I want to make the big money ...

Topics unrelated to the Baha'i Faith
Zazaban
Posts: 249
Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:16 pm
Location: Canada

Postby Zazaban » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:44 am

I'm not SURE this is spam, so i'm not going to lock it YET.

But I have moved it to the appropriate forum.
Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.
~ Bahá'u'lláh

Baha'i Warrior
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:07 am
Location: U.S.A.

Postby Baha'i Warrior » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:58 am

These bots are getting more complex, having ICQ numbers and such.

Jonah-admin
Site Admin
Posts: 414
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:25 pm
Location: St Catharines, Ontario (near Niagara Falls)
Contact:

Postby Jonah-admin » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:26 pm

Thanks, guys

I discovered yesterday that the captcha upgrade (human-readable visual confirmation) I installed a couple months ago, to prevent bots from registering to the forum, had gotten reverted to the old template. I replaced the newer files, so our captcha system is back in place (you see it when you logout, then click Register, then are asked to type the string of random numbers/characters).

This captcha system worked great, for about 2 months we didn't have a single bot register. They only started registering again recently, when my upgrade got reverted. But the bots that did get in during that brief window may continue posting spam for another couple weeks, till we catch them all.

-Jonah

Baha'i Warrior
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:07 am
Location: U.S.A.

Postby Baha'i Warrior » Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:13 pm

Jonah wrote:But the bots that did get in during that brief window may continue posting spam for another couple weeks, till we catch them all.


Let's get 'em! :chainsaw:

J/K

Jonah-admin
Site Admin
Posts: 414
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:25 pm
Location: St Catharines, Ontario (near Niagara Falls)
Contact:

Postby Jonah-admin » Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:34 pm

I got 'em. :banned:

I went into the database and deleted all users who were (1) inactive, never having posted and (2) had given a URL in their sig or "website" field. They all, judging from the URLs and usernames, were spambots. Out of 3900 users, 2850 fit this category.

Baha'i Warrior
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:07 am
Location: U.S.A.

Postby Baha'i Warrior » Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:12 am

There are a few more bots still posting (especially the sicko ones), but they're being taken care of.

Jonah-admin
Site Admin
Posts: 414
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:25 pm
Location: St Catharines, Ontario (near Niagara Falls)
Contact:

Postby Jonah-admin » Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:33 am

more bots still posting

I didn't want to take a chance on deleting active real users, so I only auto-deleted the users who had never logged in or posted. Spam-bots that have logged in I wouldn't have caught then. Thanks for keeping your eye out.

And if they do start breaking through this phpBB registration system with the captcha, there are some upgrades to it which are said to be quite effective.

:turban: Yeah, I like the new smilies too. (Users - click "View more emoticons" for a small sampling of the thousands that are out there.)

-J

Baha'i Warrior
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:07 am
Location: U.S.A.

Postby Baha'i Warrior » Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:41 am

Bot bashin' time!! :aufsmaul:

Jonah-admin
Site Admin
Posts: 414
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:25 pm
Location: St Catharines, Ontario (near Niagara Falls)
Contact:

Postby Jonah-admin » Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:54 am

The bots are back. New bots, that are getting through the captcha system -- which is still working. I've been deleting spammers that registered just today.

But I see there's a new, probably final beta version of phpBB3, maybe I'll just move up to that. It says not to use in a production environment, but I can always switch back to the old if the new doesn't work. http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=507324

-J

Baha'i Warrior
Posts: 753
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:07 am
Location: U.S.A.

Postby Baha'i Warrior » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:03 pm

I hope this can be taken care of soon. There was one post I just deleted, and it had a very explicit picture which I won't even say what it was because of mixed audience. Luckily there was only one 1 view. But I'm checking/deleting as often as I can. It's funny that these perverts don't even realize that no one on a religious forum is with all likeliness going to be a porn consumer—they are targeting the wrong audience. Granted, these bots may be indiscriminate.

Zazaban
Posts: 249
Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:16 pm
Location: Canada

Postby Zazaban » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:36 pm

Baha'i Warrior wrote:I hope this can be taken care of soon. There was one post I just deleted, and it had a very explicit picture which I won't even say what it was because of mixed audience. Luckily there was only one 1 view. But I'm checking/deleting as often as I can. It's funny that these perverts don't even realize that no one on a religious forum is with all likeliness going to be a porn consumer—they are targeting the wrong audience. Granted, these bots may be indiscriminate.
I don't think they even look at what the forum is about when they post. They justp ost it and leave. Also, a suprising about of people think that "Baha'i" has something to do with Baja California.
Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.

~ Bahá'u'lláh


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