It may be quiet for you - Spam-Bots a Plenty.

[Robsey]

It may appear to have been quite quiet on the boards recently, but...

It has pretty much been a continuous fight against spam-bots and bogus membership sign-ups.

Ironically, it was my ip address that 'Spamhaus' blocked last week. They don't like my mobile's IP address.
Household wifi is never an issue, though.

Normally we see a couple of new sign-up attempts per week, but the last seven days have seen a dozen or so per day.
Most common reported sources appear to be Russia, Canada, Belgium and Latvia...

Being an IT chap, Gary (EnvoyCDX) knows a lot more about it than I do.

I have noted that other UK forums are also being bombarded.
Apart from shits and giggles, I don't really know what they gain from it.

Ah well... It keeps me destracted whilst the wife watches Judge Judy or shopping TV.

[James McGrath]

Can we introduce any new security?
Last time we had a wave of spam bots like this we introduced a security question on sign up.

[Robsey]

There is a very simple question on sign-up, but it appears to be too easy for the bots to get past.

I have sent a few messages to Dan, to allow one of the remaining admins more permissions, but so far I am only getting tumbleweed.

Apologies to any genuine people, but I am defaulting to deleting the "mofo's" unless I am 1000% satisfied with the names, email addresses, and IP addresses.

Currently averaging one per hour this morning.

[Envoy CDX]

Trying to work out the best way forward with this one. I thought they'd slowed right down to be honest but I guess Rob is getting them before I log in.

Rob, make a note of the domain names they are using for email addresses please.

[Robsey]

Yep - I am making a note of email addresses and IP addresses.

I can see a few patterns forming, so hopefully we can narrow down the opportunities for these mofo sign-ups.

[Envoy CDX]

Yep - I am making a note of email addresses and IP addresses.

I can see a few patterns forming, so hopefully we can narrow down the opportunities for these mofo sign-ups.

Excellent stuff.

[Robsey]

I am still convinced that the bogus gmail accounts are the same source, but with a vpn tool to issue random ip addresses, every time I block and ban all the previous ones.

Good old Spamhaus are blocking my mobile's ip address this morning.
Good job I can transfer to home wifi instead otherwise I would be very quiet now - lol

[Robsey]

Can we introduce any new security?
Last time we had a wave of spam bots like this we introduced a security question on sign up.

I never really answered this before...

Nope, not with the current Admin settings.
We need someone with Dan's (Humbucker's) permissions.
Sadly, he is still not answering any of my messages.
Maybe he is in Turkey or on tour with the ballet.
(As per his old facebook profile).

[Robsey]

Okay -
Dan has granted me a few more super-powers,
so hopefully with help from the other admins, we should be able to sort out a few security issues, and generally tidy stuff up.

I also need to brush up on my very limited knowledge of phpbb forum construction and configuration.

The last time I had this much influence, was when I created the Opcomusers forum using a Simple Machines platform in 2011.
A lot of time has passed allowing me to forget everything.