XF 1.5 Dealing with spam when thread title is a URL?

cbpayne

Member
The only spam that gets through all the spam block thingy's I use are those that use a URL as the thread title
I get up to a dozen posts a day pretty similar to the the screen shot attached. There is no link in the actual post body
I don't want to send all new posts to moderation

Any tips on a way to automatically block URL's as the thread title?
 

Attachments

  • 2016-12-13_6-39-44.webp
    2016-12-13_6-39-44.webp
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There's actually a straightforward way to match this via the spam phrases option. Add this to that:
Code:
/^https?:\/\/\S+\n/si
This should match those threads and you can send them to manual approval or reject them. (I'd recommend manual approval at least while you test the change.)
 
Thanks Mike; will implement and report back.

Out of curiosity are many other forums getting this spam?
I do not know why they do it. The URL is the thread title, so its not a link back to their site and I see no benefit in it for them. its just damn annoying.
 
There's actually a straightforward way to match this via the spam phrases option. Add this to that:
Code:
/^https?:\/\/\S+\n/si
This should match those threads and you can send them to manual approval or reject them. (I'd recommend manual approval at least while you test the change.)

hey Mike
does this stop also "genuine" threads containing links in the body?

I mean.. what if someone posts a genuine thread with proper subject AND in the body it says something like:

"check my website out:
http://www.acme.com"

?

Would that be rejected?

I have the same issue and would love it to be stopped ONLY if a URL occurs in the subject line..

is it achievable?

thanks
Marco
 
That won't stop a link within a post. It specifically matches the beginning of the string (which is the title if present) and requires a line break afterwards. These will generally not be true of a post (particularly with extra markup for BB code).
 
The begging of the string is not always how these spammers post "links" in the title from what I've seen, and they certainly don't always start with http or even www

For example

upload_2017-2-12_19-28-50.webp
 
@Mike, we are using this phrase and it's catching some but not all? First attachment shows trigger log catching one and in moderation, second attachment shows post going through? Most are going through. Any ideas?

D89155CD-88C5-418C-8F49-7E14E14016E9.webp
AE061E10-D557-4ABB-A544-01FB266019AB.webp
 
There's actually a straightforward way to match this via the spam phrases option. Add this to that:
Code:
/^https?:\/\/\S+\n/si
This should match those threads and you can send them to manual approval or reject them. (I'd recommend manual approval at least while you test the change.)

Hi Mike, I Have same problem.

Where do I insert this code?:

Code:
/^https?:\/\/\S+\n/si

Thanks
 
There's actually a straightforward way to match this via the spam phrases option. Add this to that:
Code:
/^https?:\/\/\S+\n/si
This should match those threads and you can send them to manual approval or reject them. (I'd recommend manual approval at least while you test the change.)

I have both /^https?:\/\/\S+\n/si and /^http?:\/\/\S+\n/si as part of my spam phrases yet messages with URLs as topic are still getting through:

1533583721976.webp

1533583614471.webp

What am I doing wrong?

I know this thread is for Xenforo 1.5 and I am using version 2, but I'm assuming this should still apply to version 2?
 
I've tried /^http(|s):\/\/\S+\n/si and /^http?:\/\/\S+\n/si and I am still getting spam where the title of the post begins with http. Is /^http(|s):\/\/\S+\n/si working for anyone else?
 
I've got these two.
Code:
/^http(|s):\/\/\S+\n/si
/^http(|s):\/\/\S+/si

threads with urls are still getting into my website :(
fe2bbc56b285681f23801b261bed8d5f.png
 
It shouldn't be getting through, especially in the title.

shouldnt.webp

Automatically moderated with that regular expression...

moderated.webp



Double check that you don't have registered users able to bypass the spam check..

bypass.webp
 
Last edited:
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