Spambots

[Nephasth]

So I clicked on the member list today and noticed quite a few obvious spambot accounts that are new:

 #adidasjs[FVVQVVVFFFFE]       Newbie 2012-12-12 0 
  #adidasW2b       Newbie 2013-01-23 0 
  #dygennickairh       Newbie 2013-02-01 0 
  #frnnice[YSRRRSRRRFRR]       Newbie 2013-01-10 0 
  #frnnick[YSRRRSRRRFRR]       Newbie 2012-12-11 0 
  #genn[SZZSJSJZS]AT       Newbie 2011-12-24 0 
  #mulberry 5c       Newbie 2013-01-15 0 
  #mulberryTX8b       Newbie 2013-01-25 0 
  #nikeheelsSP5myh       Newbie 2013-01-18 0 
  #nikeheelsT8c       Newbie 2013-02-02 0 
  #northface[TXWTTXT]1d       Newbie 2013-01-09 0 
  #redsoleS70vd       Newbie 2013-01-19 0 
  #redsole[T45sdfT]3b       Newbie 2013-01-10 0 
  #uogennickrmjo

Then I filtered the list by join date, and holy crap there's a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----ton of new members with new posts. What's the average number of new members per month? In the past two days alone over 200 have joined.

[Nephasth]

Well that's interesting. We're not even 2 full months into the year and we've acquired 13,029 new members this year. Compared to 14,150 for all of 2012, and only 7224 in 2011.

[saint]

Yeah, they've developed a new way around the filters. Pain in the keester.

[HaRuMaN]

Yeah, they've developed a new way around the filters. Pain in the keester.

Go the KLOV route, $2 via PayPal to get an account, profit!$$$

[Le Chuck]

So of the 45000ish members any guesses on:

Active
Lurker
Spambot
Abandoned
Duel (it's a well known rumor that 18% of all user ids are Driverman and PbJ.)

[PL1]

Duel

I see what you did there -- whether you meant to or not. 


Scott

[ark_ader]

I just forget about it and look for Names that look realistic.

I got about 30K last month, my host gives me unlimited data so I'll clean out the user base when it gets to 1 million.

The funny thing is that I banned like 300 IP addresses from China and they still keep posting.  All gmail too.

Maybe I should bill Google. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

When I was moderator over at the Maximus Arcade forums a couple of years ago the spam was ridiculous.  Sometimes hundreds a week.  Banning IPs does not do any good for some reason either.  The forums would get temporarily locked by the creator of MA so that he could "mop up".

It got to the point that the forums are locked to this day.  I guess the creator of MA got tired of the battle.

I hate to endorse Captcha but wouldn't that prevent bots from signing up?

D

[Le Chuck]

I hate to endorse Captcha but wouldn't that prevent bots from signing up?

D

Heh.  Really? http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/inside-indias-captcha-solving-economy/1835

Firms in india that pay $2 for every captcha beat.  That's $2 for every 1000 spam accounts activated.  5 years ago.  I'm sure its only gotten worse.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Wow. That's alarming!

One found in that page posted this in response to the article:

"CMS and forum software tend to migrate to Question-Answer based model. It's much better, because Indian captcha solvers can only crack English and Indian languages, so replacing captcha with your local language question results in 0 spam.

If you're (out of luck) operating English language site, try to create some specifically tailored question or group of questions that could be answered by your visitors, but not by Indian guys "

[ark_ader]

Looks like you still have a problem Saint.  How about blocking and moderating the first member posts for the next six months?

[saint]

Looks like you still have a problem Saint.  How about blocking and moderating the first member posts for the next six months?

Not a bad idea at all. Will look into that.

[ed12]

interesting they must be getting better,because i did not think i had seen any
for some time.?

ed

[Malenko]

interesting they must be getting better,because i did not think i had seen any
for some time.?

ed

Im quick to report them.

[lilshawn]

i do too, but i always have the feeling that saints message box is being spammed with 100's of "report to moderator" posts.

Spammers or us. pick one.

[Vigo]

I know a few forums that will not allow new members to post until they post something in an "introduce yourself" thread. I assume this is a spambot breaking measure.

[lilshawn]

maybe for the first 30 posts you have to answer arcade related questions 

[BAMBOO]

Dirk_Da_Daring is my alt.  Why an alt?  Cause I lost my original account from 2006 and want to make sure it wont happen again.

Don't boot Dirk_Da_Daring.

[Malenko]

kill any new account that is made and doesn't have X number of posts by Y number of days.

[ark_ader]

kill any new account that is made and doesn't have X number of posts by Y number of days.

It isn't as easy as that.  I would dump the user database into excel and run a query, and manually clean it from there.  There must be a probation time for new posts, but it all depends on the admin resources.  After all these years I'm sure there are thousands of dormant accounts.

[Malenko]

kill any new account that is made and doesn't have X number of posts by Y number of days.

It isn't as easy as that.  I would dump the user database into excel and run a query, and manually clean it from there.  There must be a probation time for new posts, but it all depends on the admin resources.  After all these years I'm sure there are thousands of dormant accounts.

it is that easy if you maintain the database, problem is, it hasnt been.