Strategies Human spammers

[Dilip]

While it is easier to block bots, human spammers are like any other user. Do you have a mod always online to handle them?

 

[Shawn Gossman]

While it is easier to block bots, human spammers are like any other user. Do you have a mod always online to handle them?

I manually approve all members.

This allows me to do some OSINT on their username, email, IP address, and any information they provided on their profile.

It's really the easiest way to deal with spammers nowadays. I also have a simple security question to weed out the automated ones.

I've been told that this doesn't work as well with large and active forums.

In all honesty, I have to disagree. I have a group on Facebook that has over 43,000 members on it. I have it set to manually approve all new members and visitors with multiple security questions setup. It's not hard to manage it.

However, with my Facebook group, I have Admin-Assist enabled which help combat spam. So, on the forum, I'll have to look for ways to combat spam as it grows because we all know spam will increase as well.

 

[Dilip]

You now have a new member to approve

 

[Tracy]

I don't know exactly what part I have configured, but I am regularly seeing users "registering" and their accounts never get created. I know that many of them are going to be bots, but they never get through. Most of what I get notices on are ones from the lengthy email block list that I've compiled over the years. I have had a few real users that were using stuff like Protonmail that tried signing up, but they got blocked. Those that were interested in joining the site used the contact us function to ask about it.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I don't know exactly what part I have configured, but I am regularly seeing users "registering" and their accounts never get created. I know that many of them are going to be bots, but they never get through. Most of what I get notices on are ones from the lengthy email block list that I've compiled over the years. I have had a few real users that were using stuff like Protonmail that tried signing up, but they got blocked. Those that were interested in joining the site used the contact us function to ask about it.

If you can control the SEO functions of that page, I'd set it to "no follow" and see if that gets reduced.

I just wonder if its search bots for the gazillion search engines out there!

 

[Ravenfreak]

I keep an eye out on any new members who join. If I don't recognize their username, I'll look up their IP address and email. There I can figure out if they're just a human spammer. I've had a couple slip through and actually post on Thee Zone, but I quickly took action and not only ban their accounts, I deleted all posts made by them too.

 

[Tracy]

I just wonder if its search bots for the gazillion search engines out there!

A lot of that is taken care of by CloudFlare. Good bots get allowed in (those that CF has seen and know are good). Others that have a history of being naught get kicked to the curb at the CF level so the site never sees them.
Most of the good bots honor robots.txt, and the registration page is off limits in it.

I keep an eye out on any new members who join. If I don't recognize their username, I'll look up their IP address and email.

Generally when I see them in the online user list as registering, I click on their IP and if if they are coming in through a VPN that shows as a spam source, the entire ASN of that IP gets put into CF WAF that requires managed challenges. That list very rarely has any successful challenges listed when I check it.

 

[Tracy]

Just was doing some checking... found another on the site that their origination IP showed as a spam source... so that ASN got added into the WAF.
This is for the past 24 hours of that WAF rule.

 

[Smokey]

I use a few countermeasures and a lot of the time if they are a 'known' spammer, even human spammer, they'll get flagged before allowing entry/registration to go through. It's pretty easy to get rid of someone's content in a few clicks which is what i tend to do if a spammer does get through.

 

[Henrywrites]

While it is easier to block bots, human spammers are like any other user. Do you have a mod always online to handle them?

The best way to go about this is to always approve new members and put their first 10 posts under moderation. This can go a long way in helping you understand whether they are on your site to spam or not.

 

[Tracy]

The best way to go about this is to always approve new members and put their first 10 posts under moderation. This can go a long way in helping you understand whether they are on your site to spam or not.

They (or a new bot) are hitting here currently.

 

[joelr]

We're cleaning them out

 

[desbest]

By human spammers, are we talking about human authored spam or human shilling? That's assuming there's no copy and pasting or mass-posting.

Shilling takes a more long-term approach and can look like genuine content like a blog article, even after first glance.