[johnjohn]

Have been puzzled recently about the almost daily strange name combinations that have been listed as ' Validating' then shortly after they disappear only to be replaced later by another strange name combination ! Are these 'hackers' trying to get access to the site ?

[Spinalman]

johnjohn, on Apr 5 2010, 08:30 am, said:

Have been puzzled recently about the almost daily strange name combinations that have been listed as ' Validating' then shortly after they disappear only to be replaced later by another strange name combination ! Are these 'hackers' trying to get access to the site ?

Hi JohnJohn

yes you are right. We are inundated with spammers trying to join. We get 15 a day. So far our method of weeding them out seems to be effective. Every few days I go through the waiting list and delete those that fail the security question and approve the one or two legitimate applicants. The downside is that new applicants sometimes have to wait a few days to get approved.

[PaulOckenden]

I've found one of the most effective automated spammer checks is to put a time check on any forms. If the form is filled in too quickly then it's a robot rather than a genuine user.

Seems to work very well.

P.

[Spinalman]

PaulOckenden, on Apr 5 2010, 11:18 am, said:

I've found one of the most effective automated spammer checks is to put a time check on any forms. If the form is filled in too quickly then it's a robot rather than a genuine user.

Seems to work very well.

P.

Indeed. Except for me to compare 150+ times each week is a pain - or do you have an auto delete calculation Paul? I ask a simple multiple choice question which I automate to collect the wrong answers and then I delete in bulk.

[PaulOckenden]

Spinalman, on Apr 5 2010, 11:37 am, said:

Indeed. Except for me to compare 150+ times each week is a pain - or do you have an auto delete calculation Paul? I ask a simple multiple choice question which I automate to collect the wrong answers and then I delete in bulk.

I automate it.

I set a hidden form field with a lightly encoded version of the time (of page display). And then I subtract that from the current time when the form is submitted. If it's less than, say, 10 seconds I know it's a bot because nobody could complete the form that quickly.

Depending on the site, I either throw those responses away, or else display a "we were unable to process your request, if your enquiry is important please contact us by phone on xxxxx" message.

P.

[Chavster]

This is a Joomla site innit?!

There are mods that add Captcha to the signup process.

works for me.

[Chavster]

http://extensions.jo...ecurity/captcha

[Spinalman]

Chavster, on Apr 13 2010, 19:49 pm, said:

http://extensions.jo...ecurity/captcha

Thanks Chavster... I'll mention to Pete.

[Shoreham1]

Hi Guys,
Its a very good point, but just to explain how the site works. It is mainly a Joomla site BUT the membership and registration is managed by the IPB forum (via a bridge) and therefore the Captcha mod for Joomla will not work.
I have, however, just paid for a new upgrade to the Forums which includes the latest reCaptcha software (which is far more secure than the older Captcha.)
The upgrade will take place in the next few days, hopefully when we're all asleep....so we will hopfully see a big reduction in the amount of spam bots trying to register.
Many thanks to Paul for continuing to stave off the spammers by checking them daily - hopefully this will help you get a little more sleep
Cheers,
Pete

[PaulOckenden]

Pete,

I'm sure you've already spotted these but:

- Quotes aren't working

- In the "New Content" list, the little icon on the left takes you to the first message in the thread, rather than the first unread.

P.

[johnjohn]

Spinalman, on 05 April 2010 - 09:44 AM, said:

Hi JohnJohn

yes you are right. We are inundated with spammers trying to join. We get 15 a day. So far our method of weeding them out seems to be effective. Every few days I go through the waiting list and delete those that fail the security question and approve the one or two legitimate applicants. The downside is that new applicants sometimes have to wait a few days to get approved.

It looks as if one has slipped through the net.....An advert for 'JorShoes' appeared this morning on 'Chatter' the same advert also can be seen on the Rugby Instructors forum 'The Huddle'