Ideas regarding recent AH Forums spam overflow

[BoredSysAdmin]

Possibly limit new accounts - less than 7 days old from opening new threads...

Stronger Captcha on registration?

 

[jinjuku]

I don't think a stronger captcha will work. People are signing up the accounts and answering the captcha.

Even if you had a cooling off period they'll just adapt and wait.

I wonder if there is any black list like there is for email?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I wonder if there is any black list like there is for email?

Probably IP based blacklist would be more effective than email one

 

[its phillip]

I dunno how these work exactly, but I've registered on forums that ask questions like "What is the color of Darth Vader's lightsaber" or "What is the fourth letter in the word five?" and you have to type in the answer to register.

 

[jinjuku]

I dunno how these work exactly, but I've registered on forums that ask questions like "What is the color of Darth Vader's lightsaber" or "What is the fourth letter in the word five?" and you have to type in the answer to register.

While that foils bots, it does nothing to stop humans.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

While that foils bots, it does nothing to stop humans.

We could ask a bit different question :
"What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? "
or
"Please describe in 10 words or less function of Fourth order Linkwitz–Riley crossover"

Ether would guarantee to deter most humans

 

[MinusTheBear]

Spamming has picked up a lot since the turn of the new year? Atleast that is what it seems.

 

[mike c]

if there are tough questions like that (which requires the extra effort of googling) i would probably not sign up.

once the spammers see that they're wasting time here (their posts deleted as quickly as they post them) they'll give up OR it looks like these spammers are getting paid by a fixed time period, they'll probably stop at the end of the month or something.

 

[Matt34]

Probably IP based blacklist would be more effective than email one

There is an IP spammer blacklist we report each spammer to upon banning but I'm not sure how effective it really is.

 

[Patrukas777]

There is an IP spammer blacklist we report each spammer to upon banning but I'm not sure how effective it really is.

there are programs that can generate new IP addresses, making it harder to track. A lot of people use them on online RPG's. Its like everything else in life, you adapt and overcome..eventually

 

[markw]

Cheezncrackers, it's gettin' to be like mexicans in Arizona!

 

[MinusTheBear]

Cheezncrackers, it's gettin' to be like mexicans in Arizona!

Yeah. The spamming is really bad today.

 

[its phillip]

Maybe somebody is targeting the forums for some reason :/

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I'm so sick of this crap, I rather have registration closed for new members for now

 

[HexOmega]

Well I've tried to do my share of reporting posts but that does nothing if there's no one to act on it.

In light of that, I'll offer my services as a volunteer quasi-mod to clean up after the spammers and ban them etc. etc.. If you want my resume or anything like that, just send me a PM.

 

[Matt34]

I'm so sick of this crap, I rather have registration closed for new members for now

I promise you no one is more tired of it than the mods.

 

[Matt34]

This is what my "New Posts" screen has typically looked like the past 2-3 weeks.

 

[highfigh]

This was posted in another forum where I'm a member-"quick fix for the spam-
Changing the human verification to question and answer will work. It is easy and should work well."

THis might not work but I'll try to save the original images to another format because it exceeded my allowable space-
http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=39275&page=3

 

[highfigh]

Maybe somebody is targeting the forums for some reason :/

Yeah- it's because they can. Those little dirtballs think it's funny.

A guy in/from Russia was nabbed in Vegas recently, by an FBI agent working here in MKE. The guy was reported to be responsible for almost 30% of the world's spam total and when they grabbed him, the volume dropped by a huge amount. Looks like he had a backup plan.

 

[zumbo]

How about, what is DBT?

Google it. Looks like a pretty good security question.

Answer: Dialectical behavior therapy.

Don't reveal in thread.