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Forum Index : Site News : Blocking generic email accounts
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
The friggen spammers have been busy of late. Little pricks. The one thing 99.9 percent of spammers have in common is they use a free email address, like hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc, to register on the forum. Normally if I get a spammer, I delete their postings, their membership, and then block their email address so they cant sign up again. The problem is, they just go get a new free email address and sign up again! For example, a spammer might set up a email address like fred123@hotmail.com, sign up to the forum and post spam. I will then delete them and block fred123@hotmail.com. So they then go off and set up a new email address of Fred124@hotmail.com and reregister. The only way to stop this is to block any new registrations from hotmail, gmail, etc. This will stop most of the spammers, and is a practice put in place by many forums, but it also stops any normal person who has a hotmail/gmail/etc account and wants to sigh up. 
Dont know what to do at this time, will think about it. Note any changes I make will only apply to new membership, current members wont be affected. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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wind-pirate Senior Member  Joined: 01/02/2007 Location: CanadaPosts: 101 |
Glenn One thing I have noticed on some fourms, You need a sponsor. That "may" slow some of them down. Or Any one signing up with a "EG:" hotmail acct would need a sponsor. Only thinking out loud. Ron  THE Pirate. stealing wind & solar energy is fun |
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vasi Guru  Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Hi Glenn, On some forums and discussion groups, you can become member on request. Is required the email, user name, and an explanation - who are you and why you want to be member. Of course, the captcha must be in place. Then, your request (membership - account activated) is approved or not. The new member will be notified by email. One of the problems is that you and the moderators must deal with every request. At least (thanks to the captcha - try recaptcha), you stop the bots. I don't know if there is a real solution as long as the site must be international. On clubs forums, no problems because there is about known people and no public registration (the email invitations are sent by admin to known people - in this case, the account is made by the admin and no email confirmation required). Best regards, Vasi Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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AMUN-RA Senior Member Joined: 10/03/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 144 |
when I joined anbees forum to learn about our stingless native friends I had to request to join provide a reason and then wait for approval but it was not a problem that would weed out some of the spammers Every day the sun shines & gravity sucks= free energy. |
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| Robb Senior Member Joined: 01/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 221 |
One place I visit your first x number of posts must be reviewed prior to being shown on the site. |
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powerednut Senior Member Joined: 09/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 221 |
How many of your regular user base has a free email address? Personally I only use free email addresses when registering on a forum. I think the provide a reason + post review process could work, but it will require more work from you guy. |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Some good idea's. I've been looking into what the forum software can do to help, and there are some anti-spam settings in there I can play around with. One is time between posts, and I've set it to 1 minute. If you post a message, the forum wont let you post another for 1 minute, which seams fine. The other setting is no more than 5 posts per 30 minutes. I dont know if it will help but its worth a try. There isn't any way for me to intercept the first posts by a new member, unfortunately. But I might write a bit of code to make the forum notify me when a new member signs up. Most spammers have suspect home pages or tag lines, making them easy to spot, so I could delete them before they post too much spam. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Glenn I think you have been doing a good job up to now as compared to other sites there is a very small amount of spam, I think that a list of approved email addresses, with new members being logged on by admin, and that the first 5 emails go through a gate before full access is granted, that should be enough to sort out all but the most persistent spammers. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1343 |
Hi Glenn, If I may offer the way we do things on the Electro-tech forum to target spammers etc. If the first 6 posts by a new comer they put in a moderation queue if they post an outside link or picture etc and the general members can't see the posts. There is also a report button where members can report spammers and each moderator gets an email. Now we do have moderators from all around the world so it doesn't take long to latch on and delete the offending posts and ban the members if required. Regards Bryan |
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