OESF Portables Forum

Everything Else => Site Specific Forums => Site Suggestions, Requests, and Updates => Topic started by: tux on November 12, 2007, 01:04:22 pm

Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: tux on November 12, 2007, 01:04:22 pm
 I have noticed at least two posts by very new members that appear to be links to some sort of commercial sites. One was in the threads about bargains, one was in the thread about kopi/kapi. The one in the bargain thread was about mobile phones   and the one in the kopi/kapi thread asked people to send private messages.  

ISO, dz and Speculatrix would you have a look and see if I'm just being paranoid?   It would be a shame if we had to go back to 'vetting' new members but it might be needed if this is really the start of spamming the forum.  

Cheers

 
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: dz on November 12, 2007, 02:11:52 pm
I got spam reports from those, but by the time I checked 'em out one of the other admins had deleted it or something.  I'll keep my eye out.

There's an IPB update (updates from here on now should be super fast and smooth).  Maybe it has some more anti-spam stuff.  I'll try and get it in this weekend.
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: dougeeebear on November 12, 2007, 02:59:31 pm
A day or two ago, I reported two identical posts advertisng new mobile phones I think.
They were both authored by the same member, who had joined the same day and had a total of 2 posts.
I think one was in the For Sale/Wanted thread, and the other was in one of the  SL-5500 threads.

Regards,
Doug
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: InSearchOf on November 12, 2007, 06:02:30 pm
Quote from: dougeeebear
A day or two ago, I reported two identical posts advertisng new mobile phones I think.
They were both authored by the same member, who had joined the same day and had a total of 2 posts.
I think one was in the For Sale/Wanted thread, and the other was in one of the  SL-5500 threads.

Regards,
Doug

Yea... I deleted them 2

Late
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: tux on November 13, 2007, 05:09:44 am
Quote from: InSearchOf
Quote from: dougeeebear
A day or two ago, I reported two identical posts advertisng new mobile phones I think.
They were both authored by the same member, who had joined the same day and had a total of 2 posts.
I think one was in the For Sale/Wanted thread, and the other was in one of the  SL-5500 threads.

Regards,
Doug

Yea... I deleted them 2
Late

  You Devil you! You also deleted the post before one of the spams!! It was one of mine!  

Cheers
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: InSearchOf on November 13, 2007, 09:10:28 am
Quote from: tux
Quote from: InSearchOf
Quote from: dougeeebear
A day or two ago, I reported two identical posts advertisng new mobile phones I think.
They were both authored by the same member, who had joined the same day and had a total of 2 posts.
I think one was in the For Sale/Wanted thread, and the other was in one of the  SL-5500 threads.

Regards,
Doug

Yea... I deleted them 2
Late

  You Devil you! You also deleted the post before one of the spams!! It was one of mine!  

Cheers

Huh? I deleted your post?
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: tux on November 13, 2007, 12:43:27 pm
Quote from: InSearchOf
Quote from: tux
Quote from: InSearchOf
Quote from: dougeeebear
A day or two ago, I reported two identical posts advertisng new mobile phones I think.
They were both authored by the same member, who had joined the same day and had a total of 2 posts.
I think one was in the For Sale/Wanted thread, and the other was in one of the  SL-5500 threads.

Regards,
Doug

Yea... I deleted them 2
Late

  You Devil you! You also deleted the post before one of the spams!! It was one of mine!  

Cheers

Huh? I deleted your post?
Well if you did the deleting in the pinned thread about kdepimpi in the software thread then my post has gone also!   I replied to uth's post about being able to run the kdepimpi stuff on modern desktop distros and referred to alijames's comment about the compiling issue. The next post after mine was one of these cheesy spammers quoting my post and pretending to be answering it!  

Not to fuss: my deathless prose is worth sacrificing to kill a spammer...  Especially with my breathless lack of commas!
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: InSearchOf on November 13, 2007, 05:59:28 pm
Quote from: tux
Quote from: InSearchOf
Quote from: tux
Quote from: InSearchOf
Quote from: dougeeebear
A day or two ago, I reported two identical posts advertisng new mobile phones I think.
They were both authored by the same member, who had joined the same day and had a total of 2 posts.
I think one was in the For Sale/Wanted thread, and the other was in one of the  SL-5500 threads.

Regards,
Doug

Yea... I deleted them 2
Late

  You Devil you! You also deleted the post before one of the spams!! It was one of mine!  

Cheers

Huh? I deleted your post?
Well if you did the deleting in the pinned thread about kdepimpi in the software thread then my post has gone also!   I replied to uth's post about being able to run the kdepimpi stuff on modern desktop distros and referred to alijames's comment about the compiling issue. The next post after mine was one of these cheesy spammers quoting my post and pretending to be answering it!  

Not to fuss: my deathless prose is worth sacrificing to kill a spammer...  Especially with my breathless lack of commas!

I apologize...

Late
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: speculatrix on November 15, 2007, 05:38:55 pm
I've deleted a few posts too, sometimes I find someone else has beat me to it; being 8 hours ahead of USA gives me a head start!

I suspended one user who was recently validated and made one post which was a link spam - I made a note in the admin CP about it.
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: tux on November 19, 2007, 12:13:11 pm
I don't suppose I'm the first to notice: a poster called Alves is spamming the board.
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: speculatrix on November 19, 2007, 12:19:11 pm
Quote from: tux
I don't suppose I'm the first to notice: a poster called Alves is spamming the board.

Nickname   Alves   (212.100.250.213)
      intactstores@yahoo.com
      Joined: 16-November 07

!!EDIT!! don't delete any messages until I've tracked his IP! Ok, all postings made from the same IP, so we can kill them.

83.138.136.91
Code: [Select]
inetnum:        83.138.136.88 - 83.138.136.95
netname:        RSPC-UK-Net2Roam-Ltd
descr:          Net2Roam-Ltd- IP Space
country:        GB
admin-c:        IA247-RIPE
tech-c:         IA247-RIPE
rev-srv:        ns.rackspace.com
status:         ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by:         RSPC-MNT
source:         RIPE # Filtered

person:       IP Admin
address:      Rackspace Managed Hosting
              112 E. Pecan St. Suite 600
              San Antonio, Texas 78205
phone:        +1 210 892 4000
fax-no:       +1 210 892 4329
e-mail:       ipadmin@rackspace.com
nic-hdl:      IA247-RIPE
remarks:        ###  Rackspace Abuse Department
remarks:        ###  Please send any complaints to the following:
remarks:        ###  abuse@rackspace.com
mnt-by:       RSPC-MNT
source:       RIPE # Filtered
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: speculatrix on November 19, 2007, 12:26:17 pm
OK, I've suspended Alves

and deleted the posts, and am sending off a spam complaint to yahoo, rackspace, hotmail and gmail.
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: Meyer on November 19, 2007, 12:28:56 pm
I've deleted the topic Alves started in OESF Wiki forum, and sent him a polite note to post only to appropriate forums in the future, but the truth is I don't think spam like that is appropriate for any of our forums, so I fully support a block or whatever other means are available to protect the forums.
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: dougeeebear on November 19, 2007, 12:34:46 pm
Quote from: tux
I don't suppose I'm the first to notice: a poster called Alves is spamming the board.
I hadn't noticed, but now that you mentioned it I looked at that member's posts ... and sure enough, some undeleted spam.
I guess it just goes to show that with the current registration process, a person can register then post all the spam they want until they get caught.
Then I suppose they can just register another user name and continue spamming.

IMO, we had much better luck with admin validation.

Regards,
Doug

Whoops ... 3 new posts while I was writing this ...
I must be getting slow in my old age
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: speculatrix on November 19, 2007, 04:56:37 pm
I got back responses from rackspace (who seem to harbour a lot of spammers and don't seem to bother to care about doing much), yahoo, hotmail and gmail. So, as least there's a chance we'll have made the spammer go away and think twice before bothering again.
Title: Spammers At The Forum?
Post by: speculatrix on November 20, 2007, 06:03:32 pm
a little off-topic, but spammers are pretty cunning at evading captchas these days:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7067962.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7067962.stm)