days remove .. i have behind the install this not one bot in my forum ..

greez

Neo_Angelo · 21st August 2010, 20:36

My old forum used a combination of my own methods + the mods mentioned above, the best ones i found were the duplication accounts mod as mentioned above, i think i used a different one but i can't remember, however i combined those checks with Human verification like answering a quietion like "what is the fifth word in this sentance?" i found captcha to be ok but a lot of bots now a days can get past captcha.