Spammer

astroron (Ron) · #1 17-07-2014, 12:54 PM

Question

,If a scammer registers on iceinspace,do they get removed completely

I have noticed that our newest member is a spammer

Cheers

RB (Andrew) · #2 17-07-2014, 01:05 PM

They get banned immediately Ron, I got him last night.
They can't post anymore, the account is banned.
If they log on they can look around (just like a visitor) but not participate in any postings.

astroron (Ron) · #3 17-07-2014, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RB

They get banned immediately Ron, I got him last night.
They can't post anymore, the account is banned.
If they log on they can look around (just like a visitor) but not participate in any postings.

Thanks Andrew

I just noticed he is registered as as Our latest member.
Cheers

iceman (Mike) · #4 17-07-2014, 01:20 PM

When a newer member registered, they disappear. They won't appear in the list of members I don't think.

RAJAH235 · #5 17-07-2014, 11:55 PM

Mike,
Can you not do as "we" mozillaZiner's" mods do, & ban their IP's?

Might slow them down a tad.

Does so here.

sheeny (Al) · #6 18-07-2014, 06:40 AM

He's certainly been doing that.

Al.

iceman (Mike) · #7 18-07-2014, 08:12 AM

The IP's change all the time, Laurie.

I've been banning email domains when more than 1 spammer uses it. Obviously can't block gmail, yahoo etc.

mojo (Terry) · #8 18-07-2014, 04:11 PM

Banned users are removed from the member count and their posts are deleted. They don't quite exist but are dormant on the system so that they cannot sign up again with the same email address.

New registrations at iceinspace are (and have been for some years) checked against a blacklist for spam ip address and email addresses. If they are on the blacklist, they cannot register at all. Having said that, I can't stop someone registering if they are adamant or aren't on the list yet.

The number of spammers you see are relatively few. Many more are blocked from registering. Almost a hundred times more, actually. It's a never-ending task keeping one step ahead of them. I have blocked entire Chinese subnets from any network access at all. Sorry to say but that's where most of the 'sales' spam originates from.

All sites have problems with spammers. The best thing to do is to continue reporting their posts and the moderators will surely give them the attention that they deserve. So, some still manage to sign up but they don't last long.

Look on the bright side. It could be worse. They pop up but it's not through lack of trying.

RAJAH235 · #9 18-07-2014, 11:44 PM

Mike, Terry,
Thanks for the info.

At "our" forum, we ban their IP's but like Mike, we do not ban gmail/ yahoo etc email addys.

Usually ban for a week, sometimes a month & that has slowed down the amount of nutters we get over there.

Stopforumspam has a good listing of them & if not found, we allow them to register etc.

OICURMT · #10 18-07-2014, 11:46 PM

LOL... admin's react pretty quickly here... just reported a post, then refreshed only to find the spam thread disappeared....

RB (Andrew) · #11 18-07-2014, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OICURMT

LOL... admin's react pretty quickly here... just reported a post, then refreshed only to find the spam thread disappeared....

I was already banning him.

04Stefan07 (Stefan) · #12 19-07-2014, 11:46 PM

As I have mentioned before there should be a strict policy when new users create an account here on IIS.

Fill out all the required information then once completed the information submitted should be sent to the admins of the site and then they can approve or disapprove the new account.

It seems to be way to easy to create an account, make a dodgy post which can lead to someone who is not to familiar with this sort of thing take the bait.

PCH (Paul) · #13 20-07-2014, 08:56 PM

It's not practical Stefan.

Assuming it takes just 5 minutes to check someone's credentials, the 17500+ members we have so far would have taken one person 364 days working 8 hours a day and 7 days a week to check.

Any mods up for that ?

RB (Andrew) · #14 20-07-2014, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCH

Any mods up for that ?

Nope

MrB (Simon) · #15 21-07-2014, 12:24 AM

Interesting, how many new registrations are there on average per day?

MrB (Simon) · #16 21-07-2014, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCH

It's not practical Stefan.

Assuming it takes just 5 minutes to check someone's credentials, the 17500+ members we have so far would have taken one person 364 days working 8 hours a day and 7 days a week to check.

Any mods up for that ?

There's something wrong with your math...
17500 * 5 = 87500 mins
/ 60 = 1458.3 hours
/ 8 = 182.3 days.
Still sounds like a lot, but then the site has been going for 9 years.

So...
17500 members over 9 years averages out to ~5 registrations per day, at 5 mins(why would it take this long to scan, say, 2 to 10 lines?) per registration, that's only 25mins per day for just one mod.... How many mods are there? 10 or so?
Doesn't seem impractical to me

iceman (Mike) · #17 21-07-2014, 05:45 AM

I've registered for forums before that require someone to "vet" me before I can post or ask a question. It was most annoying. A few minutes, sure, but what if the mod isn't online at the time?

The problem is not so bad that any radical steps need to be taken.

Spammers and spam are removed very quickly, all things considered.

astroron (Ron) · #18 21-07-2014, 09:14 AM

I really didn't expect this thread to go on like this

It was just a simple question which was answered by Mike and Andrew,and Terry to my satisfaction.
I am sure Mike and Terry are quite happy with the way things are sorted out and to me there is no need for convoluted sign on practices to join iceinspace.
These people who spam have a short time memory span and will just go of into the woodwork from whence they came till the find some where else to play their stupid games.
Thanks to Mike,Terry for running a good ship.

Cheers