Lack of interest Centralized Database of Spam Email Domains

[Sal Collaziano]

I know this is a first world problem that nobody is going to care about - but I'm just going to voice my opinion anyway. Delete it if you want.

Most people only run one XenForo, but since I run, 15 (and 30 once I replace all my vBulletins), this kind of thing matters to me...

There needs to be a centralized database of email domains that administrators block in their AdminCP (and can opt into). I spend a lot of time denying new signups that get caught in the moderation filter. Across all my forums, this becomes aggravating and time consuming. I keep adding new email domains, and keep adding new email domains, and keep adding new email domains, and every time I add more, new ones just keep coming in. It never ends.

It would be nice, and would save a lot of time, if these address could be imported either on a set time scheduled, or on the fly during registration, or on demand - so that I never have to see them in the first place.

Have the system set a certain amount of reports to consider them "verified". Or allow a certain amount of reports to reach a pre-specific threshold before your forum "believes" the database.

I know there are add-ons that do something similar for email addresses. However, every day people register new B.S. spam domains. Like @gmailhost.net. So I'll block that one. The there's gmailhost1.net, and 2, and 3, and 4...

 

[bzcomputers]

I think rather than trying to block specific domains, it would be more beneficial to use the already established DNSBL & Project Honeypot which already exists within XenForo Spam Management.

You could have new domains poping up all the time on the same ip addresses already in the the lists maintained by DNSBL and Project Honey Pot. You would not get very far if you're just looking at domain names and these already very well established span blockers already exist and work well.

These already established lists will always be more robust than something that XenForo would take on by itself. The anti-spam wheel has already been invented.

Maybe you need to tighten your spam settings for the options that already exist in XenForo or make sure you use all the options if you don't already.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

I think rather than trying to block specific domains, it would be more beneficial to use the already established DNSBL & Project Honeypot which already exists within XenForo Spam Management.

You could have new domains poping up all the time on the same ip addresses already in the the lists maintained by DNSBL and Project Honey Pot. You would not get very far if you're just looking at domain names and these already very well established span blockers already exist and work well.

These already established lists will always be more robust than something that XenForo would take on by itself. The anti-spam wheel has already been invented.

Maybe you need to tighten your spam settings for the options that already exist in XenForo or make sure you use all the options if you don't already.

Perhaps. I do use DNSBL and Project Honey Pot. I just keep getting new spam domains registering and then I need to add them individually into every forum (into the banned emails area) as they're used to sign up. It would be nice if there were a pre-verified list already existing that I could automatically download into my XF. Heck, I'd even be happy with a copy/paste list that I manually update every week...

 

[Anomandaris]

I think this already exists, it's StopForumSpam. Everyone should sign up for a key, when you ban spammers they get added to the central database.

I maybe get 1-2 spam posts per month and they get stuck in auto-moderation so typically users never see them, these are my settings:

CloudFlare set to Medium
Enable email confirmation
Use reCAPTCHA v2




The most important setting is:
Reject registration when this many warning flags are detected: 2

That way if the IP and the email match something on StopForumSpam, it's just auto rejected. Might get a false positive with just 1 but not typically with both.

You may also want to use a disposable email block list, which I recently contributed to:

Unmaintained - Banned emails; Trashmails & Spammails

Description Navigate to the window below and select the banned_emails.xml file that is included in the zip archive. Donate If you like our work, please consider sending a small donation. Additional information We would prefer it if bugs were...

xenforo.com

Hopefully this will help you. StopForumSpam is awesome.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

I think this already exists, it's StopForumSpam. Everyone should sign up for a key, when you ban spammers they get added to the central database.

I maybe get 1-2 spam posts per month and they get stuck in auto-moderation so typically users never see them, these are my settings:

CloudFlare set to Medium
Enable email confirmation
Use reCAPTCHA v2

View attachment 211244
View attachment 211245

The most important setting is:
Reject registration when this many warning flags are detected: 2

That way if the IP and the email match something on StopForumSpam, it's just auto rejected. Might get a false positive with just 1 but not typically with both.

You may also want to use a disposable email block list, which I recently contributed to:

Unmaintained - Banned emails; Trashmails & Spammails

Description Navigate to the window below and select the banned_emails.xml file that is included in the zip archive. Donate If you like our work, please consider sending a small donation. Additional information We would prefer it if bugs were...

xenforo.com

Hopefully this will help you. StopForumSpam is awesome.

I was really looking for something that got the domain rather than the first part of the email address - but I'll drop the "Reject registration" setting to "2" (down from 3) and see how that goes...

How do you have the next two options (Only count flags recorded within the last, Only count flags recorded at least this many times) set? I have them at 7 and 5...

 

[Ozzy47]

While this does nothing with email address you might like this addon to fight bots registering on your forum,

[OzzModz] Registration Spaminator Stop Spam Bot Registrations

This addon is another tool in fighting spam bot registrations at your forum. How it works The [OzzModz] Registration Spaminator works with and regardless of other anti-spam measures but also makes them all obsolete, proving the worthlessness...

xenforo.com

 

[Anomandaris]

If you are more interested in the domain name, then using the banned email lists will help, this only covers disposable emails tho.

These are the other settings I use:

Only count flags recorded within the last: 14 days

Only count flags recorded at least this many times: 4

Hope it helps, I have had a really good outcome with this setup

 

[Sal Collaziano]

If you are more interested in the domain name, then using the banned email lists will help, this only covers disposable emails tho.

These are the other settings I use:

Only count flags recorded within the last: 14 days

Only count flags recorded at least this many times: 4

Hope it helps, I have had a really good outcome with this setup

Thank you. I just had to go and ban @nerpmail.com from every one of my forums... Manually... It's annoying...

Today's domain to ban across the board is wapmail.net

 

[Anomandaris]

@Sal Collaziano I'm curious, did those changes help you? How'd you make out?

 

[Sal Collaziano]

@Sal Collaziano I'm curious, did those changes help you? How'd you make out?

Yes, they have helped. I do still get email domains that I need to add to the ban list across the board - but the new settings did make a difference. Thank you!

 

[Sal Collaziano]

I now have 18 pages of banned email domains - and that list continuously grows as the spammers just keep creating new ones. Very frustrating and surprising that nobody else is dealing with this. I guess it's no big deal when you only run one XenForo.

 

[djbaxter]

See

[OzzModz] Registration Spaminator Stop Spam Bot Registrations

There is a 10% tax added to our products. We do not offer invoices, you need to use your PayPal Receipt for your accounting or VAT needs. Tax will be added at checkout. This addon is another tool in fighting spam bot registrations at your forum...

xenforo.com

[OzzModz] Login Spaminator

Do you have lots of spammer accounts existing at your forum? Just little time bombs waiting to go off any time? Stop automated login attempts with the [OzzModz] Login Spaminator. This addon is a weapon in fighting spam bot logins at your forum...

xenforo.com

[OzzModz] Contact Us Spaminator

Sick and tired of your inbox getting flooded with spam coming from the "Contact Us" system on your xenforo install(s)? You've tried everything and still it persists? You even shut off the "Contact Us" form to guest visitors? You need the...

xenforo.com

 

[Ozzy47]

I now have 18 pages of banned email domains - and that list continuously grows as the spammers just keep creating new ones. Very frustrating and surprising that nobody else is dealing with this. I guess it's no big deal when you only run one XenForo.

There is an infinite amount of email addresses bots can use. The banned email lists are almost useless.

 

[Anomandaris]

I now have 18 pages of banned email domains - and that list continuously grows as the spammers just keep creating new ones. Very frustrating and surprising that nobody else is dealing with this. I guess it's no big deal when you only run one XenForo.

Source Code - Xenforo Disposable Email Address Block List

xf-disposable-email-domains Updated: 11/10/2020 This is a list of disposable email domains, which you may want to reject during the registration process. I have converted them to the correct Xenforo format for easy importation. You can download the files in the attachment at the bottom of the...

guidedhacking.com

130k disposable emails blocked with this list, it blocks 30 disposable email registrations everyday on my site

 

[Sal Collaziano]

Source Code - Xenforo Disposable Email Address Block List

xf-disposable-email-domains Updated: 11/10/2020 This is a list of disposable email domains, which you may want to reject during the registration process. I have converted them to the correct Xenforo format for easy importation. You can download the files in the attachment at the bottom of the...

guidedhacking.com

130k disposable emails blocked with this list, it blocks 30 disposable email registrations everyday on my site

I like the sounds of this. The ONLY little problem is that this list just keeps growing daily. Is there no way to have all these domains updated at a single location that XenForo can refer to during each registration? It would probably be a decent paid service for a small monthly or annual fee.