We have had a slew of SPAM Bots. Is there any way we can hide new threads created by new members that have under a certain post count, if they are flagged for being reported?
We have had a slew of SPAM Bots. Is there any way we can hide new threads created by new members that have under a certain post count, if they are flagged for being reported?
Robert
People they come together, people they fall apart...
Location: Chicagoland area
Posts: 1,898
My VIN: A few, by name... DeLorean Monster Truck, DeLorean Roadster, DeLorean Hovercraft, DeLorean Limo
Club(s): (DMWC) (DCUK)
Depending upon the volume of new members, maybe we can start new members on a moderated (approve for release) for the first few posts, to help identify which ones are BOTs.
Certainly do not want to make too much extra work for the Mods, but identifying the BOTs before they start churning out Fake News posts might be helpful to the Mods too.
Looks like most are from a poster named Malaka
We are getting nailed. Looking into the issue. Multiple posts, and I mean a lot of posts have been deleted and users banned. The program automatically reregisters with an added digit to the original name.
Soundkillr was here.
I don't know how many new members you get a day but we must approve membership before they can post. I usually just check the IP and run with it if it checks out. Only had one or 2 slip through since we started that.
We used to do manual registration, tamir had someone recode everything and then it was never an issue. Now it is.....
Soundkillr was here.
That is one persistent little robot. It's like the T-1000 of bots.
Location: Middleburg Heights, OH
Posts: 1,939
Bumping this. Most of the spambots I see have one post with a brand new thread. The rest made it to 3-4. New threads, each with two slightly different links. Really ought to automatically flag users who post links in their first 5 posts in a moderation queue of some sort. Especially when they register on the day of their first post and that post is a new thread which contains offsite links (hugely specific but will capture all cases thus far).
What's interesting is that they will also edit the posts after submitting them, possibly trying to circumvent the "first post no link" rule by circling back and editing links into a non-link post? Really not sure. Don't have a before and after on this.
This is definitely one single bot algorithm however as far as post formatting goes. Small amount of text, two links, it's a common theme. Find the source, figure out how it gets in, stop more.
Once the little pricks register, they attempt to use a different IP to post their BS. If that works, it spawns 7 more from the same block it registered with. It's easy to nail these before they post, but with them using a dozen allocators, its a PITA manually. All of them through gmail.com