Shaan

Looks like the forum is plagued with 'spoof' members trying to generate clicks with links to commercial and questionable web sites. These are generally created by 'autobots' that scan the web looking for unprotected phpBB forums to infest.

I have had a look through the last 100 or so members that have joined our forum and believe that upto 75% of them are spoofed. I have seen this sort of activity in another forum I managed and there appears to be 2 levels of intrusion...

1 - 'Spoof' Members joining the forum with dodgy links in their signatures, but with zero post counts
2 - 'Spoof' Members joining the forum with dodgy commercial links and posting 'uninteligible' messages into the top level forum, (see above)

The way that we previously dealt with number 1 was to implement the phpBB feature that asks a user to confirm their enrollment in the forum before they get access, which should keep the autobots from making any more user accounts.

I believe that there is a new phpBB update with the ability to force any new users to enter a scrambled letter/number combo into their application for membership before their account is activated. I am sure you have seen this sort of thing before. It is a recent security measure adopted by many forums and websites, and it works pretty well as an anti-bot measure.

The second level of attack is relatively new and insiduious, but should be counter-acted by the implementation of both user confirmation and the scrambled code software.

My suggestion is to implement the user confirmation facility within the current phpBB software and delete any 'spoofed' member that has a post count of zero and a link to a commercial website. Then review any member with a link in their profile or signature, and delete as appropriate. You might want to take a look and make sure you are running the latest phpBB software...

These spoofers are a royal pain in the arse, but a little admin should keep them at bay. If you need any help with the clean up, let me know....

bugger - i thought doris was a genuine kiter!

thanks for your post spig, i have read it several times but still have no idea what you're talking about so i hereby appoint you chief forum ghostbuster and honorary IT guy. go get 'em. chase them across the plains and slaughter them in broad daylight as an example to other wayfarers. may the force be with you.

It's the same on yahoogroups. People need to get your permission to join but of course as we want our forums as big as possible we tend to assume that they are kiters and let them in... then they bombard us with all this bullshit about non-kiting matters... but i tell ya banning them is a big turn on 8)

go slaughter em spiggy.

200+ 'spoofed' users have been ruthlessly murdered in their sleep.... :twisted:

Some additional security has been implemented to stop spambots from being able to register and post 'rubbish' directly into the forums.

If you spot a suspicious user, (no, not Thasher), send me a PM...

Spig 'the Spambot Slayer'