United We Fight Againt Spam...

[AngelyXXX 0]

< Contents Removed >

[kshah 452]

this started on rimweb too???????????????

Admins and mods, please look into this and make changes in policy so that porn is banned. Wether direct links

[@ksh@T 20]

ADMINS PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS.....PLEASE BAN THIS USER..... AND DO SOMETHING FOR THIS TYPE OF POSTS..... SORRY FOR CAPS

[Vishal Gupta 4]

< Member BANNED >

[Arun 795]

Unfortunately, Spam is an occupational hazard on public forums like RIMweb. Please note that these spam topics are not posted by humans, but by "spam bots" which can overcome email validation and even image verification (the commonly used image verification CAPTCHA method isn't effective anymore as spammers have cracked the method with workarounds) during registration.

We are seeing about 3 - 4 spam topics per day being posted by such spam bots these days. The moderators are moving such topics to the Junkyard as soon as they see them. We can have manual verification by an Administrator for new registrations in order to prevent such spam bots from signing up, but that would be too restrictive if we want people to be able to register on their own. Having such restrictions may not be the ideal solution in a public forum, and thats exactly what these spam bots make use of.

Spam issues in forums are just like the spam you receive in your email inbox, but the absense of a standard anti-spam algorithm or an universal black-list database makes it difficult for forums to filter spam, unlike your email's spam filter system. The emergence of intelligent forum spam bots recently have seen a rise in spam at various forums running Invision Power Board, VBB, phpBB, etc. 75% of these reported spam bots are of Russian origin, so it does make sense to block Russian traffic. We are going to implement certain blocks (IP based and mail domain filters) in the coming days in order to cut down the number of spam topics, and in such a way that the genuine visitors/members won't get affected by these blocks.

In our effort to combat spam, we request members to help the moderators in keeping the forum spam free. If you come across or if you have a feeling that a particular topic is spam, please use the "Report this post to a moderator" link by clicking the button that you see under every post. The "Report this post to a moderator" function allows members to notify all moderators of any particular violations by providing a direct link to the infraction and the opportunity to provide an explanation of the concern. This should help the moderators to remove the reported spam topic quicker.

I'll keep this topic open for any suggestions/comments from the members regarding this issue...

[adwait 0]

why not restrict access to the boards to only indian IPs....as such 99% of the users of this forum must be in India.

[Arun 795]

99% visitors aren't from India, but about 80% are as per the statistics. Moreover, creating a "white-list" for Indian traffic is not really practical since that would require the list of *all* Indian IP ranges and the large number of ISPs in India doesn't help in that.

[deepu 0]

yes, I am now accessing from outside India

[basant_jp 0]

So am I...thats not a practical solution.

[adwait 0]

hmm...well is it possible to change the sign up procedure? THe image verification may have been cracked by the bots...but why not use some other method. Say display a java window and ask the user to click at some specific places....shouldn't be that difficult.

[tanveer 59]

and how about sending an email that requires you to follow a link and then only is the account activated. Will that help?

[adwait 0]

I believe that is already done.....besides it is pretty easy for a bot to follow a link in the mail....

[Arun 795]

@tanveer: Thats right, email validation is already in place since the beginning... but these spam bots are quite smart for that

@adwait: It sure is an interesting tactic, I'll research more on it, thanks !