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More restrictive registration of new members due to increase spam

jar546

jar546

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It will be harder to register due to the heavy influx of fake names by spammers. All newly registered members will be approved manually by admin before they are allowed to post or be a user.

Other methods have been deployed to stop this influx behind the scenes. We won't get 100% of these a$$&oles but we will reduce them.

As always, please report any spammers to admin/moderators.

Thanks
 
sorry I haven't been much help banning spammers... my days are feast or famine...
 
OK, we are getting completely backed up with spammers in the registration queue and am afraid that we may be losing legitimate users as a result. The problem right now appears to be the fact the 95% of the spammers are using a gmail account.

I would like to ask anyone that has a gmail account to please change their email to another carrier other than gmail. I will be banning all gmail emails soon. There are sometimes 60 spammers registering with gmail at a clip and overnight I had 12 more. Pass the word.
 
Jeff,

If you look back at the last several years on the old ICC BB; we really didn't acquire very many "real" new active members; accept when the Mini-soda fiasco started.

Now might be the time to start charging for membership (posting rights). I am not very knowledgeable about this stuff; but would a small fee of $5.00 (just an example) per year stop the spammers? What I'm getting at is if a fee were required to join and post; then that might stop the spammers.

Free to look; but, money to join and have posting rights.

Just a thought,

Uncle Bob
 
I think we will lose more people than gain if we charge. Really don't want to charge. If we go the donation route, that wont' fix the spam problem. I made the CAPTCHA harder to see so that may help the spammer issue. This is becoming a major problem. Not sure what the solution will be.
 
I agree, charging even a nominal fee will not attract new membership, there are plenty here that will help with dollars when need be. As far as the spammers, I'm not net-savvy enough to offer any advice there. Hang in there Jeff, is there anything the mods can do to help?
 
Here is an example of the most recent 19 that came in today. None of them look legit

AquarceFura sophsmithmate@aol.com 207.81.43.196 Accept Delete Ignore elapamnWeax wiinnalknll@prokonto.pl 94.75.118.123 Accept Delete Ignore hecdocaverari iphone5release@aim.com 68.82.104.188 Accept Delete Ignore Insabsnic vincentcastillo@allzines.com 195.162.68.86 Accept Delete Ignore kevarearlyhor ackacfsfsdfs@aol.com 91.206.183.174 Accept Delete Ignore lancer570 us4kovs@epix.net 65.40.192.223 Accept Delete Ignore LeagreeLymn patrick9kidd@aol.com 124.168.90.172 Accept Delete Ignore LifffOrne liupingxr12+0@gmail.com 182.50.142.66 Accept Delete Ignore LimullyBoli davemilliron@wordtagvbz.info 188.165.212.27 Accept Delete Ignore Mats29kcq andy804251@gmail.com 123.183.209.201 Accept Delete Ignore NeoppyWot15 hiaso69@aol.com 109.230.221.198 Accept Delete Ignore Nornocavoumma liupingxr12+1@gmail.com 182.50.141.198 Accept Delete Ignore opitteatterty annabartova14@gmail.com 109.86.178.213 Accept Delete Ignoreplaphielf alex.peter3423+1@gmail.com 109.169.67.223 Accept Delete Ignore stooffmoopy liupingxr12+2@gmail.com 182.50.141.198 Accept Delete Ignore stooreohajobege viratbirchjog@gmail.com 72.9.227.227 Accept Delete Ignore tesuwfwolel testspaaam@hotmail.com 46.17.100.203 Accept Delete Ignore utenteefexy dan79jackson@hotmail.com 213.5.71.191 Accept Delete Ignore
 
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I see one potential keeper in the lot (pasadena-arch)

As Fat said, if there is anything the mods can do, count me in.

mj
 
Mods can just keep an eye on posts to make sure spammers are not posting. I am watching the gates to keep the spammers out and this is the problem. I am still getting a mass influx of spammers who are registering.
 
Let um through like you have in the past and let the moderators delete their thread and report which user it was so a mod can whack em!

Just a thought.
 
I just don't want to have false numbers. WE can have thousands of members if I would approve every single person that registered. The problem is that many of them are spammers and we will end up spending tons of time moderating them and then banning them anyway. Why go through the trouble? IF they all decide to post spam on the same day, it would cripple the board.
 
Would going to a different type operating system help? Saaaaaay, Mozilla? I have

this system on my computer at home and it doesn't seem to attract the spammers/

online viruses near as much as Internet Explorer. Just a thought!

Jeff and the others,

Keep up the great work running / operating this forum. You are rapidly distancing

yourself from The Cow. Let's keep this forum as professional and continuously

reputable as we can.
 
Thanks for the help Big Willie. Mozilla is something you use on your end. Not on ours. I just hired the IT folks to upgrade the software YET AGAIN in less than a month. Apparently Vbulletin has a TON of bugs it is fixing along with some enhancements.
 
If you charge... what was the reason for leaving the old board?

You can block certain ranges of IP numbers. Might not be pc but face it, there are large portions of the world that see us as one thing, their meal ticket. Sorry that's their situation but we aren't going to change that.

How many legitimate members are here from China, India, the Phillipines, Russia. When I realized we had zero on another board those ranges were blocked, yes that may exclude the one or two legitimate posters from those regions... I never saw them and I did hold out hope and held the door open for a long time.

This board has a far narrower focus, the I codes. You can start by blocking those regions that do not use the I codes. We might call them international but the world as a whole does not know they exist nor do they use them. Effectively you could limit the board to the US and not miss a thing. If there is anyone from outside the US here, raise your hand.

Top to bottom;

207. US- Y,

94. Warsaw- N

68. US- Y

195. Switzerland- N

91. GB- N

65. US- Y

124. Melbourne- N

182. Malaysia- N

188. France- N

123. China- N

109. Germany- N

182. Malaysia- N

109. Ukraine- N

109. 169 US-LA from GB, sumthins fishy

182. Malaysia- N

72. Atlanta- Y with a flag

46. Moscow- email is test spam, pass

213. Belize- N

Wow, who did you pith off?

You can be more diplomatic, there are a number of applicants from the "free" world that might be either way (they aren't but you can hope). You can ban the obvious ones and bump some mods to admin level, pass the questionable ones off to them, let them send out a stock personal note and get a response, then decide from there. A number of the ones I said Yes to are still highly suspect, I'll give any American a try, once, you can grill them or flag them in a way only the admins and mods can see for a probationary period. Once they are known remove the flag.

If it were me, I'd block all but ARIN IP numbers and then sift through them. Don't post personally identifying info in public again and probably hide the info above. There are a few up there I'd be tempted to mail a worm back to :D
 
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New strategy in place since yesterday afternoon appears to be working. Small change in the registration process. 2 new legit members and no spammers because they have to answer a question now.
 
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