Anti Spam settings, getting a lot of forum spam lately, suggestion for a spambot stopper reject fast robot bot regs

[MDawg]

Everything is set properly, I have an Anti-Spam Akismet Content Key and Stop Forum Spam API Key and everything in Spam Settings is set to YES except for Stop Forum Spam Username Check which is set to NO, also I have ReCaptcha 2.0 set with the proper key, but lately I am getting a fair amount daily of spammers who are making it through and able to post. Switching back and forth between ReCaptcha 2.0 and my own Human Verification question/answers doesn't seem to keep the spammers out.

Now, 90% of the posts end up in the moderation queue and it takes but a few keystrokes to perm delete them and ban / report them to anti spam services and delete all of their reports, but unfortunately there are no mods I am aware of at vbulletin.org to address this in vb5.

In my vb4 forum I have GlowHost spam o matic

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

and SpamBot stopper installed

https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=294633

which seem to work to keep out the spammers, but there is nothing like these available for vb5.

My suggestion would be something simple in a future version of vb5, whereby if the registration process is completed too quickly, such as under 15 seconds (or via any time setting the user desires), that registration is denied. That is what SpamBot stopper does:

This mod rejects registrations where the form is filled out in less than a minimum time. You can configure one of the following actions to be taken when an automated registration is detected:

- Show a "No Permissions" page
- Display the "Successful Registration" message but without creating an account
- Redirect the user to any URL you choose
- Reload the registration page with an error message of your choosing

You can also provide a list of email addresses to be notified each time a registration is blocked.

[eboggs_jkvl]

Was something ever done in connection with this suggestion? I'm being forced to go to VB5 and I have a ton of spam IDs being blocked because they can register in 2 or 3 seconds. Going to VB5 and not being able to block these IDs is going to be a bit a big PITA.

[Wayne Luke]

I don't know what you mean by IDs.

Addons created by third-parties are the intellectual property of those parties. Suggesting that we integrate them wholesale into vBulletin is a non-starter and won't be accomplished. However, we do often develop and implement similar features based on customer demand. vBulletin 5 has had both Akismet and StopForumSpam support in the system from before this topic was created. Akismet will monitor the content. StopForumSpam will monitor IP Addresses, Username, and Email Address to detect bots. This is in addition to being able to ban IP Addresses outright like in earlier versions.

In addition to this, you can:

1. Ban Email Addresses
2. Ban Email Domains
3. Add keywords to stop spam from being shown outright
4. Choose to monitor a list of keywords and be notified about them when they occur.
5. You can limit the number of links in a topic.
6. Prevent URLs from being posted in the title.
7. Restrict the types of topics that can be created by new members.
8. Automatically moderate new members until XX number of posts.
9. More advanced ReCaptcha support.

A note about banning IP addresses - This is best done at the server or router level in your network. vBulletin will still use significant resources when a banned IP requests the page. They will be shown an error message that states they were banned. This requires PHP and Database access. When done at the server or router level, you will use fewer resources and be able to withstand denial of service based attacks better.

Due to the age of this topic, I am going to close this. If you have questions about the spam settings in the software, please open a new topic.