XF 2.0 Very high spam rates at forum

[kaloksi]

Despite having setup to prevent spam in admin (version V2.0.9) we keep being bombarded specially from cuvox email registrations. Below current setup.

Please help.

 

[kaloksi]

anyone?

 

[tr1cky]

Seems like xenforo 2 is targeted a lot more by spammers than xenforo 1.
Add a list of spam domains: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/banned-emails-trashmails-spammails.6103/

Also add keywords to check for. Since spammers usually advertise some site, you can manually approve the first X posts made when there's a link in them, to do so add this to your Spam phrases list:
[url*

 

[kaloksi]

Many thanks for your help, much appreciated!

 

[Ozzy47]

There is a bug in XF2 which means that some spam checks were not being performed as expected. This should be resolved in 2.0.10

 

[AndyB]

What is your forum about? The best solution I have found is the Questions and Answers captcha. But it only works if you have a forum which is specific to a topic.

 

[kaloksi]

It is a watches forum.

 

[AndyB]

It is a watches forum.

In that case you should be able to use Questions and Answers very effectively.

Q: Which country is known for manufacturing the most expensive watches?
A: Switzerland

 

[kaloksi]

Yes, we are already doing that after your suggestion but still some spam passing through.

 

[TPerry]

Yes, we are already doing that after your suggestion but still some spam passing through.

You will always get some spam as not all of it is automated. There is a noticeable amount that is actually a human on the other end and thanks to Google you will never defeat them with a Q&A process. There will have to be other programatic processes in place that use IP, username and email, TOR/proxy use and a few other functions in conjunction - and even then you won't stop all of it.

 

[Jon York]

Also add keywords to check for. Since spammers usually advertise some site, you can manually approve the first X posts made when there's a link in them, to do so add this to your Spam phrases list:
[url*

Sorry, I know this is from a long time ago - but I'm having this problem now and need to put a link-blocking mechanism in place for new members. It's my understanding that this would ban the posting of any links by a new member for the first X number of posts - whatever you set X to. But what if you'd like to also ban the posting of links for a certain number of days in addition to a number of posts?

I'd like to make spammers have to wait several days before being able to post links - in addition to forcing them to post a certain number of linkless posts. But I don't want to make it too tough because I don't want to annoy legitimate members. If I make the number of posts too high, real users will get frustrated and may leave. But if I make it too low it will be no problem for a spammer to get around. But if you could add a number of days to it, then it would deter most of the spammers and not annoy real users too much.

 

[tr1cky]

Sorry, I know this is from a long time ago - but I'm having this problem now and need to put a link-blocking mechanism in place for new members. It's my understanding that this would ban the posting of any links by a new member for the first X number of posts - whatever you set X to. But what if you'd like to also ban the posting of links for a certain number of days in addition to a number of posts?

I'd like to make spammers have to wait several days before being able to post links - in addition to forcing them to post a certain number of linkless posts. But I don't want to make it too tough because I don't want to annoy legitimate members. If I make the number of posts too high, real users will get frustrated and may leave. But if I make it too low it will be no problem for a spammer to get around. But if you could add a number of days to it, then it would deter most of the spammers and not annoy real users too much.

You could do something like this with promotions.
After x days you put new members into another group.

 

[Jon York]

That's a creative idea! Thanks for mentioning it. That might actually do the trick.

 

[Paul B]

Another approach is to promote them after x approved posts - as explained in the manual: https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/groups-permissions/#an-example-promotion

That's what I use on my forum and in 8 years I haven't had a single public spam post.

 

[fionix]

In that case you should be able to use Questions and Answers very effectively.

Q: Which country is known for manufacturing the most expensive watches?
A: Switzerland

Can this be enabled together with recaptcha or similar? That would make it much more powerful?

 

[AndyB]

Can this be enabled together with recaptcha or similar? That would make it much more powerful?

You can only use one captcha.

 

[fionix]

at the moment I get spammed from chines **** - they bomb the forum with 15 post at a time on different usernames

Anyone has anything good?