Bots and Automated Spam

[Reverie]

Have you had an influx of bots registering on your forum? Do you have features that check IP addresses/emails, or does your software not have these features?

I've heard recently and began finally to notice that these bots register with an avatar even of a letter... I'm unsure why they would do this. On Xenforo for example if you don't have an already pre-set avatar that's what it will do - is make your avatar the first letter of your username. Kinda convenient... but then these spam bots are somehow registering with random avatars even though there is already a preset avatar for if you don't use your own.

Sometimes it's difficult to know if someone is going to be a bot/spam so you may just allow them to register and monitor their posts then unfortunately have to ban them.

I'm just grateful that the spam doesn't compare to how bad it was on like Zetaboards, that was exhausting having to clean that up all the time!

 

[Tracy]

I've heard recently and began finally to notice that these bots register with an avatar even of a letter... I'm unsure why they would do this. On Xenforo for example if you don't have an already pre-set avatar that's what it will do - is make your avatar the first letter of your username. Kinda convenient... but then these spam bots are somehow registering with random avatars even though there is already a preset avatar for if you don't use your own.

I don't know if these are all "spam bots"... but odds are the ARE spammers. There is a cottage industry in certain areas (India being one) in which spammers hire humans to register at sites and then they turn over the credentials to a central area for use later. I'm pretty sure I've been hit by some of these (and posted about them)

New users using avatar of initial

Has anyone else noticed an increase in what appears to be valid users that are using "custom" avatars that are actually the initial of their username? I use a customized avatar for new users that don't set one... but I have noticed an increase lately of users not getting caught by spam processes...

admin-junkies.com

as I have some questions present during login that deal with what type of telescope owned, and there are legitimate responses in there (so requires an AI or human intervention)... but the signed up member does not post and has a logo matching the first letter of their user name.
Since I limit what users with less than a certain amount of posts can do (no signatures, no profile posts and a few other things), I'm not that worried about them and should be able to catch fairly quickly before they start spamming.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I just got my first spam bot in a very long time on my promotional forum. I had to ban spammer, but I didn't ban them fast enough so they ended up making 26 posts on the forum. :\

 

[Cory]

but I didn't ban them fast enough so they ended up making 26 posts on the forum.

If they posted that many times then it was probably a real person. Spambots are rare these days seeing as most forum software have extra security enhancements to protect forums from spambots.

 

[Bluezone777]

I remember the good old days of IF and ZB where bots rained spam on your board like living over a flock of birds who spend their entire lives hovering over your board while suffering from explosive diarrhea. I recall dealing with it so much that I once wore an avatar on one board with a guy saying BOOM... headshot! with the member title of spam bot killer. I found the image by the way.

 

[Cory]

I remember the good old days of IF and ZB where bots rained spam on your board like living over a flock of birds who spend their entire lives hovering over your board while suffering from explosive diarrhea.

We combined all spam bot posts into one thread and if I remember correctly it had over a thousand posts in it.

 

[joelr]

We combined all spam bot posts into one thread and if I remember correctly it had over a thousand posts in it.

That's an interesting twist of a Best Of ... Board LOL.

 

[Empire]

spam bots are always around and joining but they end up getting blocked and banned right away via the IPB defence system via the software so I no need to worry however there are so many it's hard to tell if it's real bots or members that really join but get blocked by mistake.

But as long as the forums has no bad spam on topics then it's good LOL

 

[Tracy]

spam bots are always around and joining but they end up getting blocked and banned right away via the IPB defence system via the software so I no need to worry however there are so many it's hard to tell if it's real bots or members that really join but get blocked by mistake.

The problem is... a LOT of the current spam is not automated.. it's actually live users getting payed a pittance to log into sites and create accounts that can later be used to come back in and create spam. The "almighty" IPS spam defenses don't work any better agains them that what something like XenForo uses... until the spam is created and reported... those accounts will lay dormant awaiting activation.

 

[Empire]

The problem is... a LOT of the current spam is not automated.. it's actually live users getting payed a pittance to log into sites and create accounts that can later be used to come back in and create spam. The "almighty" IPS spam defenses don't work any better agains them that what something like XenForo uses... until the spam is created and reported... those accounts will lay dormant awaiting activation.

Well, since I'm a small gaming site not going to get many new accounts logged into the site and app, I had two in the passed that were reported.

 

[Tracy]

Well, since I'm a small gaming site not going to get many new accounts logged into the site and app, I had two in the passed that were reported.

Once those human "members" accounts get reported... they then get treated like the spam that it is. The problem is, they have to get reported first. There is an XF add-on that helps with that, using some heuristic processes that rank an account on the possibility of being spam based upon numerous factors. It apparently works well but I don't use it so can't speak to it.
I've got a feeling that the IPS "spam database" also uses some of the same resources that XF's does, but extends that with what their license holders report as spammers. Would be curios to see if they also forward those reports onward to somewhere like StopForumSpam, of if they simply keep that data siloed in their own "crypt".
I know XF can be set to forward reported spammers to a centralized repository that others have free access to.

 

[Empire]

've got a feeling that the IPS "spam database" also uses some of the same resources that XF's does, but extends that with what their license holders report as spammers. Would be curios to see if they also forward those reports onward to somewhere like StopForumSpam, of if they simply keep that data siloed in their own "crypt".
I know XF can be set to forward reported spammers to a centralized repository that others have free access to.

Something that you ahve to ask IPB about even if it's there own system..

Even then at times, I end up looking at the email and IP address and double check it's a spam bot and go on sites that checks the history of that email and detects it is indeed

 

[Joeychgo]

See: https://admin-junkies.com/articles/dealing-with-scammers.69/

 

[Arantor]

I will say that I was at the point where I could have unmoderated guest posting and never saw spammers, but I had tricks that no-one else had, meaning that it wasn't worth the spammers' time posting, if they even found me in the first place.

But such measures become less effective the more they are used because after a while it becomes worth their time figuring out how to automate beating it.