ATTENTION: Spam Bots

TACRfan · May 12, 2017 at 5:27 PM Official Post

Attention all members of the forums, as you most likely know we have been getting hit by spam bots quite bad for the past month or so, we are trying to sort this out and are doing our best to delete these posts as soon as possible.

Please if you see one of these threads report the user profile and the post, this will greatly help all the moderator team delete these posts and remove the accounts.

We are trying to find a solution as soon as possible and I personally would like to thank all members for being so patients and I would also like to thank all those who are already reporting these posts, it helps a lot.

TACRfan
Forum Moderator
Admin for 999 First Responders alliance

emergency4fan · May 12, 2017 at 6:37 PM

thank you to all the moderators for continuing to try to find a solution to this problem

VBMedic · May 31, 2017 at 4:05 AM

Is there a spam countermeasure that can be employed by the forum? Or perhaps forum software that can be looked into that has a bit more robust countermeasures?

TACRfan · May 31, 2017 at 8:04 AM Official Post

Quote from spc0806

Is there a spam countermeasure that can be employed by the forum? Or perhaps forum software that can be looked into that has a bit more robust countermeasures?

we are looking at all aspects, the problem is we are limited to what options we can do on this forum software.

emergency4fan · May 31, 2017 at 8:09 AM

could tracking down the company in charge of all these bots work?

TACRfan · May 31, 2017 at 8:13 AM Official Post

Quote from emergency4fan

could tracking down the company in charge of all these bots work?

it's not a company and every bot uses a different IP

emergency4fan · May 31, 2017 at 2:54 PM

oh ok

FirefighterDetroit · May 31, 2017 at 7:13 PM

What if the forum went through a reset almsot like a server reset? Maybe that can help stop this problem.

Jason · June 1, 2017 at 12:25 PM Official Post

This is simply a case of a human signing up an account and then posting these posts. Therefore, it is difficult to prevent. Spambot protection literally stops bots automatically doing it but it's clear from the behaviour and timings someone is doing it.

We're still working on a solution but ultimately we cannot easily decide if a user signing up is malicious or genuine until they start posting.

teufelchen · June 1, 2017 at 2:43 PM

Would be a captcha query with the thread not a solution?

XTXTactics · June 2, 2017 at 9:13 AM

I'm not an expert but I don't believe that would work. As Jason has said, it is a person signing up to the forums and a person posting. They would be able to bypass the captcha. Their intention isn't known until they've actually posted. That's the point where action is taken

Gavin876 · June 3, 2017 at 4:25 AM Official Post

We've just implemented a new strategy that we hope works. I don't want to say much about it to keep it more secure.

emergency4fan · June 3, 2017 at 8:38 AM

thats fair seeing as its a person doing it

Gavin876 · June 3, 2017 at 7:35 PM Official Post

Okay that didn't seem to work too well. I've just implemented a different measure. Let's see how this one goes.

FirefighterDetroit · June 4, 2017 at 4:35 PM

You will need to implement another measure because it isn't working again.

letsgohope12 · June 4, 2017 at 5:04 PM Official Post

I'm assuming the measure was an anti-link thing because there was no list of outside hyperlinks. In this case it worked, but only to a certain extent.

FirefighterDetroit · June 4, 2017 at 6:29 PM

I did find that one was able to get a hyperlink through but it only was on one post.

Gavin876 · June 4, 2017 at 6:42 PM Official Post

It wasn't strictly anti-link, but that was a lot of the goal. But if it stopped (most of) the links successfully, then we're removing any monetary incentive for the spamming. So hopefully it dies down.

Wolfman1988 · September 8, 2017 at 12:52 AM

i am your ally in the war on spam bots

JerseyBirds · December 23, 2017 at 5:36 AM Official Post

I realize this thread is old but could someone explain to me what spam bots are and how to detect a spam bot post? I realize this is a simple question but I honestly have no clue what a spam bot is. Is it a virus or something?

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