[Forum] Are Spammers getting past your challenge questions?

[David Copeland]

Well, the spammers are back.

Seems they have figured out how to get past our challenge questions and additional required questions to register. Fortunately all new members go through a manual approval of their registration before posting and access privileges are granted.

Anyone else having a new onslaught of spammers?

I have started to ban their IPs, mostly from Asia and Mexico. But they have thousands of IPs they use.

David

[Andy]

Hi David,

I get a few every day that get past the Q&A. Like you I also require additional questions to be answered which always trips up the human spammers and those are deleted during the moderation review.

I don't bother with banning IP's as I think that's not only futile, but will can restrict access to legitimate registrations.

[beishe8]

Anyone else having a new onslaught of spammers?

Trying to register:Yes
Success:No.

I have started to ban their IPs

Don't do it.

[janaf]

Well, the spammers are back.
Anyone else having a new onslaught of spammers?
David

No, but I do swap Q & A frequently, and have a number of different ones at any given time.

[docvader]

Some people have been having good success with this modification:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248042

I'm using the recaptcha system with a Q/A with success so far.

[josiah]

Not one single spammer has even managed to register on the two sites I run ? since I changed to Q & A, I used to get 50+ per day

[David Copeland]

Not one single spammer has even managed to register on the two sites I run ? since I changed to Q & A, I used to get 50+ per day

Do you use the Q and A with the Recaptcha System, or just the Q and A?

[beishe8]

Do you use the Q and A with the Recaptcha System, or just the Q and A?

Can you use both of them?

[Andy]

Can you use both of them?

The default vBulletin doesn't have that ability. I wouldn't suggest using a captcha anyway as they only prevent humans from registering. Use the Q&A system which works very well. Here are some other tips.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...-on-your-forum

[josiah]

Do you use the Q and A with the Recaptcha System, or just the Q and A?

Just Q & A, have a look .............


what is the abbreviation for "primeminister"
25th letter of the alphabet ?
last three letters of the 3rd month
third colour in the rainbow
4.3 minus 3.2 = ?
what circles the earth
the P.M. lives at number ? (written)
what letter is missing from xm*s
on a phone keypad what number is between 2&8
from which country do the welsh come
our parliament is in which place

[David Copeland]

Just Q & A, have a look .............


what is the abbreviation for "primeminister"
25th letter of the alphabet ?
last three letters of the 3rd month
third colour in the rainbow
4.3 minus 3.2 = ?
what circles the earth
the P.M. lives at number ? (written)
what letter is missing from xm*s
on a phone keypad what number is between 2&8
from which country do the welsh come
our parliament is in which place

Okay, then that is what I have been using for a long time. But recently the spammers from China and India have been answering the questions correctly! Maybe they wrote a software program to automatically type in the answer to my question (even thought it has only been available for a few months since I changed it)

Contrary to the advice that I should not block their IP Address, I started to block them anyway. I ended up blocking ten IP addresses (all from China and India, and a couple from Mexico), and the spammers have stopped.

[Andy]

Hi David,

On average how many spammers were you getting a day before blocking IP's ?

[AusPhotography]

We use all of

• Re-capcha
• Stop Forum Spam
• Extra Question
• Email confirmation

And only get a 1 or 2 a week actually join and post.
Our Mods also check IP addresses against nominated location for anything that looks sus.
[Since when did Sydney Australia have IP address in Pakistan?]