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New tactics (bots)

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Jim_UK
Board Member



Joined: 19 Nov 2008

Posts: 656
Location: North West UK


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 4:02 am 
Post subject: New tactics (bots)

Having the VIP mod in place the only spammers that I have ever had have been human but this morning I have been kept busy by what I believe to be a combination of human and bot. The links have been to kitchen unit manufacturers in the UK so another clue to human interaction I think.
What I think has happened is that a human goes through the registration process including the VIP question and then a script simply copies those actions inserting different usernames and email addresses. As soon as I removed an account a new one appeared so I have temporarily changed activation to Admin and will not activate any with unusual email addresses or with webmail ones.
The Starfoxtj Admin Toolkit is proving very useful for mass deletion of accounts and their posts.
Next test is to change the VIP question and see if any more spammer accounts are created.

Has anyone else noticed unusual activity recently?

Jim
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dogs and things
Board Member



Joined: 18 Nov 2008

Posts: 628
Location: Spain


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:48 pm 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

Hi Jim,

No, I have not noticed anything like this.

I donīt use the VIP mod, I use the Antibot question mod, and I have a Spanish board, which also helps.

I have seen a slight increase in human spammer registrations, they register, make a signature, copy (part of) an existing post, post this text as a new topic and leave. I guess they pretend to come back later and edit their post and/or their signature to include their nasty links.

But they wonīt succeed 'cause I troll them. icon_biggrin.gif

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Jim_UK
Board Member



Joined: 19 Nov 2008

Posts: 656
Location: North West UK


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 4:01 pm 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

dogs and things wrote:

But they wonīt succeed 'cause I troll them. icon_biggrin.gif


I hadn't thought about that. What a good idea.

Jim
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JLA
Board Member



Joined: 30 Apr 2009

Posts: 451
Location: U.S.A


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 6:39 pm 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

Nothing unusual noticed here with the exception of some rather interesting Google Producer traffic we have been looking closely at.

Other than that continue to try and fail.

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StarWolf3000
Board Member



Joined: 10 Jun 2010

Posts: 175
Location: Germany


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:29 am 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

It seems, that phpBBHacks.com is also beeing flooded by spam bots. Jeremy "Thoul" Rogers needs to do something to prevent them. The strongest prevention could be to install an Invitation system, as the current Captcha type ("Select all vehicles" for example) doesn't seem to prevent them to get access to posting system. Or the usage of more than only one prevention system during the registration phase.

For example, you can install the Approval MOD (see here), which can hide the posts of new users and individual posts. This is ony for phpBB2. For phpBB3 you can set the permissions for usergroups.
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lumpy burgertushie
Board Member



Joined: 18 Nov 2008

Posts: 266


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:50 am 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

has phpbbhacks moved to phpbb3 yet? I don't go there anymore because I do not agree with their policy about deleting posts without good reason.


robert
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StarWolf3000
Board Member



Joined: 10 Jun 2010

Posts: 175
Location: Germany


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:04 am 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

lumpy burgertushie wrote:
has phpbbhacks moved to phpbb3 yet? I don't go there anymore because I do not agree with their policy about deleting posts without good reason.


robert

Yup, they now use phpBB3. But my last posts were many years ago.
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JLA
Board Member



Joined: 30 Apr 2009

Posts: 451
Location: U.S.A


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 11:58 am 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

As I recall, they've had a number of problems over the recent years???
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StarWolf3000
Board Member



Joined: 10 Jun 2010

Posts: 175
Location: Germany


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 12:06 pm 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

JLA wrote:
As I recall, they've had a number of problems over the recent years???

The biggest problem they had, that there was really low activity on the board itself. The first 5 years were full of activity and it was one of the biggest phpBB modifications boards besides phpBB.com. When development on Olympus (at this time the codename for 2.2) begun, they lost most of the activity.
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lumpy burgertushie
Board Member



Joined: 18 Nov 2008

Posts: 266


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 6:13 pm 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

and they also started deleting posts just because they did not agree with the point of view.

they also deleted several of my posts because they questioned if I had written them or was quoting someone else because of the way I formatted them. I used some of the preformatted articles I have written and pasted them in there. since it was using the quote bbcode they assumed I was using someone else's copy and deleted the posts before they even asked about it.

one thing lead to another and I finally told them that although it was their right to run their board however they wanted to it was also my right to not do business there. I have not been back since and that was 2 or 3 years ago.

oh well....


robert
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drathbun
Board Member



Joined: 24 Jul 2008

Posts: 729
Location: Texas


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:22 pm 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

I've been getting creamed by UK kitchen spammers, and I am quite certain they're human. I added code to the "flood control" area of the board that looks for their keywords and URLs. If it finds any matches, no matter how long it has been since they last posted, they trigger the flood control. icon_twisted.gif It's simple but effective.
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JLA
Board Member



Joined: 30 Apr 2009

Posts: 451
Location: U.S.A


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:02 am 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

What are UK Kitchen Spammers?
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Jim_UK
Board Member



Joined: 19 Nov 2008

Posts: 656
Location: North West UK


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:27 am 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

They are posting links to websites where you can order fitted kitchens (Kitchen cabinets to fit your kitchen)

Jim
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JLA
Board Member



Joined: 30 Apr 2009

Posts: 451
Location: U.S.A


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:37 pm 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

Jim_UK wrote:
They are posting links to websites where you can order fitted kitchens (Kitchen cabinets to fit your kitchen)

Jim


So they moved from Watches and Viagra to Kitchen Cabinets now huh? LOL!

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drathbun
Board Member



Joined: 24 Jul 2008

Posts: 729
Location: Texas


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:03 am 
Post subject: Re: New tactics (bots)

Yup. The flood control change I made has certainly helped.
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