Fraking Spammers

[RayJones]

What is with all these newbie, ie first post, bullshit posts in the recent days?

Obviously spammers (or a sole agent) given the consistent bullshit at the bottom signature of these posts.

Perhaps it is time to toughen up the registration procedure, or somehow moderate the first few postings of newbies to prove they are worthy of uttering on the board at large?
Unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem for the poor sucker faced with such moderation procedures, which is probably Dave given we are not moderated. 

[RayJones]

Actually, perhaps not even spammers, but definite troll behaviour.

[EEVblog]

Anyone got any good plugin ideas?
I already have a Captcha and a human question, so if they are getting past automatically I don't know how.

Dave.

[cksa]

ban links in signatures until more than 10 posts?

[Kiriakos-GR]

ban links in signatures until more than 10 posts?

That's an good idea ...  making it like 30 posts before the " profile signature "  become editable ,
its even better ..

[EEVblog]

ban links in signatures until more than 10 posts?

I don't see an option for that.
Anyway, the links are dead giveaway that they are spammers, and that's needed because they are getting pretty clever at actual post content!
I've added another random registration puzzle.

Dave.

[JohnS_AZ]

In my opinion you could just disable signatures. I don't use that function and see that many others don't. Although some other users might feel strongly about that.

[Simon]

personally I think it is a person or a small group that are humanly registering as it's always a similarly stupid question and the exact 4 links with the same text formatting, you might want to see if forum updates address the issue if you suspect a bot, I was having lots of bots on the rotaract forum I started and then upgraded the software and now I get virtually none

[Simon]

In my opinion you could just disable signatures. I don't use that function and see that many others don't. Although some other users might feel strongly about that.

well it's nice to be able to put in links to things you have an interest in like your own site or another hobby but yes there are boards that have a blanket ban on links in sigs or sigs at all to address that but no not everyone will be pleased with the idea, it won't stop them trying anyhow and when they figure that out they will just put the links in the post and go back to being merciless and less suttle, after all they have nothing to loose.

banning certain email domains works a treat, I know many use google mail addresses but i've banned many a weird *@strangedomain.com/cn/tw etc domain addresses

[alm]

I wouldn't be surprised if static questions are just answered once by a human. Disabling links in a signature might be a fair trade-off if it would actually block these bots.

Do they come from constant IP blocks that you can block? It will always be cat and mouse game, but it would be to reduce the amount of work on the cat's part.

[Bored@Work]

What should disabling links in signatures or signatures at all fix?

The spammers would simply put the links in the message body. You should come to terms that spammers are professional, organized crime. Professional assholes, no doubt, but these assholes won't be stopped in any way by disabling the signature. They will simply adjust their software for the next round, and try again.

[migsantiago]

When spam arises, forum admins enable moderators to control it. Moderators are chosen based on their profile realibility, online time and forum how-to knowledge.

As for now, spam is kinda slow in this forum. I think that when Dave finds it hard to be deleting and banning trash by himself, he will select some people to fight those spammers.

[GeoffS]

One forum I'm on allows signatures but doesn't allow HTML code in them.
You can still cut and paste the link info but not click on it directly.

The problem is that SMF, the code behind this forum, does not have an option for that.

[Zero999]

Have you signed up to http://www.stopforumspam.com?

Another good idea would be to ask a basic question to prove the person has at least some electronic knowledge and an IQ greater than an earthworm.

Some examples:

Which is a better conductor of electricity: wax or copper wire?

What's more dangerous: a 9V battery or the mains?

Which uses more power: a pocket calculator or an electric train?

Anyone too stupid to answer the above shouldn't be allowed post here.

Fortunately I've not seen any idiots here so far, other than spammers and the one who goes on about itunes all the time. Another forum I used to visit was packed with them and could've done with an idiot filter and I would'v liked to have added a question with a diagram of a solar panel connected to a light shining on it or a motor connected to a generator both mechanically and electrically - there were too many free-energy-tards there too.

[Simon]

I was thinking that too, have an simple electronics quiz so that you need to put in human intelligence to register and are not that stupid you will piss us all off (I haven't forgotten a certain member that I've not seen here in a while and was being really dump to the point of being annoying)

[Jon Chandler]

The Swordfish Basic forum was plagued with a spammer for "Ugg Boots" for the longest time.  Page-long posts listing different styles and saying how comfortable they are.  I have a really hard time imagining a person logging into a technical forum, seeing a post about Ugg Boots and deciding to order a pair or two!  I guess it just takes one or two orders to make it worth it to the spammers.

[Simon]

I think that spamming is fast becoming just a nuisance, we all recognise it and ignore it where as in the past people might go and look. The same porbalby goes for google ads and others, it has all become just part of the experience

[Jon Chandler]

Maybe some weedout questions to sign up for the forum should be:

Would you buy Ugg Boots, Viagra or a Rollex watch from a post in the microcontroller forum?

[Simon]

Maybe some weedout questions to sign up for the forum should be:

Would you buy Ugg Boots, Viagra or a Rollex watch from a post in the microcontroller forum?

yea that would be a good one lol