Private message spam

Post by **xavier** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 6:45 pm

Yeah, we have to go through and delete these accounts' posts manually when they pop up. Unfortunately, there is no way to block them that I am aware of; just have to clean up after them when they surface.

Ain't the Internet great?

Vectrex · Post by **Vectrex** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 7:39 am

is there any 'report' button functionality that can be enabled? It'd be easy for users to flag/ban users after 10 or so reports. Or manually inform a moderator.

Firecracker · Post by **Firecracker** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 3:07 pm

Vectrex wrote:is there any 'report' button functionality that can be enabled? It'd be easy for users to flag/ban users after 10 or so reports. Or manually inform a moderator.

What happens when spam bots start spaming the report button ? Woops, there goes the moderators

The best anti spam solution I saw was dead simple. On the sign up page you answer a dead simple question like what is 1 plus 5

DanielSefton · Post by **DanielSefton** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 7:10 pm

Well, what I meant was to add 'wow gold' as a censor. If you add a tonne of common spam words and phrases to the censor, it stops the majority of spammers in their tracks. So, every time you see a spammer, take what they said and add the spammy terminology to the censor list. (Though I guess only admins have access to the ACP?) You could also block a frequent spammers' IP address. It's not fool-proof, but it's an extra hurdle for them.

Most of this is fixed with phpBB3. The permission system is great - the admins could give mods access to only the censor page of the ACP. Also, like firecracker said, you can add custom fields to the registration page. So you could indeed have a random question, which completely stumps bots who only know how to fill out the default registration page. Also, it has a built-in captcha system without the need for a mod - you can specify the amount of noise, and complexity.

But it's mostly because phpBB2 is targeted heavily by spammers. I know the upgrade has been brought up before, and it's difficult considering how busy sinbad is. But it would make the world of difference with regards to spam.

Post by **Kojack** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 7:58 pm

Censoring "wow gold" would only replace it with something else. The spam will still be there. Apart from humor value (depending on what you replace the words with), it doesn't achieve much. It doesn't stop posts with those words from being made.

So far there isn't much spam, and the admins take care of it pretty quickly when we see it. All of it should be gone (and the poster's account deleted) within a day.

At least they aren't posting inline porn pics like on some heavily spammed forums.

Post by **xavier** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:16 pm

Firecracker wrote: The best anti spam solution I saw was dead simple. On the sign up page you answer a dead simple question like what is 1 plus 5

We have those (captchas). That doesn't stop a human being from spending (wasting) their time and ours signing up for the forums, activating the account, and then spamming N threads with unrelated "WoW Gold" posts.

They are usually easy to spot, and it's just tedious to have to delete each one at a time. I'd be much happier as a mod if we could get a list of an account's posts, select the ones we want gone, and do it in a single stroke. In the meantime, we do it the hard way.

reptor · Post by **reptor** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:43 pm

A spam thread:

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... highlight=

jacksmith
Newcomer

Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1

reptor · Post by **reptor** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:45 pm

xavier wrote:I'd be much happier as a mod if we could get a list of an account's posts, select the ones we want gone, and do it in a single stroke.

That is an excellent idea.

*writes a note into my django project*

Post by **Kojack** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:11 pm

Got him.

reptor · Post by **reptor** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:47 pm

Spam alert!

uvwx168
Newcomer
Joined: 29 Jul 2008
Posts: 3

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... highlight=

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... highlight=

Hmm now the post count is down to 2.

DanielSefton · Post by **DanielSefton** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:55 pm

Censoring "wow gold" would only replace it with something else. The spam will still be there.

May be - but once they know that what they are trying to advertise is blocked, they'll stop. I do it all the time, and it works.

At least they aren't posting inline porn pics like on some heavily spammed forums.

They will soon. Once the spammers know about a website with phpBB2, you wouldn't believe how fast word gets around.

stevie teever

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43790

It can only get worse.

xadhoom · Post by **xadhoom** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:56 pm

Another one!

stevie teever
Newcomer

Joined: 19 Aug 2008
Posts: 1

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43790

Post by **Kojack** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:14 pm

Once the spammers know about a website with phpBB2, you wouldn't believe how fast word gets around.

Well, it's been 6 years so far...
So word doesn't get around too fast.

Hmm, although the last week seems to have been more active than normal.

Post by **sinbad** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:02 pm

These things tend to come in bursts. My blog was inundated a couple of weeks ago, now it's fairly quiet. Depends on who is paying whom to spam what at any particular time I think. We can only mitigate, we can never eradicate.

@Mods: thanks for squashing them

Page · Post by **Page** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:16 pm

This one's just all over the place. o.0

uiuyoree5

Post by **xavier** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:36 pm

Page · Post by **Page** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:35 pm

http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/search.php ... =jessonlee

Post by **xavier** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:55 am

Well spotted -- they are getting craftier it seems; instead of blasting multiple forums and threads with the same nonsense in a short amount of time, perhaps they now are going for the targeted one or two here and there -- harder to see.

GMail and Hotmail are great and all, but they just make this bullshit that much harder to stop.

If we had enough manpower, I'd almost say that all new accounts and posts from new accounts must go through a moderator first before they can be allowed in the public eye; let a spam account flood the forums with crap, no one will see it until a mod OKs the account. And after N hours, those posts automatically get purged.

Is this part of phpBB3 anyone know?

johnhpus · Post by **johnhpus** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 7:38 am

How about a "report spam" button?

Or, convoluted and unlikely, but it seems like the irc room could help. Someone who notices a spam message could paste a link to the room, then if there are x number of registered users who confirm that it's spam, automatically delete or suspend the account.

Either approach could reduce abuse by making is so that accounts with less than a certain age can't vote, and accounts over a certain age can't be automatically suspended.

Edit:

Doh, the idea of a button was already debated above. At any rate the limitations on who can use the button and who it can apply to might fix the problem of bots reporting all the posts.

Klaim · Post by **Klaim** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:38 am

xavier> Just looking at a PHPBB3 example ( Navi board ) you can see (if you're connected) that each message has de /!\ button to report it. I'm not sure what it does in fact, but i guess it will be added in a administration page and then the mods will be able to see in one page all spam posts and user spammings.
That's not exactly what you ask for but...

Anyway spam bots seems to have an harder time entering phpBB3. I don't know exactly how so it have to be verified.

I can provide an empty test forum if you want to test?

Post by **betajaen** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:43 am

Since these spam messages are probably automated in some sort of way.

Wouldn't be quite simple and effective to just rename the PHP scripts to different names - i.e. posting.php -> glass.php, then do a search and replace on each PHP file so it "knows".

I do remember doing a "mod" to phpBB for these forums, so every hyperlink posted by a user that has less than 3 posts would be filtered out. At the time it seemed unfair for the many legitimate users - but if the spamming gets any worse - perhaps it may worth a trial run?

DarkCoder2 · Post by **DarkCoder2** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 1:04 pm

Sadly I fear that the bots would use and fill in and submit the pm forum like any other user thus making renaming the file pointless ;(

These people can make a lot of money by using forums to generate millions of unique traffic hits each month, which means they certainly must have both the money and strong determination to find anyway they can not to go out of business as it were.

I have seen captcha come into action, only to be defeated or cheap labour used to bypass it, then I have seen custom image captcha be defeated, then I have seen many forums try renaming there files, hiding the forum versions and even swapping the names of fields in registration fields to fool bots.

And I have heard about large forums with thousands of users online at a time having bots create accounts that actually talk to each other with some kind of AI script to boost there post counts and then spam PM messages to bypass any minimal time or post count requirements so it seems there are either superbots out there which remind me of terminators skynet raking in millions for evil geniuses or people using a lot of cheap labour in some poverty stricken country.

Either way I think a minimal post count to send PM's would be the best option, although unlikely to prevent any bot for long, would be interesting to see if we see accounts talking to each other or replying before spamming.

DanielSefton · Post by **DanielSefton** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:59 pm

ok0510

Klaim wrote:Just looking at a PHPBB3 example ( Navi board ) you can see (if you're connected) that each message has de /!\ button to report it.

When a user submits a report for a post, it marks the topic with a large warning symbol (!), and at the top of the offending post is a 'view report' button which takes you to a report management page where you can view the reason and deal with the post/user accordingly.

It also has a warning system, so you can issue warnings to users if they misbehave, but maybe not enough to be banned, and make notes to later refer to.

The moderation system in phpBB3 is in a different league to phpBB2. E.g. If ever anyone reports a multitude of spammers, you can pop the mod panel open, insert an infinite list of users into a multiline field, and hit BAN.

You're all too complacent.

I'm concerned because phpBB ceased offering support and any new updates for for v2 long ago; which is why spammers are targeting it more than ever before.

But if you think you can deal with it, then fair enough.

If you need a test board, then there's my ogre.zezima.com. Send me a PM and I can hook you up with an admin account.

Post by **xavier** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:47 pm

It's a bit of a sweeping generalization to say we're all to complacent, I think. There is one person only, with the ability to migrate these forums to something other, and he is far too busy right now with putting food on the table to worry about a few spammers. I agree with his priorities, and when and if the decision is made to move to another forum system, I'll agree with that as well.

DanielSefton · Post by **DanielSefton** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:56 pm

Of course, of course. I know. I guess I'm more pessimistic than anyone is complacent.

Anyway, see how things go.