XF 1.4 Someone is using a bot to spam my forum

[imthebest]

Hi,

Someone is using a bot to flood my forum with new threads.
I'll quote this from @Mike's announcement in a HYS for 1.4:

The registration form now includes several approaches to interfere with bot registrations, including:

• Invisible honeypot fields that legitimate users won't see but that bots will (usually) see and fill in. If a value is entered, we know the user is a bot.

Is it possible to include some honeypot fields in the create-thread form, too?

Thanks,
Super120

 

[Jeremy]

That would require an add-on, of which you should post in the appropriate sections requesting one.

 

[rdn]

Enable Akismet.

 

[imthebest]

Mike could you please confirm if it is possible to include efective honeypot fields on the create thread form?

 

[Steve F]

Mike could you please confirm if it is possible to include efective honeypot fields on the create thread form?

@Jeremy already stated it is possible, with a add-on.

 

[HappyWorld]

Have you tried to check their IP(s)?
Maybe they came from certain countries.

 

[imthebest]

He is using a dynamic IP, he changes his IP constantly.

It looks like he is using a spam tool like XRumer but he can't pass through the registration form so he registers an account manually and then leaves his tool running against my forum to flood creating new threads.

So it looks like the problem isn't the registration form but the create-thread form.

 

[rdn]

Enable Akismet.

Did you already did this?

 

[HappyWorld]

akismet / stopforumspam should protect from tools like xrumer most of the times.

 

[Chris D]

Akismet is very good.

It is proving especially successful on my forum where I get human spammers who sign up and often their posts are correctly put into moderation.

 

[Chris D]

I'm not inundated, but the built in anti-spam stuff is working: