How do you deal with SMART Russian bots? Any tips? Banning Russian IPs didn't do anything, because they learned how to use VPNs from European and US.

Risa

Member
Yes, my forum requires Email Verification before Guests are able to post on my forum. I don't want to do Manual Approval for every new user, because I get hundreds of new Russian/Turkish spammer registrants per day.
NrRNAyh.png


I don't want to deal with shifting through this to find legit users to approve.

How do you deal with these guys?

I've banned hundreds of them. But I don't have the free time to play whack a mole with bots daily, especially when they come at me with dozens of them. I can ban 1-2 per day, but they come at me with dozens, that's a time sink!!!
mOic0kc.png


v5gPX9W.png

I've tried banning their email domains, but they keep coming back with hundreds of CUSTOM domains.


I did successfully detect a special pattern where the gmail spammers always
having 3 period dots, so I banned that specific "pattern", but immediately after, they came back with custom emails! Such as @candassociates.com and hundreds of other [custom].com names.


Dozens of Turkish and Russian IP addresses, but as soon as I blacklisted these 2 countries by IP,
they took a few days off, then RETURNED with VPN IP addresses from the United States and the UK!

uEo9YHc.png


Popular email providers like outlook.com and Gmail.com aren't completely safe, either! I've been mass spammed by Gmail-registrants. Until, I found a trick and put a stop to it.

But a few days later, they came back with custom domains.

I did the smart thing where I banned their entire countries (Russia and Turkey,) but then a few days later, they came back with VPNs from the United States and the United Kingdom! Obviously I'm not gonna ban US and UK IP addresses, but still.



What do you guys do to deal with these spammers? Is there any tool or code to block VPNs from registering? I'm pretty sure these botters are VPN users from Russia and Turkey.

Do your solutions cost money, or what's the 2022 updated modern solution to this?


Please provide a step-by-step guide or advice!
 
@Risa, are you using any or all of these tools?
  • @Ozzie47 (Snogssite.com) Contact us spamminator addon
  • Registration spamminator add on
  • Geoblock Registrations addon
  • Stop Forum Spam management enabled (ACP>Setup>Options)
I use all four, and no captcha. I can't remember when I last saw a scammer. For me at least, this is a very effective configuration.
And here is how I have Spam management configured:

1683411898115.png
 
Back
Top Bottom