Please upgrade here. These earlier versions are no longer being updated and have security issues.
HackerOne users: Testing against this community violates our program's Terms of Service and will result in your bounty being denied.
[Anti-Spam] How do you stop application spam?
LeftBrain
✭✭
Recently, I've been getting about a dozen spam applicants to the forum. All of them use the following text during the application process.
"{I want to {see new threads|follow the discussion|be part here|see new additions|access all parts|contibute|say something|reply to a thread|reply to a user|message a user|contact a user|read everything}."
Right now I have the application process set on manual approval because the Captcha system was letting these applicants through. Any idea on how I can stop these spam applicants without manually approving them?
thanks
Perry, 44
0
Comments
I was having the same issue on my forum for the last several weeks, and it had become a big headache for me. I had not clue how those bots were able to by-pass ReCaptcha.
While going through some posts on this forum, I came across this plugin called "BotStop". I decided to give it a try, as I had no other hope. From the moment I installed it (2 weeks ago), I haven't got a single spam account on my forum.
Try it. It works!
Yup we are also using botstop with a nice custom question - and since then all is good. if you wanna use it in combination with approval upon register you need to modify it
slightly .. see here how to: http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/21349/bonk-when-trying-to-register#latest
this alone solved the spam problem for us
you could also use @peregrines approach: http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/20464/feedback-on-botstop-plugin#latest
Thanks! I've got it up and running now. We'll see if it works.
Just to update you, it's working so far.
Bot Stop isn't working any more. Spammers have figured out how to get around it. Damn.
Check out @peregrine's Registration Restriction Logger.
Search first
Check out the Documentation! We are always looking for new content and pull requests.
Click on insightful, awesome, and funny reactions to thank community volunteers for their valuable posts.
one would presume he already knows about it...
http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/189033/#Comment_189033
I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.
Yes, I installed Registration Restriction Logger. I'm not sure if it works but we'll see.
Is this it a sure sign of spam? "{I want to {see new threads|follow the discussion|be part here|see new additions|access all parts|contibute|say something|reply to a thread|reply to a user|message a user|contact a user|read everything}"? Or is the a vanilla driven response?
Nope, looks like spam. Lots of variables from their script.
There was an error rendering this rich post.
@wrmichael
I've had that spambot target my forum.
Using a combination of BotStop and @peregrine's marvellous http://vanillaforums.org/addon/registrationrestrictlogger-plugin has stopped them, and their pesky bot friends, in their tracks.
@whu606 installed those this morning and not a single new spam user or message. Thanks!
@wrmichael
@peregrine did all the hard work!