SPAM

[74 Omega]

Is there a way to bypass the "wait 60 seconds " rule for reporting posts?
When I get up in the morning and check this site I find a few spam or porn posts, I go to report them and it take some waiting for my 60 seconds to be up before I can report the next one. (Just a thought)

Thanks

[Oldsguy]

I don't know, this would be something for Paul (Omicron) to address. However, it may not be something to worry about, I get on the average four reports per spam post meaning on the average four of you out there are helping us out. So, if you report one, go about your routine of reading other posts, then come across another after 60 seconds great, if it is earlier than that, no worries as someone else is bound to report it. However, if it is possible to shorten the time period without any drawbacks let's see if Paul can help us out. I'll let him know.

[Omicron]

I'll look into it.

[dan2286]

Wow, these spammers are good!

[Omicron]

Whats amazing is that this batch is registering then posting within a few minutes... normally it takes them days between registration and posting, and we can clean em up before then.

[wolfman98]

I have gotten some sex tape links sent to me via webmaster@classicoldsmobile.com The one I reported as spam and found him in the members list but with 0 posts. I just spent 10 minutes looking at some of the members in the G section and found a few that have links in their profiles to spam site or porn site etc. glassesmaster - goortcetgoard - gorgymnwremynxi - goavorbloadia - girlzgonewildn - glydaysnava ( gompamavatotgm was deleted first one I found ) One thing in common is that they never have any posts and some have been there quite a while. I am not a computer wiz but is it possible to have new members post in newbie forum before they are added to members list? The members list is huge and I bet there are tons of these spam members in there. Does someone have to go through the list and delete these one by one? I think if they have no posts after a period of time they should be deleted , spammers or not.

[Oldsguy]

I'll get on it right away, thanks for the heads up. What we are doing now is manually reviewing all members awaiting e-mail verification (the very first step). As Paul noted above, apparently some spammers have found a way to even get around that.

[wolfman98]

I do not envy you guys to try cleaning up all the spam. I will keep telling you or omicom? when I get crap.Anything I can do to help let me know.check out my post in Builds and major projects.

[Oldsguy]

I just spent the last 45 minutes or so going through the admincp. Cleaned up those you mentioned plus did some more work. It is tiring. I wish there was a way we could search out the potential spammers using the computer search function but seems there may not be. A lot of it is manual effort, just going down a list......and it is huge. Do let us know when you get stuff like that and we will get on it. Thanks.

[Omicron]

Yep I started last night also on cleaning up obvious spammers who have registered as users. As Dan says it will take time, but we'll get it done.

[Eddie Hansen]

Originally Posted by Oldsguy

I just spent the last 45 minutes or so going through the admincp. Cleaned up those you mentioned plus did some more work. It is tiring. I wish there was a way we could search out the potential spammers using the computer search function but seems there may not be. A lot of it is manual effort, just going down a list......and it is huge. Do let us know when you get stuff like that and we will get on it. Thanks.

Dan take one of the known spammers ip addresses, then do an ip search or look for members with identical ip addresses, deleting them usually does no good, but banning that ip does, the latest version of vbullentin with the security updates does work well.

I am a moderator on a different forum (non automotive) and know the heartache!!

there is also worse things then spammers....people who can take over your whole forum!! My other forum was hacked by deadmaster (do a google search) that was totally uncool....

[Oldsguy]

I think that is a tool that Paul is using to clean things up as well.

[Omicron]

Welp, just to update everyone, Dan and I have spent the last couple of weeks going back through all the registered users and getting rid of spammers that had made it through our defenses and registered. (Actually for a long time, before we started getting inundated with Spam, we didn't really HAVE and defenses, so a lot of them registered and were lying it wait.)

What we've done is to manually look at all users with 0 post counts and found a THOUSANDS of them with usernames like "BuyTramadolOnline" and "ViagraStore" and "P0rnoQueenOnline" etc. These users were ones who got past the email confirmation process by having a human create a new ID using a bulk-created gmail (or other free) account, then clicking the "Confirm registrations" link that comes in that automated email. In other words, a human being registers, then confirms it, then sellls the logon info to spambot scumbags.

And wow - we're down to about 6000 members, and when we started this we were at around 12000 so we've pruned out around 6000 registered and likely spammers. We also now have a pretty solid process to weed them out before they get to post. Between these actions we should be past most of the spammers... not to say that some might not get through, they will, but it should be considerably less.

[2blu442]

Cool! Thanks for your efforts Paul/Dan

[Lady72nRob71]

Originally Posted by Omicron

And wow - we're down to about 6000 members, and when we started this we were at around 12000 so we've pruned out around 6000 registered and likely spammers.

Holy spam crap Batman! Thats a lot of possible spammers!!
Good work!
Thank you to you and everyone else that keep this forum clean, lubed and running right! I enjoy helping where I can.

[74 Omega]

Originally Posted by Omicron

Welp, just to update everyone, Dan and I have spent the last couple of weeks going back through all the registered users and getting rid of spammers that had made it through our defenses and registered. (Actually for a long time, before we started getting inundated with Spam, we didn't really HAVE and defenses, so a lot of them registered and were lying it wait.)

What we've done is to manually look at all users with 0 post counts and found a THOUSANDS of them with usernames like "BuyTramadolOnline" and "ViagraStore" and "P0rnoQueenOnline" etc. These users were ones who got past the email confirmation process by having a human create a new ID using a bulk-created gmail (or other free) account, then clicking the "Confirm registrations" link that comes in that automated email. In other words, a human being registers, then confirms it, then sellls the logon info to spambot scumbags.

And wow - we're down to about 6000 members, and when we started this we were at around 12000 so we've pruned out around 6000 registered and likely spammers. We also now have a pretty solid process to weed them out before they get to post. Between these actions we should be past most of the spammers... not to say that some might not get through, they will, but it should be considerably less.

Thanks for all the work and effort...they should double your pay...

[Oldsguy]

About those user names Paul described, those were the easy ones. We had some that were awfully close to legit; an example of a legit one Damonebonerrides@.....com, and then a non-legit one like, Damonelneleeevvv@....com. The clues were that the legit one can be broken down into a reasonable facimile of a guy's name Damon Ebon with the word "rides" on the end of it whereas the non-legit one had multiple letters in a row (sometimes three or more) that just didn't make sense. Some people may have an eye for that but I found it difficult and got a lot of headaches from looking at them and scrutinizing them. Glad that is over with.

[wolfman98]

I wonder if there is a way that new users would have to post 5 times in the newbie forum before being added to the members list?

[Omicron]

Originally Posted by wolfman98

I wonder if there is a way that new users would have to post 5 times in the newbie forum before being added to the members list?

That's exactly what we're doing - in theory. Forum software just doesn't always work right.

[Eric Anderson]

Great effort guys I haven't seen any spam in quite awhile, thanks

[wolfman98]

X2 on your efforts as I have not gotten any since the last I reported. If you can get the software working right it will help eliminate spam.... until some little dickhead figures out another way around it. Some people got nothing better to do I guess , I do so going to work on the car now as I feel a lot better today.

[bradsgarage]

Thank you for your work on keeping the site maintained and spam free. I know how much work that is from my own sites.

[Omicron]

Thanks guys.