Fone Forum

We are being overwhelmed by spammers registering here, and then posting spam OPs.

I therefore believe that we have no choice but to suspend registrations, till a solution to this can be found.

I am banning the most recent culprits, but not clearing their OPs as yet.

The reason for this is that I have spied the server webmaster looking in here, and I want him to see how bad the situation has become.

Hopefully he will be able to help us with some new software solutions.

Admin.

Some work has been done on our software today.
The webmaster has made some changes, and I have also been able to install some of the software that we need to use.    :)

Following this, I have re-enabled forum registrations on a trial basis, so we can see how things now proceed.    ;)

This will be re-examined if we have further problems, such as we have experienced over the last fortnight.
But if everything now goes fine, this thread can then be deleted.

Admin.

That's great. Does anyone know if the spammer used a script or were they registering and spamming manually?

dlR

It’s almost definitely automated.

In response to the posts made by both delaro and davegr, I would say that a spammer could register, and post, either automatically or manually.
But after the security software installed today, both should be considerably more difficult now.   ;)

However, IMHO it is more likely that the actual posting is being done manually, as the time intervals between posts would be much shorter - were the whole process fully automated.   ;)

Admin.

I am very pleased to report that we have made good progress with dealing with spammers registering here to abuse the open nature of a forum.

Although we have suffered a plague of spam posts here over the past fortnight, none have been made by newly registered members.    ;)

I have personally tested the registration system, and I was appropriately refused an account when I mimicked the actions of a spammer.    :o

I have also seen guests looking in here, and when I have tracked them online, the software shows me that they attempted to register here, but were similarly refused an account.
So I am confident that the software that has been installed is guarding us well currently.    :D

Nobody can be confident that things might not change again one day, but for the time being, I believe that Moderators and Admin can relax a little, and enjoy a period of calm.    :)

Admin.