New Anti-SPAM feature installed and working great

[Nemanja]

I have installed many anti-spam plugins and made numbers of security measures to prevent this forum from spammer invasions and also to reduce moderating work for our unstoppable mods and me.

Last mod I have installed is "Spam-O-Matic" and I can tell you that it is working great , you can find it here(for VB 4.X):
[GlowHost] Spam-O-Matic - Spam Firewall stops forum spam - vBulletin.org Forum

This mod is using Stop Forum Spam database of SPAMMERS which is constantly updated.
That database is logging spammers from all over the world and from many different forums, membership, social and community sites as well as regular sites or any reported spammer by their service for that matter.
It logs, spammer IP, email amd username.

More mods/plug-ins for different type of websites that can use Stop Forum Spam database you can find here:
Stop Forum Spam - Mods & Plugins

[Phoenyx]

'Tis part of being a mod lol. This new software sounds awesome. Having it linked to SFS sounds really good as well, it will help us streamline things and keep everything running smoothly.

[proseocontent]

Hey Nemanja,

sounds very good for the moderators. So they have more time for doing important things .... making money especially ... :-)

[wink0r]

The forum hosting provider for the KompoZer forum has apparently recently installed a similar system. It has dropped automated registrations by about 90%. There are still some using fresh proxies or IP addresses that slip through before they are picked up by the service, but not many. I have been dealing with many daily automated sign-ups since around the middle of January 2011 so this is a real relief. Apparently xrumer learned to solve captchas or a plug was released in that time frame. I was seeing about 10 automated sign-ups a day up until last week. The KompoZer forum has always done manual approvals of applications and StopForumSpam has been an invaluable tool.

[Nemanja]

It is working great, so many flagged emails and IPs are already blocked by this great plug-in according to my logs.
Out of 739 registration 200 is blocked by this tool in just few days, which is almost 30% and I think that is great.
I'm already using other "tools/add-ons" as my first line of defence so to speak, which are blocking about 50-60% SPAM registrations(don't have accurate stats),
then registrations which are not blocked by this first line of defence (40-50% of all registrations) are blocked by this spam-o-matic which reduce that number by 30% more.

Then if spammer passes registration AKSIMET is also blocking well known SPAM posts and messages.
Then if that post/message passes aksimet I have made some custom checks which also prevent from spamming...
Plus other restrictions for newly registered users which prevent them from most calling to spam actions, like editing profiles, posting links, posting user messages, mass PMs, etc, etc...

So I think we are quite safe from spammers now

BTW you need to know this mod is taking some innocent casualties also,
sometimes IPs that are flagged are dynamically assigned by peoples ISPs,
so one day some IP can be assigned to some spammer and other day to some normal person,
which will then be blocked from registration.
Similar thing if you are using option to block visitors by username.

This is not big number at all and I think it is risk that I'm willing to take
and I apologize to all normal visitors which are trying to register and being blocked by this mod.

[wink0r]

BTW you need to know this mod is taking some innocent casualties also,
sometimes IPs that are flagged are dynamically assigned by peoples ISPs,
so one day some IP can be assigned to some spammer and other day to some normal person,
which will then be blocked from registration.

This is true and something that I have considered when looking at reports at SFS. The thing that I see more frequently is that a computer has been compromised. A back door that allows a spammer to send email through the computer also is also found by xrumer/whatever users to do automated forum registrations/comment spamming. Those were a concern, but I decided that I didn't really want people with infected computers as members anyway.

[Phoenyx]

Kinda makes me worry now. I have had instances where I have been an innocent casualty without even saying hello. We have one major telekoms company here, and everyone that uses the net uses them, there are no other providers unless you use the expensive option, which happens to be cellular companies like vodacom etc.

[Nemanja]

Yes I agree,
but one thing you need to know, when you disconnect and reconnect to the internet again, you will be assigned new IP(in most cases),
and you can then register without a problem

[henryJ]

Good job Nemanja, Iv started becoming inactive in this forum because the amount of spam and inactivity. But since your taking some action on stopping this, i will defiantly start posting more often .

[Phoenyx]

Yes I agree,
but one thing you need to know, when you disconnect and reconnect to the internet again, you will be assigned new IP(in most cases),
and you can then register without a problem

True, I work between my laptop and iPhone, but they use the same wifi connection. As long as I can still login, I have no worries.

Good job Nemanja, Iv started becoming inactive in this forum because the amount of spam and inactivity. But since your taking some action on stopping this, i will defiantly start posting more often .

We have had our fair share of spammers, but thankfully not enough to cause any serious damage.

[wink0r]

Many major ISPs are quite protective of their IP space. They shut down activities that violate their TOS and there is a mechanism whereby they can clear their IP numbers with SFS. Of the major US ISPs Comcast has the most problem IPs that I see when checking with SFS. South Africa shows very few problems. Most of the IP addresses in the database are proxie servers or open proxies. Some of the Eastern European countries seem to be the most lax in enforcement.

My conclusions, having looked at a few thousand SFS search results, are that most ISP IP numbers in the more developed countries will be clear and that proxie servers will be listed in short order. Most open and public proxies will be on the list before you ever try to do a blast with them. Private proxies will be listed in short order if you use them to spam.

[Nemanja]

I can't agree that level of spam was ever high on this board, if this was the case please en-light me, coz I can't remember
Sure we have had and will have spammers but level of spam was never high on this board(thanks to our staff),
as a matter of fact I can say that level of spam on this board was always on a bare minimum and when found they are removed promptly.

[Phoenyx]

I hope that's what my ISP does. I feel kinda bad about being labeled a spammer though, just because my IP rang an alarm bell or two.

[Nemanja]

Gals/guys have you noticed that level of spam and spammers decreased over last few days since this mod was installed?
I know I have or it is just me , I know time will tell, but it seems like it is decreasing.

[Phoenyx]

There has definitely been a decrease. The community is a lot more peaceful now, so now it can grow safely and rapidly now because its a quality forum, with quality members, with minimal interference.

[wink0r]

From some of my SFS search results it appears that IP addresses expire from the database in 30 days. This is good for those dynamic addresses from which some user does something stupid, but several obvious proxy servers show up on a once a month schedule. I saw two or three today that were used today and December 11 and November 11 and further back every 30 days..

[Noreturn]

Thanks for adding this, I can also tell that is' working great because I haven't seen any spam.. Great job to the team and whoever made that plugin

[stronywwwlublin]

Nice! I use 'askimet' and 'spam bloker':

http://community.invisionpower.com/t...-registration/

[Phoenyx]

Nice! I use 'askimet' and 'spam bloker':

Those are for blogs though, this mod's for forums spam blocker does sound interesting though.

[wink0r]

I don't know if they have a plugin for forums of any kind, but Akismet can be used for comment spam on at least one article directory software as well as blogs. There is a need so they may be branching out.