Dirty low down snake belly spammers

[Granger]

Response from one of the ROG modos in France

Salut nous avons un système automatique pour bloquer les messages avec des liens extérieurs au forum pour les nouveaux membres.
Ceci afin que le message ne soit pas affiché, mais non supprimés pour autant.
Sinon nous procédons manuellement à la suppression des messages et aux bans des comptes, après que nous ayons remarqués les spams.

Tu ne vois pas de spam, c'est normal avec ce système, mais je peux te garantir qu'il y en a ^^

Translation:

Hi, we have an automatic system that blocks messages with external links created by new members.
This stops the messages from being visible, but they are not deleted.
Then we proceed to deleting the posts and banning the accounts manually once we have seen the spam.

You don't see the spam, which is normal with this system, but I can guaranty that we get it ^^

There you go, all we need now is how to set up the auto block so that the messages arent posted.
But now he has explained how they work, it brings to mind a few problems that I remember when I first joined the forum. Before having posted a certain amount of posts, every time I linked to an external site, or wished to post a photo, I needed a moderation of my post.


edit: They use vbulletin to control the forum.

[speed]

There are like 10 spams out there right now. This tread was bumped by a spam. Getting sick of seeing it. I hate them. Do people respond to this and buy stuff? I would not buy anything from these A**hol*s.

[kkn]

they get paid to do the spams.

[Myk SilentShadow]

It has progresively gotten worse lately, I try and report as much of it as I possibly can when I see it. Though, I do think we could use an Aussie Moderator too; to cover the times when the US and UK are sleeping, though yes there is one in France....but, there is still a big jump in time between that Mod and me here in Aus......i'd do it if possible, just to help the Mods keep this crap off our Forums.

[speed]

Yes It has become much worse. When I first came here I did not see any. Now you have to wade thru the spam to find a real post.

[MarshallR@ASUS]

We'll look into the links one.

I got 168 reported post emails over the weekend - this is getting crazy now and has to stop! Tempted just to ban the whole 41.xxx.xxx.xxx range but that would be just an angry response on my part

[Raja@ASUS]

We ban IPs but still the 41.xxx.xxx.xxx ranges comes back. There's not much more we can do to load up the site with anti-spam stuff, without pissing off genuine new members.

Think we should trial a few days with that range excluded? I was close to doing this over the weekend but held firing it off in the engine. Need to trace the key suffixes after the 41 prefix and see if it will hurt registrations. Doubt we get many from whatever part of the world it is (why does Nigeria or a bounce from that region spring to mind)...lol


EDIT: Okay that came up as Ghana... Are we selling any ROG product out there :P

I say we go on a 3 day trial. We can always pull the wildcard out of the ban entry list if it hurts anyone.

[speed]

You have your work cut out for you that is for sure. If I can help in anyway let me know. I really do hate them. Good for them I don't know where they live. I would love to dispatch them neatly.

[Zka17]

Think we should trial a few days with that range excluded? I was close to doing this over the weekend but held firing it off in the engine. Need to trace the key suffixes after the 41 prefix and see if it will hurt registrations. Doubt we get many from whatever part of the world it is (why does Nigeria or a bounce from that region spring to mind)...lol


EDIT: Okay that came up as Ghana... Are we selling any ROG product out there :P

I say we go on a 3 day trial. We can always pull the wildcard out of the ban entry list if it hurts anyone.

I guess, you could put a ban for posting on that area's IPs, just let them to read the forum. You could also check if some members here are from that area, and warn them before blocking. Also, a note could be posted like "From XY country/area posting is not available" - plus give an email dress if someone really needs help to contact.

[Raja@ASUS]

All of that above would take mods, so that is something we can look at when there is time.

For now, banned some selected ranges and will monitor for 3 days to see effects. Knocked about 50% of today's spam count out from what i have seen since this morning. Most of it is from Ghana and Nigeria.