Bombarded with SPAM - help!

[tommydamic68]

All of a sudden in the last few days I am getting bombarded with spam. I don't think they are bots. Any thoughts on what I can do differently to stop it? Here are my current settings. Not even sure if this will help with human spammers anyway.

 

[Dakota Storm]

Try adding a few questions and answers to your registration, maybe something specific to your forum.

Also lower the threshold to manually approve registrations from 7 to 3

 

[tommydamic68]

Ok - did it. Should I ban the spammers? I have just been deleting them. My members are pretty good at reporting them and they can no longer post once reported. Not one spammer has been able to post more then one thread.

 

[Dakota Storm]

I wouldn't bother deleting them, just ban them.

 

[Dakota Storm]

You might also want to consider implementing post moderation for the first post.

 

[tommydamic68]

You might also want to consider implementing post moderation for the first post.

No, I don't want to really do that. I will see how the other suggestions go.

 

[Ridemonkey]

Pony up the $5/month for an Akismet key. Most of my spammers that get through the registration process get caught by Akismet.

Unless you're not making any money off your site in which case I think Akismet has a free tier.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I don't use any pre-registration checks, mine are all disabled. Members register, I have keycaptcha which I pay for the upgraded version that has puzzle pieces for ease in both desktop and mobile solving, and I have @tenants human anti-spam add-on set to 50 posts, 25 likes, before they can post a link. Nothing sneaky can get through that add-on... its that good. I removed tenants default message, replaced it with a simple message that anti-spam methods are in place when someone tries to post a link within those guidelines. Zero issues.

My spam is pretty much zero. The one or two determined who get through, post without links, their content is gone in moderation within minutes.

 

[jauburn]

Yeah, I just had to delete over 60,000 spam threads on a test board that I accidentally left running. Damn near brought down my entire server.

I had to use the "batch update" feature in admincp, which was a lifesaver.

 

[tommydamic68]

I don't use any pre-registration checks, mine are all disabled. Members register, I have keycaptcha which I pay for the upgraded version that has puzzle pieces for ease in both desktop and mobile solving, and I have @tenants human anti-spam add-on set to 50 posts, 25 likes, before they can post a link. Nothing sneaky can get through that add-on... its that good. I removed tenants default message, replaced it with a simple message that anti-spam methods are in place when someone tries to post a link within those guidelines. Zero issues.

My spam is pretty much zero. The one or two determined who get through, post without links, their content is gone in moderation within minutes.

The puzzle keycaptcha would work well with bots, I believe mine are humans. I was hit again hard, thought I had it managed with some changes in my spammer settings, this is ridiculous, In five years with Vbulletin and Xenforo combined I have never been hit so hard...Is there any other options then spending more money on spamming scripts?

Edit:
Is there a setting (permission, didn't see one) to not allow links from specific usergroups?

 

[Martok]

Is there a setting (permission, didn't see one) to not allow links from specific usergroups?

No there isn't.

Out of interest, do you have the Bypass flood check permission set to Not Set (No) for the Registered user group (which should be the primary group for everyone)? Hopefully you do. If so, what time do you have set in ACP > Options > Performance > Minimum Time Between Messages (seconds) ?

 

[tommydamic68]

No there isn't.

Out of interest, do you have the Bypass flood check permission set to Not Set (No) for the Registered user group (which should be the primary group for everyone)? Hopefully you do. If so, what time do you have set in ACP > Options > Performance > Minimum Time Between Messages (seconds) ?

I don't know @Martok - I will check it. As I understand that feature, it would only "slow down" a spammer? But i will most likely will set it if not.

My problem seems to be human spammers signing up with a junky garbled thread and a link. My members are very good at reporting it which then once reported goes directly to moderation due to my spam settings.

How the heck can you deter human spammers?

 

[Martok]

How the heck can you deter human spammers?

I know you said you don't want to but moderation of all newcomers would at least stop the spam landing on your forums.

 

[tommydamic68]

That's a shame that I am held hostage to spammers. Not fair to new comers with honest content either...

 

[Paul B]

Welcome to the internet.

 

[Martok]

I believe there's an add-on that will allow you to block IPs from certain countries. Check the Resources forum for that, it could help. Also make sure you have signed up for Akismet and have a key for that as it does help.

As I understand that feature, it would only "slow down" a spammer? But i will most likely will set it if not.

Yes, this does slow them down. If your spammers are posting multiple posts, this is essential otherwise one spammer can post hundreds in less than an hour. I have mine set to the default of 30 seconds.

 

[Ridemonkey]

While I understand a free solution being desirable, I'm sure you can agree that your time is worth something. I can't imagine that your time is worth substantially less than the $40 it would cost to buy some anti-spam tools:
http://xenforo.com/community/resour...ollection-anti-spam-complete-collection.1469/

In any event, he offers a branded version that is free:
https://xenforo.com/community/resou...-spam-collection-anti-spam-free-version.1474/

I think the FBHP part of the plugin is no longer functional thanks to the built-in honeypots of 1.4, but the number of spam messages that actually get through and show up to my users is down to 1 or 2 posts per week now. Some weeks less than that. I also pay for the $5/month Akismet subscription.

The amount of time this has saved me is worth exponentially more than the money I spent.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

How the heck can you deter human spammers?

You already have that answer above, but you don't want to spend a small amount on the one piece of software here that WILL and DOES stop exactly your issue. It stops sneaky URL's, email, the lot. You cannot post a URL with that software anywhere until they meet the requirements you set within it.

 

[tommydamic68]

While I understand a free solution being desirable, I'm sure you can agree that your time is worth something. I can't imagine that your time is worth substantially less than the $40 it would cost to buy some anti-spam tools:
http://xenforo.com/community/resour...ollection-anti-spam-complete-collection.1469/

In any event, he offers a branded version that is free:
https://xenforo.com/community/resou...-spam-collection-anti-spam-free-version.1474/

I think the FBHP part of the plugin is no longer functional thanks to the built-in honeypots of 1.4, but the number of spam messages that actually get through and show up to my users is down to 1 or 2 posts per week now. Some weeks less than that. I also pay for the $5/month Akismet subscription.

The amount of time this has saved me is worth exponentially more than the money I spent.

I am trying to understand this add on. Each one is linked separately, Some free - some paid, what do you actually get for the 25 bucks - directions and links to the different add ons?

 

[Ridemonkey]

The entire collection is 25 GBP.

#1-7 listed are the individual components of the whole collection (which you can download and install separately if you don't want the whole batch). If you pay the 25 GBP, you get all of them.