Spam increase (December 2020) & anti-spam efforts

PaulStoffregen

Well-known member
Over the last several days we've seen a huge increase in spam.

First, a huge thanks to everyone who quickly reports the spam messages! And special thanks to Defragster, Kurt and others who are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to clean up the spam mess.

Today I've added the Spam-O-Matic extension to the forum. Hopefully it will prevent most of the spammers from creating new accounts. As with all anti-spam measures, there is also a chance we'll block real humans, which is a major concern. But I believe we just can't keep up with this new rate of spam, so we've got to risk it...

Spam-O-Matic also has a feature, which is currently disabled, to put all new registrations in a "newbie" group, which gets additional anti-spam checks. My hope is we won't have to make use of that feature.

I know spam is really frustrating. If you want to vent, do it on this thread.

But the main purpose of this message & thread is to let you know I've made a change to the forum config. If things seem broken, please let me know.
 
Made a test account - got to do a captcha.

Pointed to another (too?) long used email account. Cannot confirm email that hasn't arrived. Not yet added to member list? Should work for a real user giving active email address.

Using Kindle - desktop version shows user name as logged in - just not permission to post?

email is outlook.com and from desk app I can send and receive on Win 10 mail, but not showing in Office/Outlook and logging in online to outlook.com :: may show up later ... or not?

<edit> So I can log in - and see my user info - but not email address as entered to correct or resend.
 
I'm new here. Thanks for the efforts to rid the site of spam. It's a lot of work and is appreciated.

I moderate a recording forum and know how persistent spammers can be. We have been using spam-o-matic for a few years now and it's been great. Some will still get by, but it blocks most of them. We also require captcha and a human response entry to register, like a simple math problem. These efforts stop 99% of the spammers.

cheers
 
Tim, don't forget to check your Junk mail (spam pun intended) :p

: )... Did check that - the account must have been pushed into some hibernation where some interfaces not working WEB and Proper Outlook - but the Win 10 mail app can send and receive on it ??? - but nothing from the FORUM there INBOX or JUNK.

BING did send some NEWS summary into it Oct 8 and 15 - and other email still there back into 2019 when last used. Can't be positive I entered email right ( from a KINDLE ) - and even here logged in I can't get to user details to see if all is right. Should have just done the test account in a PRIVATE browser window on computer I suppose. And now in a Private browser window I can log into the test account - but without email confirm it won't allow post it seems - ... which is as it should be ...

From Forum open page it shows this very good news :
Code:
[B]Spam-O-Matic Statistics
17 Spammers Denied Registration[/B]

Banning folks and logging IP's was beyond tiresome and distracting ...
 
I'm new here. Thanks for the efforts to rid the site of spam. It's a lot of work and is appreciated.

I moderate a recording forum and know how persistent spammers can be. We have been using spam-o-matic for a few years now and it's been great. Some will still get by, but it blocks most of them. We also require captcha and a human response entry to register, like a simple math problem. These efforts stop 99% of the spammers.

cheers

@TexasHeat : That is good news you 'ran the gauntlet' and got to post! Did you get an email that needed confirmation to allow posting? Somehow mine got waylaid :(
 
Which options should we use, or isn't that important?
2020-12-23 09_14_49-Start.png2020-12-23 09_15_08-Start.jpg


Since most of them add SPAM to their profile, too - I think best is to just delete the users?
Basic Information

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Does Google scan the profiles?
 
Last edited:
I suppose my dormant account bounced or up front refused the 'confirm' email - still no sign of it?

Stopping SPAM! YAY! #31 now. And the newest member (on front Forum page) is the one with the Permanent Ban!

Code:
31 Spammers Denied Registration
1 Spammer Permanently Banned

Welcome to our newest member, Sofia sari
 
Just got up and reading this and emails - this is indeed good news.

@Frank B - never thought about the SPAM in the profile as well - thanks for pointing that one out!
 
Darn, I was enjoying having to weed through all of those spammers ;)
Now I will have to find something else to do :D
 
@TexasHeat : That is good news you 'ran the gauntlet' and got to post! Did you get an email that needed confirmation to allow posting? Somehow mine got waylaid :(

Hey Defrag. Yes, I got an email to confirm my account before I could post. I don't recall having to do the captcha thing, though. I believe it was before you guys instituted the spam-o-matic plug.
 
FW: Action Required to Activate Membership for PJRC (Teensy) Forum

Made a test account - got to do a captcha.

Pointed to another (too?) long used email account. Cannot confirm email that hasn't arrived. Not yet added to member list? Should work for a real user giving active email address.
...
IT WORKS! :: Got email through server about 3 hours ago "Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2020 9:05 PM" - somewhere it got held up 26+ hours - but it arrived even though account was dormant many months.

So valid user must confirm email - And as noted it presented a CAPTCHA as well. The email is sent and did not go to JUNK { email subject is POST title }, just held up, but eventually delivered.

Best news is this: 148 Spammers Denied Registration
... not been on to see a single SPAM user to ban yet - looks like only 2 or 3 have made it through!
 
Yes, works good. Have not found any SPAM the last hours.
For my question, what is prefered - to ban or remove users - I'll just leave every checkbox and options as they are and use the defaults.
 
Yes, works good.
For my question, what is prefered - to ban or remove users - I'll just leave every checkbox and options as they are and use the defaults.

Not sure - perhaps PJRC got to set those defaults?

Removing the account would make them register again - banned they are in the database but not allowed on, so would have to register again?

With low numbers getting in won't be a big issue - and if it is a spammer - whatever they get is less than they deserve.
 
I'm not sure how this works - it would be nice if the email address was marked as "used" even if the user was removed. Maybe it works that way.
I don't really care.
 
FWIW, only a few hours ago a spammer appears to have made it through our IP block list, recaptcha & spam-o-matic to create 65 new accounts, but the site they were using for email appears to have deleted all their accounts. All 65 activation emails bounced.
 
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