SPAM???

[cbmeeks]

Looks like there is a spam epidemic on this forum lately.

I hope the moderators can handle this soon. I'd be happy to help in any way I can.

[BigEd]

I'm sure Garth will be on it pretty quickly. I think all the accounts are newly created - they will be deleted and their IPs may also be blocked.

[GARTHWILSON]

There were about nine new accounts from the same two or three IP addresses in Ukraine. We banned them and deleted hundreds of spam posts, stopping the abuser when he was still in the process of posting his garbage. It looks like the abuser got past the sign-up requirements by hand before setting a spambot in motion. The measures Mike set up several years ago have been quite effective in keeping the spammers out. One is to automatically check against a database of spammers that forums refer to. If a spammer starts up with a new name, IP address, or email address, his rap sheet starts building within anywhere from minutes to less than a day after he starts his vandalism under those identifiers. You won't find anything charming in what I have to say about these vandals and what ought to be done to them.

[cbmeeks]

Awesome.

Thanks!

[ChuckT]

Sometimes blocking their I.P. addresses don't always work because there are programs that people can use where their I.P addresses can be from London and another day they can be in Japan.

[GARTHWILSON]

They may have dynamic addresses too; but we also block the email address (so they can't sign up again from the same one after we delete them) and usually their user name too. Removing their garbage right away is a pretty good discouragement though. Signing up took human time, so if their stuff gets removed while the paint is still wet, they don't want to waste their time again. At the peak of the problem, I was kicking out 20-25 spammers a day, and that was taking a lot of my time. That was before Mike added the capcha, the questions, and the email confirmation so spambots couldn't sign up without a human taking his time.

[cbmeeks]

One thing I was doing (that I hoped helped a little) was reporting the posts as spam. But I tried to make sure I didn't just report the same user over and over. But, instead, tried to report the different users that I saw.

I just wished the spammers would go away to some island where there is no internet and leave us alone.

[GARTHWILSON]

Quite a few years back, I tried reporting spammers to their ISP. A couple of them canceled the customer's accounts immediately, but most didn't care. A couple of them asked for a copy of the exact spam email, and I explained this is not email, but they're posting spam on our forum. The ISP wouldn't do anything.