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Forum Issue: SPAM messages and SPAM accounts are going exponential. — Parallax Forums

Forum Issue: SPAM messages and SPAM accounts are going exponential.

Clock LoopClock Loop Posts: 2,069
edited 2015-07-07 20:03 in General Discussion
Get them while they are in minimal numbers..   Get that CAPTCHA system going! (or human verification?)
You can see the major increase of new users that lack email verification and have never logged into the system, but are new users.

With new forum, means all the spam bots just found the parallax generic vanilla setup, with all its defaults, a haven for auto spam bots that register new users and post spam.

http://forums.parallax.com/profile/92987/tcepsych09

http://forums.parallax.com/profile/92986/TrevorRick

http://forums.parallax.com/profile/92980/MichaelPen

http://forums.parallax.com/profile/92977/SadyeMaple

http://forums.parallax.com/profile/92975/ColemanHum

http://forums.parallax.com/profile/92967/HallieAber

You can find the spam they have contributed on their activity pages. 
 (and probably have spammed the forums with threads too)

Comments

  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    Those users are in a Role group called "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" so they should not be able to post to any discussions, but since you can post to your own activity board without being confirmed, I would agree that this needs to be a topic on Parallax's issue list.
    All I can find is how to delete a comment from a user. I cannot find any user control under my moderator status.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Thanks for the headsup Clock  Loop !
    They have already been banned, so no damage here in the short term.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Those users are in a Role group called "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" so they should not be able to post to any discussions, but since you can post to your own activity board without being confirmed, I would agree that this needs to be a topic on Parallax's issue list.
    All I can find is how to delete a comment from a user. I cannot find any user control under my moderator status.


    I guess us Moderators will never see the new signups, just Super Moderators. I checked their avitars, and they have all been banned.
  • Courtney JacobsCourtney Jacobs Posts: 903
    It's being worked on, permissions are obviously off a bit for unvalidated users.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2015-07-07 20:38
    They're doing it for the link spam. Disable the ability for new members to post anything, especially a home page link, to their profile page until X hours and/or moderator approval. That will take care of about 90%.
    Before banning just a few minutes ago, Mr. Hum had a link to a dieting site. At least it wasn't pr0n.

    BTW, almost all of these will be automated. So yes, a captcha is de rigueur here.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    Are they really 'going exponential' or is this just temporary thing?

  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    edited 2015-07-07 22:43
    Are they really 'going exponential' or is this just temporary thing?



    If you do a mashup of Clock Loops first two sentences, you come out with "exponentially minimal". 
    :clown:

    In other words, had potential, but already nipped by Courtney, Bump, et al. Plus moderators are being weaponized so staff can keep working on the forum migration and us moderators can take over handling the spammers.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    I see 3 spam posts on top of the Activity area just now, posted a few minutes ago. So not entirely taken care of yet.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2015-07-08 00:50
    Nor will it ever be taken care of if the spammers have to be manually ejected. The best way to circumvent this, and avoid the worst of the spammers linking to the really bad sites, is to automate the fence. Read all about it here: 
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_spam



  • BumpBump Posts: 592
    We have a few safeguards to prevent forum spam; stop forum spam, captcha, email confirm, and three different user roles defined for each.
    What you saw above, minimally, was a small code line that allowed awaiting to add things to their wall; they can't do this anymore.
    Now the only users you should see as spammers are ones that manage to hop each fence, such as paid subscribers, and moderators should have tools for that; they'll be getting more the longer I work on this project.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2015-07-08 21:15
    Already got one thanks to Bump for super charging the moderators tools. Rock on Bump!
    Better days are ahead.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    Well, the Activity page has multiple spam posts again. No ' report' button for alerting moderators? And there is at least one new post there which was clearly meant to be a PM.
    I would prefer the whole 'Activity' mechanism to be dropped rather than have it the way it works now.
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