Deleting of spam

[Igor]

Gérard,

Thanks for good idea with email validation!

Please let me know how email notifications/subscriptions works now? I've reconfigured the forum.

[Ken Cox]

Igor

your communication with INVISION re stopping the spam does not seem to be working - -i just reported 2 more this morn -- lost count for yesterday

ken

[Lin Evans]

Gérard,

Thanks for good idea with email validation!

Please let me know how email notifications/subscriptions works now? I've reconfigured the forum.

Hi Igor,

Another way which is sometimes used in conjunction with the previous suggestion is to have a disguised code which must be identified then typed in by the applicant. This code changes on a regular basis and appears to the viewer as a graphic containing numbers and letters which only a human could identify because the numbers and letters are not in regular fonts but distorted. A spyder or "bot" could not possibly know or recognize such a code because the machine can only interpret binary code containing ASCII characters and has no way to make the intuitive "leap" to translate a graphic image to a binary ASCII equivalent. For example one could have a "picture" of the number 3 and the letter Z and the "requirement" would be to type in 3Z which would take a human to actually accomplish. Since the vast majority of these spam messages are machine generated, this action requires a human to interpret. This process is used as security for some web transactions as well.

I don't know if this is applicable to the INVISION web but it wouldn't hurt to ask them.

Best regards,

Lin

[jimhall]

Another way which is sometimes used in conjunction with the previous suggestion is to have a disguised code which must be identified then typed in by the applicant. .......

I just signed up a few minutes ago, and I had to both enter a "secret" code embedded in a graphic, and reply to an e-mail to confirm my email address. Pretty standard stuff, really. Whatever it takes to help reduce SPAM!!!

Jim

[alrobin]

I just signed up a few minutes ago, and I had to both enter a "secret" code embedded in a graphic, and reply to an e-mail to confirm my email address. Jim

That's great - looks like the Board may be implementing Igor's requests.

[thedom]

I noticed the spamming is growing exponentially for a few days.

There isn't anything to do against it, like ban IP ?

[silvia1]

No se si servira de ayuda. Yo uso para entar en Internet , un programa llamado Opera, el cual configuro para evitar entren programas spam. Lo que no puedo evitar son los email spam en mis cuentas de correo.

El Internet Explorer no lo uso, salvo algunas ocasiones.

I use to enter in Internet, a called program Opera, which I form to avoid enter programs Spam. What I cannot avoid they are email Spam in my accounts of mail.

Internet Explorer don´t use many times-

Sorry for my english. I hope understand me and hope some help for you.

Silvia

[Guest guru]

Sylvia, don't care about your English! I understood both your texts in Spanish and in English.

But the problem is different. We want to avoid spammer messages in PTE forum, and here Explorer, Opera and Firefox don't make any difference.

[Ken Cox]

moderators should also ban permanently the spammers -- and also edit tiles where possible

ken

[Guest guru]

I agree, Ken.

Anyhow every time I find and delete a spammig message, I send to Igor a short message "To ban" with the username and the IP address of the spammer. I think only an Administrator can ban a member.

[Ken Cox]

Guido

you click the warning indicator and fill in the blanks and reason

then go back and edit or delete thread

ken

[Guest guru]

Ken,

what do you mean with "warning indicator"? Can you send me a little screen capture?

[Barry Beckham]

Under the heading of spam, I have been trying a piece of software called Cloudmark and it is simple and appears to work all the time.

I have not had to fish one email out of the spam folder yet

You can take a free trial here

http://www.cloudmark.com/landing/?prod=saf...=sbibr302172158

At the end of my trial, I think I will be buying this.

Barry

[alrobin]

As long as it is possible for hackers to break in and register so easily, banning them is useless. They are "one-time wonders", and can easily come back in under another pseudonym.

What we need is a better system of registration and control over who can post messages.

[Guest guru]

Thanks Barry, but I've seen that Cloudmark can be used only with Outlook and Outlook Express. And as I refuse to use Internet Explorer, so I refuse also MS e-mail software. I prefer other programs more complete and safe (as Igor himself does).

[Guest guru]

As long as it is possible for hackers to break in and register so easily, banning them is useless. They are "one-time wonders", and can easily come back in under another pseudonym.

What we need is a better system of registration and control over who can post messages.

Yes Al, I completely agree with you.I think a "validation"method (as Gérard suggested in previous page) could be much more effective.

[Ken Cox]

here ya go moderators -- use it to ban spammers:)

you click the warn bar near bottom of left column which brings up the next screen -

ken

[Guest Techman1]

To Moderators,

Be sure and do the adjust levels and disable these users indefinitely prior to deleting the message. You'll need to add a comment for the reason you are disabling the user also (Spammer, Spammer - Sex Junk, etc.).

I would also recommend deleting the message. If they start a new Thread delete the whole thing or if they add a message to an existing Thread, simply delete their individual message (not the Thread).

The Spam does seem to have picked up lately, but there are several moderators on the forum trying to keep it clean. We appreciate everyone sending alerts about the Spammers and all moderators get an email if they aren't on the forum notifying them of the new messages.

I too think a system where we have to allow new users onto the board, would be a good way. This shouldn't cause a new legitimate PTE user much of a delay to be enabled for posting. I know several other forums which do this and I don't see any Spam popping up on their sites.

Take care all!

Fred

[Guest guru]

Thank you very much for these specifications, Fred!

[Gérard de Lux]

The 'warning system' integrated in Invision Board is of no use concerning spammers; its sole purpose is to warn regular members that they don't respect the usual rules about posting and after a given number of warnings they are temporarily (and then definitively) banned if they still don't comply with the rules. This is absolutely not the case here !

These spammers here are 'professional' spammers - mostly robots - who register just to advertise their 'products' as long as the door is open. Banning their IPs and e-mail addresses is of no use as they use fake IPs and e-mails (sometimes and quite often, real ones belonging to real persons !); worse is when nthey use fake AOL addresses as, due to the system of proxies used by AOL, many real AOL subscribers would be banned !!!

The only thing to do is delete their posts and registration, but it won't prevent new ones (in fact, always the sames coming back, but under different names and addresses) from registering and polluting.

As I said earlier, after several months of trials on our French DiaporamaForum (which uses also Invision Board, and has more than 50.000 posts and 1400 members), the only effective way to stop spammers has been to switch to manual validation of registering 'candidates'. People register as usual and as here, but their 'membership' isn't active until validated by a member of the team. In order to be validated, they have to reply in normal words to an e-mail, stating why they want to register or anything sensible; usually robots can't do that ! We also use a few other 'tricks' to distinguish spammers from normal people but it would be too long to go into details here.

Since this manual validation has been put into force, we still have about a dozen spammers a day but they are stopped at the registering door and can't go further. It is much more efficient to spend a few minutes with them before they register than spending the same time, and even more, after they have registered and have polluted the forum.

[Gérard de Lux]

To illustrate what I said earlier, here is a screenshot of the administrators' control board as provided in Invision Board.

As you can see, there are people on the waiting list for being validated as members : we are waiting for their e-mail that will prove that they aren't robots or spammers; when we receive this 'sensible' e-mail, we just have to check the box on the right and click below (see red arrow) to approve their account.

If we don't validate them, they will be automatically deleted from the registering queue after x days (this timespan being determined by the administrator). Of course, instead of approval, there is also a choice to "delete" anyone on the queue when it's obvious that the 'candidate' is a spammer.

[alrobin]

Gerard,

You have hit the nail on the head! This is the only way to deal with saboteurs - they require something more drastic than the "normal" disciplining of valid members.

[JPD]

I have often a problem when I send a report, it's like the connexion break down, I am obliged to quit and to reconnect to Wnsoft. I had this problem at least 10 times. No other problem with the forum.

[alrobin]

I haven't experienced this problem. Everything seems to work just fine, including the spam.

[ronwil]

I have also experienced the same problem as Jean-Pierre but put it down to a case of "great minds thinking alike" and wishing to access the Moderator at the same time. A short wait and judicious use of the back arrow seems to solve the problem for me. JP and I are in a different time zone from Al.

Ron [uK]