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Posted

Will you please paste the message in a PM to me so I have a record and can take appropriate action?

 

Thanks,

John

Posted

He did the same thing to someone else who forwarded me the message. StephenMt has been banned.

 

-John

Posted

sorry guys, my internet was down at home.

 

hosting company is working on upgrading the site... hopefully we'll get a handle on spammers soon. Of course there is a sea of spammers who have already joined :banghead:

Posted
sorry guys, my internet was down at home.

 

hosting company is working on upgrading the site... hopefully we'll get a handle on spammers soon. Of course there is a sea of spammers who have already joined :banghead:

 

Look at the Spam-O-Matic (yes, really) Plug in for the latest version of Vbulletin Click HERE for the admin FAQ thread on set up and implementation.

 

 

As a Global Mod on a few other automotive forums, I can tell you it has cut down on 99.9% of the 100+ new spam-bot accounts that were being created daily.

 

 

Bill S.

Posted

Todays spammer came in and posted in my PM box as a guest

 

Bykajigo

Guest

Posts: n/a

Posted

Someone else reported spam from that same user, but he doesn't appear in the active or banned user list, so will need to investigate further. Mazda did install Spam-o-matic recently but it locked out a number of users and had to be removed. The hoster is upgrading us to the latest vBulletin software, which will hopefully allow us to install an anti-spam solution that actually works.

 

-John

Posted

I recieved the same spam from Bykajigo. He most likely doesn't own a Seven...

Dave

Posted
Someone else reported spam from that same user, but he doesn't appear in the active or banned user list, so will need to investigate further. Mazda did install Spam-o-matic recently but it locked out a number of users and had to be removed. The hoster is upgrading us to the latest vBulletin software, which will hopefully allow us to install an anti-spam solution that actually works.

 

-John

 

John,

 

Permissions need to be changed in the admin panel to lock out "guest" from being able to post, send emails, or PM's. This is a simple, 5 minute change you can do in the background this AM.

 

Spam-O-Matic uses an algorithm and an assortment of IP addresses in how it blocks spammers. There is a "user exemption" in the admin panel for allowing a known end user to become active in the system again without compromising the integrity of the spam program. Sure it is a pain in the rear to initially set up, but once it is, it runs in the background silently.

 

What you are now fighting is not an individual, but a spam bot that has latched on to this forum as one with vulnerabilities. It will continue to attack on a great level of occurrence now that the site has been flagged as such.

 

Bill S.

Posted
Mazda did install Spam-o-matic recently but it locked out a number of users

 

Including a distinguished administrator and other fine gentlemen! :rofl:

Posted

Guys, to expand on John's answer, I'm not ignoring this problem.

I had locked down registrations with a secret question for quite a while, forcing new registrations to email me and ask me for the answer. This worked on eliminating spam registrations, but I got complaints about the process being too difficult. So I removed that and installed Spam-O-Matic a few weeks ago. As John indicated, we started getting reports of users not being able to log in. I removed Spam-O-Matic and replaced with image verification, which is not very effective. At the same time I opened a ticket with our vBulletin host to upgrade to version 4.x, and try Spam-O-Matic (which was also their recommendation). I'm waiting for them to perform this task.

 

Concurrent to this, I have been trying to delete the bogus users. Version 3.8 does not allow selecting multiple users and deleting - you have to do it one by one. I've developed a script to do this, but it's still a very manual process. At least now I can keep up with the incoming flow.

 

I will update further when I have more info.

Posted
it's still a very manual process. At least now I can keep up with the incoming flow.

 

I will update further when I have more info.

 

 

You'll love using 4.1.3 or above, trust me :D

Posted

Just to echo Mike's comments above - thank you to Mazda for being a great guy and taking car of the administration. We will all buy you a beer if we see you at the sevens event in July! :cheers:

Posted

I just turned off my PM option.

 

 

Only way to stop the daily spam PM's I've been getting recently

Posted (edited)

I got the spam from Bykajigo the other day. He was signed in as a "Guest". Got StephenMt earlier in the week. He was shown as a "Jr. Member" and spam came from Czech Republic. Today I got another from KorbGype, also shown as a "Jr. Member", apparently in Russia judging by the untranslated language.

I think I'll disable my PM function also until this matter is rectified.

 

 

Added: KoprbGype appears to be on line as of 10:40 AM west coast time. He and the others have no "User Info" posted on our site.

Edited by HankMauel
Posted

Yes, now that I have offered support here, I too am being spammed, via the PM function here, by KoprbGype. Guess he feels personal about this:). Am turning off the PM for now.

Posted

well, software upgrade is done. tonight I'll take another crack at installing spam-o-matic and opening up registration again.

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