Spammers! HELP!!

I notice that I am getting 1 to 3 spammer registrations almost daily on my forums by "new members" who want to use "Simplified Chinese" or some other outlandish foreign language. They sometimes have strange e-mail addresses and sometimes also have obviously spammer website addresses (which don't even work). At this time, all I know to do is to permanently delete them. But then, of course, I get 2 more. :roll: Also, I have been told by another forums site Administrator who owns his own forums, "trust me - it's not a matter of if you will be cracked, but when!" What can I do to also prevent any or ALL of this from happening?? Can you please help me with these problems?

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Originally Posted by ladyinthemists

I notice that I am getting 1 to 3 spammer registrations almost daily on my forums by "new members" who want to use "Simplified Chinese" or some other outlandish foreign language. They sometimes have strange e-mail addresses and sometimes also have obviously spammer website addresses (which don't even work). At this time, all I know to do is to permanently delete them. But then, of course, I get 2 more. :roll: Also, I have been told by another forums site Administrator who owns his own forums, "trust me - it's not a matter of if you will be cracked, but when!" What can I do to also prevent any or ALL of this from happening?? Can you please help me with these problems?

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Assign Forum Moderator(s) in your board... :D

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Originally Posted by kenneth03

Assign Forum Moderator(s) in your board... :D

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I do have Forum Moderators in my site. The spammers are registering for the board itself. I have it set up so that I have to approve any new members in order to allow me to check them out first and, therefore, cut them off at the pass, so to speak, if necessary. I also have it set up so that they have to "enter a code defined by an image when registering" but even that doesn't seem to hold them back. Is there simply no way to stop this?

And...is there ANYTHING available through bizhat to prevent being "cracked" as my Administrator friend has warned me will happen? He assures me that this is enevitable and only a matter of time before it does happen. Have any of the other bizhat forums site "owners" ever had this happen to them? If so, is there a solution? Or, better yet, a preventative measure (hopefuly a surefire one!)???

you could try banning there IP address's or ban them by server i.e. *usa1-dot-com (havn't done 5 posts yet to enter the domain properly) is one i have had to ban for spamming.

How can I make sure that I don't ban a good IP like AOL, for instance? I just want to try to make sure that these idiots cannot continue to register on my site :x

an IP address is assigned to each PC connected to the net so if you ban by IP you are only banning that 1 person, only problem there is the person can turn off there modem/router then reconect and get assigned another IP address. the ones i had spamming my forum i banned there server which will stop anybody using that server from connecting, so yes there is the risk of banning people you don't want to but so far it seems to have worked for me.
I'm no expert on this and am trying hard myself to get some questions anwserd from this forum to no avial.
hopefully one of the mods on here can help but i think due to the amount of members and questions that the mods have to answer you just have to sit and wait for a positive answer.

hi your very luck just 4 spam every day me i cant even count. thats why i disabled my account for now. i installed different kinds of mod before but it works only for 3 days, maybe we can install the mod that this forum used. they said it prevents the spammers.

Okay...I've got another new spammer today ("acnepro" :roll: ) so I thought I'd try to ban his/her IP. Well, the registration form doesn't SHOW the IP #. The only thing I actually can ban is the spammers e-mail address (*@hotpop.com). Where would a registrant's IP be shown in the registration form??? I can't find it anywhere...

I have a lot of people register that are spamming. I changed it to where Admin has to activate new members. 8)

I delete the spammers and never activate them.

That's exactly what I've been doing. Only I, as Admin, can activate new members to my site. I have my site set so that I get an e-mail every time someone registers. I then go in and look at their application. If there is anything the least bit suspicious, I permanently delete them. But, it would really be helpful if there was some way to obtain the IP's of these spammers so that I could put the offending IP's on my ban list. That might eliminate some of them much sooner.

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Originally Posted by ladyinthemists

That's exactly what I've been doing. Only I, as Admin, can activate new members to my site. I have my site set so that I get an e-mail every time someone registers. I then go in and look at their application. If there is anything the least bit suspicious, I permanently delete them. But, it would really be helpful if there was some way to obtain the IP's of these spammers so that I could put the offending IP's on my ban list. That might eliminate some of them much sooner.

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The ONLY way I know to get their IP is to be there while they are registering. The ones registering now are fewer and fewer. Good luck!

Okay...on July 13 between the hours of 1:09am and 11:39pm I had 10 spammers register for my forum site which I deleted as soon as I was made aware of them. Already today, July 14, between the hours of 12:32am and 10:33am I have had 5 spammers and the day is not nearly over yet. Is there nothing I can do to stop being innunandated by these pests? Even if I AM online and in the forum at the time of these registrations, by the time I am notified that one has taken place, the culprit is long gone. There is no way I know of to know when someone is actually in the process of registration. And when I go in to check out these new registrations, their registration page does not show me their IP address. I have "guests" showing up all the time and have made a list of their IP #'s but that really doesn't tell me much. A friend, who has his own forum site, tells me that some of these "guest" IP #'s are "spambots" and that they are okay. What is a "spambot" and why do they show up? This is really beginning to be quite frustrating! HELP, Moderators and/or Admin!!

PS:
Looks like you are also getting a few spammers of your own in here who are actually submitting posts.

In my opinion, prevent guests to post in your forums. Let them read the posts and if want to post, permit them to register using a captcha.

Spambots are softwares which visit sites to collect info and posts freely as programmed. If you are using a captcha, it will prevent the registering of the froum by spambots (not by 100 %).

Make restrictions on newbies for posting in the forum - make it automatically using programs. Watch the posts by newbies, moderate the forum and so on.

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Originally Posted by Perfection

In my opinion, prevent guests to post in your forums. Let them read the posts and if want to post, permit them to register using a captcha.

Spambots are softwares which visit sites to collect info and posts freely as programmed. If you are using a captcha, it will prevent the registering of the froum by spambots (not by 100 %).

Make restrictions on newbies for posting in the forum - make it automatically using programs. Watch the posts by newbies, moderate the forum and so on.

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Guests are not allowed to post in my forums site but there is nothing I can do to keep them from reading and attempting to register. Not all guests are spammers but there are certainly waaaay too many spammers who are attempting entry. And, unless there is something really easy, simple and readily available via bizhat, I do not know how to use a "captcha" (what is that anyhow?). I try to keep an eye on newbies and have several Moderators set in place to assist me with this. I still wish I knew how to find out what the IP #'s of these pests are and how to stop them from being able to continually bombard me with their attempts to try to register on my site. Some of them have some very filthy websites in their registration profiles and are deleted just as soon as I am made aware of them.

Captcha is used to prevent spam posts / registration in sites by spam bots
You can encounter a captcha while clicking on the forum Register button. Ready to use Captcha generators are there.

http://gallery.bizhat.com/data/635/captcha.jpg

You can view the IP address of the poster by clicking on the IP link in Bizhat forum. You will get the poster's IP address and you can ban him by blocking the IP. But if the spammer is using a dial up connection, every time, after a disconnection he will get a new IP address. So it will be difficult to get the exact IP of the spammer.

In the forum Admin section under "General Configuration: there is the following option:

Enable Visual Confirmation
Requires users enter a code defined by an image when registering.

Is this the same thing as "Captcha"? If so, I have had this enabled for a long time already and I STILL get an average of 3-10 spammers daily!

And, where can I find the IP link in Bizhat forum that you mentioned which will allow me to view the IP address of a not-yet-approved Registrant who has never posted? I know that I can view the IP #s of any approved Registrants/Members once they have actually posted or happen to be online using their screen name that they registered with but this does not help me with non-approved registrants who have never been allowed to post :?

The following is an actual example of what I am able to see in my forum (received just this morning) when I go in to either admit or delete a new registrant:

User Administration
Here you can change your users' information and certain options. To modify the users' permissions, please use the user and group permissions system.
Registration Information
Items marked with a * are required unless stated otherwise.
Username: * toreesi
E-mail address: * [email protected]
New password: *
You only need to supply a password if you want to change it blank
Confirm password: *
You only need to confirm your password if you changed it above blank

Profile Information
This information will be publicly viewable
ICQ Number 206901773
AIM Address left blank
MSN Messenger left blank
Yahoo Messenger left blank
Website http://www.beepworld.it/memberdateie...-tramadol.html
Location US
Occupation pharm
Interests pharm
Signature
This is a block of text that can be added to posts you make. There is a 255 character limit left blank

HTML is ON
BBCode is ON
Smilies are ON

Preferences
Always show my e-mail address Yes *No
Hide your online status Yes *No
Always notify me of replies Yes *No
Notify on new Private Message Yes *No
Pop up window on new Private Message *Yes No
Always attach my signature *Yes No
Always allow BBCode *Yes No
Always allow HTML *Yes No
Always enable Smilies *Yes No
Board Language Chinese [ Simplified ]
Board Style subSilver
Timezone GMT - 12 Hours
Date Format
The syntax used is identical to the PHP date() function. DMd,Yg:ia

Avatar control panel
Here you can see and delete the user's current avatar.
Current Image

Delete Image

Link to off-site Avatar left blank
Select Avatar from gallery Show gallery

Special admin-only fields
These fields are not able to be modified by the users. Here you can set their status and other options that are not given to users.
User is active Yes *No
Can send Private Messages *Yes No
Can display avatar *Yes No
Rank Title No special rank assignedAdminModerator
Delete this user? blank square (so far) Click here to delete this user; this cannot be undone.

So, where in all of this can I gain access to this abuser's IP #????

You can only see IP of the abuser if they made a post in your forum, that is how phpBB works.

I suggest you delete the user, also ban his email address

E-mail address: * [email protected]

To ban this email address, add

*@hotmail.net

hotmail.net is real email or fake ?

How use got activated with a fake email ?

You need to set user activation to User or Admin (so only email verified users can login to your forum and post.)

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Originally Posted by Nokia

You can only see IP of the abuser if they made a post in your forum, that is how phpBB works.

I suggest you delete the user, also ban his email address

E-mail address: * [email protected]

To ban this email address, add

*@hotmail.net

hotmail.net is real email or fake ?

How use got activated with a fake email ?

You need to set user activation to User or Admin (so only email verified users can login to your forum and post.)

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Thanks, Nokia! I had already banned this user and have now banned "hotmail.net" as it is a fake e-mail address. The actual hotmail e-mail address is "hotmail.com" and a lot of folks use it so I am hesitant to ban it.

I know that the only way I can see the IP of the user/applicant is if they are actually allowed to post but a lot of folks here don't seem to realize that. I did find a very helpful site that lists (fairly up to the minute) forum abusers, their IP#s and their e-mail addresses so I now try to refer to that when I get one of these spammers.

Now....please tell us how we can make back up files of all of our forum info in case we have a major problem. I would surely hate to lose everything! I have actually seen this happen to other forums!!

Again THANKS!!