TheSidewinder Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Apologies to those who got a PM from the Spammer named "Catherine". That account has been banned, along with the IP block associated to it (Russia, no surprise). I'll try to find a way to mass delete the PM's this fucking moron sent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted November 7, 2009 Author Share Posted November 7, 2009 OK, somehow this idiot managed to PM every single member we have. That's one more reason I like the new version of IP.Board..... it has an easy way to restrict the number of PM's someone sends in a given time period. Looks like I'll have to do some SQL work...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ventsi Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Thanks SW, I'm sure it was a bot rather than a person.Perhaps you can put in a CATCHA type filter into the next board? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Sidewinder, did you receive one? I didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twotails Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 I just got one, Annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 No, Admins apparently didn't receive one. Clever. The bastard sent 1344 PM's, which isn't everybody but it's close. Had to have been a bot, after a human registrant. A real pity I don't know someone in Russia who'd like to make ten bucks and break their fuckin' legs..... I'm trying to get someone at IPS to help me clear out the PM's via phpMyAdmin. A short SQL query or two would do it, I believe. But everyone has their IM client turned off at the moment. *sigh* Oh, another thing IPB 3.x has is a Spam Service, so emails used by the spammers get into a database, and which then denies registration using it. It's really quite a nice feature, and included free for active license holders (which we are, assuming Mumbles paid the Support renewal ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 I know some Russians i was thinking priming their fingers by the way when stuff like that occurs do you want us to let you know because I sent Mumbles a PM but like if every one does that than you the admins have like 1000 PM's that all say the same thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 Yes! Please PM us! We can always mass delete our own PM's, and disk space is a non-issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Yeah, we have essentially unlimited pm space. It'd take over 10,000 to fill up our mailboxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm82792 Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Having a simple type in the squiggly letters that are oddly shaped in the box after the 3rd PM would have stopped it.Like after you're 3rd PM in a 6 hour time period or something. Just a thought to prevent this from happening in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrohawk Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Yup, I got one to. It said that the user who sent it was banned. Does that mean that the user sent the PM even after being banned? I dind't think you could do that....so I assume it just shows like that because you already banned them by the time I read my message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richtee Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Yup, I got one to. It said that the user who sent it was banned. Does that mean that the user sent the PM even after being banned? I dind't think you could do that....so I assume it just shows like that because you already banned them by the time I read my message. Yes, that would be the case... as SW said, he had not deleted all the PM's. As an asideThis type of spammer is tough to stop- because it is a human who sets up the acct and the bot then goes at it. Only real way would be to hold them "moderated" and unable to post until admin/mods look at the acct and perhaps verify the email address and get a reply. Even then that's no guarentee. More drastic measures- like the limiting PM's idea, limit us members too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSidewinder Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 Exactly, Rich. And yeah, I banned that user only after the damage was done. Once we upgrade to v3.x all this will be academic. There are far more controls available in the new version, including a PM throttle feature that can limit the number of PM's sent in X minutes. I can also see that the Spam Service which IPS offers will help. Since almost EVERY board these days uses Email validation as one step of registration, spammers have to have SOME type of legitimate email account to go further. Once an email is flagged in the IPS service as belonging to a spammer, just about every IP.Board v3.x install in the world will know about it. They'll have to get a new email address at that point. Sooner or later, they'll run out of sources for email addresses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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