mrmustang Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Anyone else get a spam PM from StephenMt ?:banghead: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Will you please paste the message in a PM to me so I have a record and can take appropriate action? Thanks, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 He did the same thing to someone else who forwarded me the message. StephenMt has been banned. -John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 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: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmustang Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmustang Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 Todays spammer came in and posted in my PM box as a guest Bykajigo Guest Posts: n/a Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvl Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I recieved the same spam from Bykajigo. He most likely doesn't own a Seven... Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmustang Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Mazda did install Spam-o-matic recently but it locked out a number of users Including a distinguished administrator and other fine gentlemen! :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Mazda-Thx for doing this thankless task. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmustang Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 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: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmustang Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 I just turned off my PM option. Only way to stop the daily spam PM's I've been getting recently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HankMauel Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 (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 February 8, 2015 by HankMauel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 well, software upgrade is done. tonight I'll take another crack at installing spam-o-matic and opening up registration again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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