Spammers!

[Eddy Matthews]

Hi all,

Sadly Paddleducks has been targetted by the spammers - You know, the idiots that want to promote their porn sites, the sellers of viagra, my granny in Botswana has died and left you a fortune, so please send us your bank account details etc etc..

Most of these registrations are done by computer programs, not real people, so because computers are thick it's fairly easy to spot them - But if it continues at the current rate I may have to close the website to new registrations until I find a suitable solution to the problem.

I've deleted over 30 in the last 24 hrs, and now that we're on one of their databases, the situation will only get worse!

I will update this topic once a decision on what action is necessary has been determined..... I know what I'd like to do to them, but I don't think what I have in mind would be legal

Eddy

[steamboatmodel]

Hi Eddy,
You say "I know what I'd like to do to them, but I don't think what I have in mind would be legal ", but would it be fun and can we help in any way?
Regards,
Gerald.

[Harold H. Duncan]

Hi Eddy,
Could you add the little box where you have to type in the letters/numbers from a jpeg image on the screen before you can register, as some sites have. Would that help defeat the damn spam computers?
Hope you know what I mean
I for one would happily join with you and Steamboatmodel to solve the problem, even if it is illegal
regards
kiwi

[Bernd]

Eddy,

I believe kiwi may have the answer. One boat forum I joined had what kiwi talked about. They didn't seem to be hit with spammers.

I'd also like to join and help with that problem. To bad there isn't a way to hit them in their pocket book.

Bernd

[cmbellman5]

I agree, the typing in of a jpeg image certainly seems to control the spammers. Does it cost a lot to set somethig up?
It would be a sad day if this website was forced to close because of spammers

[Eddy Matthews]

Thanks guys,

We already use a system of random letters that a new user must type in to register, so that doesn't stop them....

I've been looking around the various forum software sites, and it appears the spammers are doing a real blitz on ALL forums at the moment, so it's not just Paddleducks.

I've found three options I can try to defeat them - I won't list them in case it gets picked up on, but with luck I can sort it. It may take a couple fo days to implement the changes.

Regards
Eddy

[Eddy Matthews]

I made a change to the forum code that handles registrations this morning, and so far (touch wood), no more spam accounts!

No doubt sooner or later they will defeat us again, but I also have two further options to use as backup if needed.

Regards
Eddy

[steamboatmodel]

"No doubt sooner or later they will defeat us again"
My Dad always said " A locked door only keeps an honest man honest" and I doubt that the Spammers are anywhere nere honest. Thanks for keeping our door locked Eddy.
Regards,
Gerald

[mustangmark]

You could do what we do on the tug forum and have all new members require admin approval the email addresses are easy enough to spot as they usually end in .gmail or .ru and we also email any potential member that looks suspect and ask them how they got into model boating, that usually throws them and we ban the account. We have not had one on our site yet using this method.

Don't know if this is any help or not,     Mark.

[Eddy Matthews]

We already use Admin approval Mark, so they cannot do anything other than create an account.... But I won't even tolerate that on principal, all they are after is for the search engines to pick up on them when they search the forum.....

I'm not here to help a load of (erm can't say what I want to on a public forum), get promoted up the search lists!

Regards
Eddy