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  #1  
Old 10-01-2008, 06:29 AM
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clausb clausb is offline
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Spam attacks

Hi all,

apparently, the web site is currently under increased attack by spammers. Unlike with many previous incidents, some of the recent postings are fairly, uhm, graphical and unsavory. The moderators are trying to keep the forum as clean as possible at all times, but you can help us by reporting offensive postings, using the "Report post" tool (see attached screenshot). Thanks!

Claus
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  #2  
Old 10-01-2008, 09:46 AM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Spam attacks

It seems that the spammers have a new tool which can read the verification images presented during registration and auto-register to post spam. We had about 30 new registrations in the last 24 hours, most of them look like spammer names and Email addresses. I am banning all of the new members which look suspicious. If you are a legitimate new member and get banned click the Contact Us link at the bottom of any forum page and provide the member name and Email address that you used to register.

I have temporarily turned off new registrations to stop the flood and am investigating options.

One option offered by vBulletin is to require new members to answer a series of questions when they register. Some posts on the vBulletin forums suggest this as a way to stop this type of spam attack. But I'm not sure what type of questions to ask. Ideally it would be something that anyone using CoCreate software would know. The question and answer are free format and the answer can be checked using regular expressions. Suggestions are welcome.
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  #3  
Old 10-01-2008, 09:53 AM
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clausb clausb is offline
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Re: Spam attacks

The Is Bot mod might be another good option.

Claus
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  #4  
Old 10-01-2008, 11:18 AM
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Wolfgang Wolfgang is offline
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Re: Spam attacks

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Scheffel View Post
It seems that the spammers have a new tool ...
But I'm not sure what type of questions to ask.
I do not post the possible answers (send by mail to you, John) for known reason, and for several questions different answers are possible:
  • What's the CoCreate Product name you are using
  • Tell me an often used abbreviation for the CoCreate Product you are using
  • What's the main color of the icon of program and files
  • What version you are using (new users are normally not using quite old versions like Me108.7), remove all letters!
  • Who is new owner of CoCreate since a couple of months
  • What's the default directory name your customization files are store to automatically
  • What's the name of the main customization file of the CC product in use
  • Wwhat's the location (city) of european head quarter of CC
  • What's the default prompt in your application (be aware of localization)
  • Tell me 2 file name extensions used in your CC product.
  • Beside the program files on disk, what is a secondary mandatory precondition to run the product

some of the questions might not be impossible to answer for Modelmanager..

Last edited by Wolfgang; 10-01-2008 at 12:08 PM. Reason: more questions added
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  #5  
Old 10-01-2008, 12:54 PM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Spam attacks

I did some more searching on the vBulletin forum and found some good suggestions for how to reduce spam bot attacks. As a start I have turned registration back on and also turned on moderation of new Registrations which means that an administrator must approve the request before posting is allowed. This will at least prevent these spammers from posting while we try out some of the other suggestions for human verification.
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  #6  
Old 10-01-2008, 12:56 PM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Spam attacks

Quote:
Originally Posted by clausb View Post
The Is Bot mod might be another good option.
Thanks for the suggestion, I was not aware of that modification. The problem with these type of modifications is that they make updating the vBulletin software more difficult because they usually must be re-added each time there is an update. However, if nothing else works I might try it.

Also thanks to Wolfgang for the question suggestions.
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  #7  
Old 10-03-2008, 08:23 AM
Gary Brauch Gary Brauch is offline
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Re: Spam attacks

One question mods, are the views up on this forum since that happened
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  #8  
Old 10-03-2008, 10:19 AM
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John Scheffel John Scheffel is offline
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Re: Spam attacks

Only a big spike in daily registrations, no increase in views.

I have made some changes to the registration process which seem to have stopped the auto registration by spammers. I upgraded the forum to a newer image verification method known as reCAPTCHA and added a question which requires entering the name of any CoCreate application or product. It is tested by a regular expression which should match any past or present applications names. Hopefully this will not deter any legitimate attempts to register.
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