Heads up on what looks like a registration bot coming out of the Philippines

djbaxter

in memoriam 1947-2022
This morning, I started to get a large number of email-not-confirmed registrations from the Philippines, coming in at a rate suggesting a bot and a weak DDoS attack. This was only on one of the forums I manage, a relatively small / low activity one.

I use Snog's Country Registration Ban addon so as a precaution I set it to block new Philippines registrations as a temporary measure. This appears to have stopped it, at least for now.

I don't usually see a lot of spam from the Philippines so this was definitely something new happening.

Just an FYI...
 
In the past few weeks, we have seen a steep increase in spam registrations from the Philippines, Cambodia, and in particular Indonesia.
 
I allowed new registrations again from Philippines after 24 hours and so far so good. No idea what that was all about but it seems to have stopped.
 
I spoke too soon. Another flood of bot registrations from Philippines this afternoon (all of them email unconfirmed of course). I blocked Philippines again.
 
I wonder why they bother?
Ok sure if they get in and post a spam theard selling their drugs or cosmetics or shoes whatever.
One of your members will spot them and Report them and then they are gone with one click.
So will they ever make any sales from their websites?
I doubt it.
 
Vietnam has been big for me as of late. And a pair of US hosting sites, ServerMania and ColoCrossing. But I have StopForumSpam set pretty strict so this is just based on the few that do make to the authorization queue.
 
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