IP2.3.6 spambots

[rbiss]

Spambots are signing up in full force on 2.3.6. Because it's going to be a long time before most of us can use 3.0 will there be a maintenance release for 2.3.6 at some point to clean up this spam issue?

[Brett B]

Are you sure you're using 2.3.6? Have you enabled reCaptcha in your Admin CP to take the place of the standard CAPTCHA system? The spambot issues were largely corrected.

Do you need technical support?

You can obtain support via the client area, or you can try to obtain peer-to-peer support at IPS Resources.

You should contact support if you can't access the support forums to get your account in order.

[rbiss]

Yup, am using it but they are getting past it. Here's one name that registered. Did a google search to find many IP sites it has registered at.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLJ_enCA310CA310&q=mignulikz+

[loccom]

hey.. that user does PM spam.. forget normal spam.. PM spam is the big thing now.

I have been banning him/her/it off my boards

[Darkside_RG_merged]

See also this topic

And I'd strongly advise you ban any ip associated with Keyweb

[Carl M]

Just noticed this bot/person had signed up for my forum too.

Thankfully banned the name, ip address ranges supplied in the above thread too.

Think i might just have had another

muzrinkl

[loccom]

muzrinkl is another one.

To be honest it is not just bots, this is a person or group too as they had to post a few times before they could PM spam, they added words to a posts so they could get the post counts up.

i banned the IP server wide in the end.. too many times today.. nightmare.

reCaptha for PM's please!!!

[ssslippy]

Recaptcha has been broken by bots for month. Do not depend on it.

[Mark H.]

Recaptcha has been broken by bots for month. Do not depend on it.

Oh, really?

Please give us a link to a respectable source which confirms that, since your statement contradicts what IPS (and others) have said.

[sparc]

both users registered just now for me too.

IP banned. Haven't got any complaints yet, hopefully they didn't get anywhere.

[Tarun]

I too have noticed spambots getting through a bit more. Usually they'd res an old topic with a few weird posts.

For those who haven't encountered that bot yet, what's the IP address? Edit: Got it from the linked post above: 87.118.86.96

[rbiss]

I've also banned gmail from new registrations. Almost 100% of it is gmail validation.

[loccom]

gmail is used by many normal people.

Hard to tell if it is bots registering, these people have posted on my boards... but then that could still be a bot. These have posted on the boards, both custom fields were different when registering. I do reckon its software that it pumping messages using the members list and groups because it always avoids mods, and admins. Best way is to sign up a user called ####test.. that way you will probably be first in the list and get one of these messages too.

reCaptcha needs to be placed on the PM system.

[Volvospeed]

reCaptcha needs to be placed on the PM system.

Or just a cap on how many PMs each group can send per day. Cap at like 50 and atleast do damage control

[andyfield]

Or just a cap on how many PMs each group can send per day. Cap at like 50 and atleast do damage control

You cannot currently 'cap' the number of PMs each group can send on a daily basis. You can 'cap' e-mails, but not PMs.

I've got my forums fully up to date, plus re-capatcha setup. The spammers are still getting through - one got onto one of my forums this evening and started sending mass PMs.

Damn annoying - the only thing to do to stop it was to disable PM usage for standard members.

This spamming situation is getting worse on a daily basis. I have to agree with the previous poster who stated the re-capatcha has been broken. Not sure how, perhaps by individuals manually getting past them or something, but spam members are trying to join all my forums at the moment. I've got complete admin lockdown on one (i.e. manual admin approval of new members), now no PMs on two others (with full moderation already setup), restricted first user group on another (i.e. they join, make 10 posts before getting rights to get past moderation).

This situation is getting out of hand.

[sparc]

with any luck the new spam related changes for 3.0 will help. Can't wait to find out what they all are.

I wish there was a way to limit the number of PMs new members can make. Basically put them on a PM que for like a week.

[andyfield]

I wish there was a way to limit the number of PMs new members can make. Basically put them on a PM que for like a week.

There is - disable PMs for standard members. Create an additional member group that new members get promoted to after a certain number of messages. This support topic provides useful info: https://www.invisionpower.com/index.php?appcomponent=core&module=customer_area&section=kb&do=viewarticle&id=380 [Suspect this is open to customers only though]

[Volvospeed]

You [b]cannot[/b] currently 'cap' the number of PMs each group can send on a daily basis. You can 'cap' e-mails, but not PMs.

I've got my forums fully up to date, plus re-capatcha setup. The spammers are still getting through - one got onto one of my forums this evening and started sending mass PMs.

Damn annoying - the only thing to do to stop it was to disable PM usage for standard members.

This spamming situation is getting worse on a daily basis. I have to agree with the previous poster who stated the re-capatcha has been broken. Not sure how, perhaps by individuals manually getting past them or something, but spam members are trying to join all my forums at the moment. I've got complete admin lockdown on one (i.e. manual admin approval of new members), now no PMs on two others (with full moderation already setup), restricted first user group on another (i.e. they join, make 10 posts before getting rights to get past moderation).

This situation is getting out of hand.

It was a hypothetical just like the post I quoted reCaptcha needs to be placed on the PM system.

GOSH

[Rheddy]

rbiss, obviously you don't have recaptcha configured. If you have updated the most current security fixes then you wouldn't have this problem.

Ever since I updated to 2.3.6 with the security fixes I haven't had a single spambot sign up for an account. Before I updated, I was getting hundreds of spambot signups and that number dropped to "0." It's obvious that it's not configured for your forum.

If you want a complete and very searchable database to stop forum spam then head over to the following website:

http://www.stopforumspam.com

you can search via email address, IP Address or username.

[Rod.]

I've been dealing with an increase in spammers the past few months. Last night a spam bot PM'd all 9,000 of my members with a link to a virus. This is a bot, not a person. I hope Invision puts an update out soon. The spam bots are out of control. Captcha should definitely be part of the PM system.

[Strike X]

I had a same problem..

Spam bot PM all of my members recently and I got told off from Web Hosting that mail server is flooding...

This needed to be fixed ASAP and better SPAM control for PM.

[rbiss]

I have the updates. I was the same until about a week ago. This isn't just happening to me.

rbiss, obviously you don't have recaptcha configured. If you have updated the most current security fixes then you wouldn't have this problem.

Ever since I updated to 2.3.6 with the security fixes I haven't had a single spambot sign up for an account. Before I updated, I was getting hundreds of spambot signups and that number dropped to "0." It's obvious that it's not configured for your forum.

If you want a complete and very searchable database to stop forum spam then head over to the following website:

http://www.stopforumspam.com

you can search via email address, IP Address or username.

[dutton2]

We are gtting this as well. All members received a PM today and even though this sender is new and a member of our "Newbie" group where PM's can not be sent until they have 12 messages, was still able to send PM's.

[sparc]

Captcha should definitely be part of the PM system.

how bout a feature to enable recaptcha for the instant messenger for some set period of time after a group registers?

that might work better than going through the hassle of doing multiple groups and promoting users.

[dutton2]

This is a bot that is doing this. There is no way this one person is going around to all of these forum sites and sitting there PM'ing a bunch of people all at once.