Help! Spam bots in spite of visual confirmation

[Convergence]

My blocked email addys -

@cashette.com
@pochta.ws
@mail.ru
@i.ua
@ua.fm
@freepizzamail.org
@yourfarmmail.org
@uchebnik.net
@0virginia.info
[email protected]
@gala.net
[email protected]
@incesttrade.com
@megabox.ru
@digitalhubs.info
@biz-board.info
@safebox.ru
@krovatka.su
@mytop-in.net
@gawab.com
@bk.ru
@freemaildirect.org
@jiop.info
@1wrz.com
@mymail-in.net
[email protected]
.ru
@girlmail.ru
@fioe.info
@inmail24.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
@dor1.info
[email protected]
@tideway.cn
@freeadultdirect.com
@bestprofit-invest.com
[email protected]
@0alice.info
@tut.by
@cheap0available.info
@me.by
@smile-links.com
@mail15.com
@sexmagnet.com
@spell-pod.com
@doory.info
@viptrip.org
@genterist.net
@kibermail.com
@inbox.lv
@tendos.info
@ukr.net

My blocked IPs:

221.140.201.216
81.208.34.166
60.217.227.145
221.6.163.131
211.154.104.85
60.28.222.19
85.21.53.8
217.147.29.174
200.238.102.170
201.36.89.233
190.16.129.28
195.2.114.2
125.142.169.61
85.21.53.10
85.21.53.9
86.35.86.60
193.194.94.4
202.99.219.144
88.212.223.233
201.10.165.192
201.17.235.19
221.239.126.179
203.223.159.39
85.140.139.191
83.237.62.165
85.255.113.76
85.255.113.77
203.130.113.45
222.237.67.167

[Orp]

I had the spam problem until I found he "No Spam" hack at vb.org.
It has you enter a few questions. The user will only have to answer one of the random selected questions. It could be something like:
Type mississippi in the box below.
This appears to work better than image verification because everyone uses different questions. This makes it much harder for software to supply the correct answer. Since I installed it I have had one spammer sign up, and he appeared to be the human kind.

Hope this helps ....sorry if this was mentioned earlier in this thread. I looked but did not see it.

[Steve Machol]

That is already possible with the default vB but it does require 3.6.3 or higher:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=205214

[jonneve]

Perhaps the best way to prevent bots from registering is to ask a simple question and if the answer is incorrect the registration process is aborted. The simple question would be unique for each forum and should be easily be changed in the Admin CP.

That's a good idea!

[jeffduck]

But what's odd...

Of every URL I tried (about 20 out of 100+), I didn't get to a web page. Most of them are obviously fake email addresses and NONE of them ever have posts. Just added the user accounts and nothing else. I only have a couple hundred posts and I personally know almost every user.

I have not updated my vbulletin to the latest version. Is their a chance that their bots are having problems because they expect the latest bulletin board versions so they can't get in?

[richpal]

jeffduck, the reason the vast majority of spammers spam forums is because forums are cash cows for them!

Any links spammers post on your forum will be noted and followed by the search engines which will in turn increase the rank of the spammer sites!

As with junk mail and junk emails, a small percentage of your viewers may well click the links posted by the spammers on your forum, and a certain percentage may actually buy something!

The fact that only a small number of people click the links on your particular forum doesn't matter to them, you multiply your forum by 100's of 1000's of other forums, and soon these small numbers start adding up to a really decent revenue.

[jeffduck]

So, still why?

So I still ask, why do people do it? Does it put my site at risk to leave them there?

[Doyler]

The best way to combat all this is to have GD Magick on and to have 'Moderate New Users' on.

I know its still needs manual deletion but I used to get 4-5 spam bots a day now they've stopped since I started using the above.

[Zachery]

You've confirmed this using vBulletin 3.6.5 using the ImageMagick or GD TrueType with more than 2-3 options enabled, a non standard font, and differnt background images?

[99SIVTEC]

The software is called xrumer (i've got a copy in fact). It
s completely automated and DOES break captcha's. There is no human intervention at all when using the software other than inserting your message. It can even activate accounts in fyou have e-mail activation turned on. No humans are creating the accounts, it's all automated.

[jeffduck]

What's the purpose?

I'm wondering what benefit spam bots provide to the spammers? I've got a small forum with only about 10 or so ligitimate users. At first I used to delete the fake users and try to track them down. Now I just leave them and have about 100.

At first I thought they were real urls and that users would create the accounts to improve their page rankings, but now I can't see how.

So... what do they get out of it? Is it the same as some idiot creating a virus for the fun of it, or do they really get anything out of it? And can it compomise my forum?

(Also, NONE of the users/bots have created any posts. Just new user accounts)

[osayidan]

I checked all the spammer accounts email addresses and none of them match up to what has been posted, most of them use gmail and yahoo, I obviously can't ban those domains. And i see no reason to complicate the registration process with even more authentication, no reason to "punish" my potential users all because of some moron spammers.

What i will soon do is a rather simple trick which should work, I will make it so new members need 1 post before being able to create topics. 99% of the bots at my forums start a topic instead of a reply, so hopefully this should get them.

And this is not only a VB problem, I'm a mod at an IPB forum and it is hell there too.

[Steve Machol]

It is in 3.5.3:

Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> User Banning Options -> Tachy Goes to Coventry

[Bass Nutz]

It would appear that they are using a mixture of robots and humans in order to post on the forums, so I've decided that a change of tactics is in order - Let's start wasting their time instead of ours

Why don't you just use the 'Tachy Goes to Coventry' option and let them post away merrily, and ignored and invisible to everyone else

Admin Control Panel > vBulletin Options > Tachy Goes to Coventry (right down at the very bottom of the page)

Being honest, banning them temporarily stops them yet they can then move onto the next victim. Accepting them keeps them all happy and occupied.

NOTE: To the vBulletin coding guys, why don't you introduce a 'Create a filter' option like Google do in their Googlemail, or have you already done so on the latest version?

I don't have this option on my version of vB. I'm running 3.5.3 Any other ideas?

[CCDV]

thanks