Spam

[Dennis Markham]

We've picked up a few spam "new members" today.  I just deleted a posting with a bunch of stuff for sale.  I am surprised they got through the screening process.  Just FYI.  I'll remove this topic eventually, just wanted everyone to know that I try and remove these as they appear.  I get an e-mail every time a new member joins.

Dennis

[Bill Cahill]

Yeh, I deleted one of those spams myself late this afternoon.

cell phones for sale. Lowest prices....
SPAM, SPAM, -------------------------------------------------- SPAM..... 

Bill Cahill

[McHeath]

Maybe they were rotary cell phones. 

[HobieSport]

Thanks Dennis and Bill for deleting the spam.  Kind of weird that folks would join the forum just to send spam, eh?

[bingster]

It's incredibly common, actually.  In the three years my old radio show forum has been online, the spam filters have stopped more than 100,000 spam registrations. 

[McHeath]

In the three years my old radio show forum has been online, the spam filters have stopped more than 100,000 spam registrations.

Geepers.  I know that most, maybe 97%, of my daily e-mail is spam.  Luckily the filter catches almost all of it. 

[Bill]

Dennis -

I don't recall if there is a Captcha as part of joining this forum. In the RV forum I moderate, the spam was getting way out of hand, so the Admin put in a captcha. It dropped the incidence of spam to a few a week.

Next, the Moderator (me) started a dedicated thread titled Report Spammer Here. Any member can post a spam report at any time, which helps the moderator find and delete it. This is real helpful when the moderator doesn't look at every post in every forum every day.

Finally, the Admin set up (or enabled, I'm not sure which) a tool for one-click permanent banning of a spammer. The spammer cannot come back, at least under that name. At the same time, the tool finds and removes all posts from that spammer. So finding a spam post and clicking the tool removes multiple posts - a big help when the spammer drops a burst on us.

Now, our spam rate is perhaps one every two weeks.

Bill

[BDM]

A good clue to these spammers is the use of "gmail" accounts. I see a few new members have this. Like "mobilezone".

[Bill Cahill]

A good clue to these spammers is the use of "gmail" accounts. I see a few new members have this. Like "mobilezone".

Mobilezone is one of the spammers.
Bill Cahill

[Dennis Markham]

I haven't really seen a problem here on the forum.  We've had a couple during the 6 or 7 month period since I've been Administrator.  In order for someone to post they have to activate their account by clicking on a link in an e-mail that is sent to the address they provide during registration.  I also get a copy of the new member and can see the e-mail address.  Generally I can tell when one appears to be spam.  There is also a built-in spam filter into the blog/forum software.  We don't even see how many are turned away.  Now I do realize that if suddenly membership were to triple it would be difficult for one person to stay on top of the new members and postings.  At this point I do view every new post and watch the new members to try and determine if it is a person or an automatic spammer.  If the member's e-mail has something to do with Viagra it's probably spam.  But anyway it hasn't been an out of control problem, or even close.....yet.

I think with the helpful eyes watching we will be able to identify problem members and posts.  There is a provision for banning a member.  In the case of Mobilezone I just deleted the member.