The Spammers Have Landed onto WOV

The Spammers Have Landed onto WOV.

I think the posting limit thingy needs to be adjusted for new signups. Or maybe we don't have that any longer. Or maybe it doesn't work the way I thought..

I hope everyone is smart enough to realize that the contact information the spammers are posting are almost certainly scams that will invite you to lose your money without recourse.

Don't call them trying to change or arrange flights, hotels, or crypto deals.

Quote: rxwine

I think the posting limit thingy needs to be adjusted for new signups. Or maybe we don't have that any longer. Or maybe it doesn't work the way I thought..
link to original post

Our strategy for handling spammers has always been Bop-a-Mole; ban the spammer and delete the thread/post. these are coming in so fast that they are overwhelming us, the actions required to Ban and Delete take longer than the time before the next spam post arrives. And obviously, Dieter, Wiz and I don't work 24/7 and can't persistently serve as a meat shield against this kind of attack.

We need new restrictions on creating threads for new members; the spammers are also creating multiple accounts from the same IP address - we need some kind of a software-driven automatic response to people that are doing that.

Quote: gordonm888

Our strategy for handling spammers has always been Bop-a-Mole; ban the spammer and delete the thread/post. these are coming in so fast that they are overwhelming us, the actions required to Ban and Delete take longer than the time before the next spam post arrives. And obviously, Dieter, Wiz and I don't work 24/7 and can't persistently serve as a meat shield against this kind of attack.
link to original post

(snip)

Remember when?
I used to go to the arcade/amusement park in The Mall with my kid sister. Some Whack-a-Mole game (I think it had chomping gators to avoid IP licensing conflict) was our absolute favorite.

We are good, but we are also mortals of finite capacity.

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: rxwine

I think the posting limit thingy needs to be adjusted for new signups. Or maybe we don't have that any longer. Or maybe it doesn't work the way I thought..
link to original post

Our strategy for handling spammers has always been Bop-a-Mole; ban the spammer and delete the thread/post. these are coming in so fast that they are overwhelming us, the actions required to Ban and Delete take longer than the time before the next spam post arrives. And obviously, Dieter, Wiz and I don't work 24/7 and can't persistently serve as a meat shield against this kind of attack.

We need new restrictions on creating threads for new members; the spammers are also creating multiple accounts from the same IP address - we need some kind of a software-driven automatic response to people that are doing that.
link to original post

I suggest all new signup have to pay a penny, or whatever the minimum amount that can be done through payment system. That will slow them down, or make a lot of cents. Or course, it should be explained why it is being done.

Otherwise, It's hard to imagine it's not going to get worse these days of smarter bots.

Quote: Dieter

Quote: gordonm888

Our strategy for handling spammers has always been Bop-a-Mole; ban the spammer and delete the thread/post. these are coming in so fast that they are overwhelming us, the actions required to Ban and Delete take longer than the time before the next spam post arrives. And obviously, Dieter, Wiz and I don't work 24/7 and can't persistently serve as a meat shield against this kind of attack.
link to original post

(snip)

Remember when?
I used to go to the arcade/amusement park in The Mall with my kid sister. Some Whack-a-Mole game (I think it had chomping gators to avoid IP licensing conflict) was our absolute favorite.

We are good, but we are also mortals of finite capacity.
link to original post

I feel like I'm defending Gondor from 100,000 CGI orcs straight from the bowels of Mordor. Well, I've just hand-deleted another zillion scam posts. Hazard pay?!? I think Wizard needs to give Dieter and I hazard pay.

this is not simply spam, but primarily a Denial of Service attack

Quote: Dieter

I hope everyone is smart enough to realize that the contact information the spammers are posting are almost certainly scams that will invite you to lose your money without recourse.

Don't call them trying to change or arrange flights, hotels, or crypto deals.
link to original post

Do you mean I shouldn't have sent $10,000 to that Nigerian prince?

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: Dieter

I hope everyone is smart enough to realize that the contact information the spammers are posting are almost certainly scams that will invite you to lose your money without recourse.

Don't call them trying to change or arrange flights, hotels, or crypto deals.
link to original post

Do you mean I shouldn't have sent $10,000 to that Nigerian prince?
link to original post

No, you should have, so long as you understood that you're not getting it back.

There are plenty of dumb things to squander wealth on, and a good story from a deposed Nigerian prince is a fine trophy for a gentleman of your reputation...

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: Dieter

I hope everyone is smart enough to realize that the contact information the spammers are posting are almost certainly scams that will invite you to lose your money without recourse.

Don't call them trying to change or arrange flights, hotels, or crypto deals.
link to original post

Do you mean I shouldn't have sent $10,000 to that Nigerian prince?
link to original post

C'mon,, I told you the check was in the mail. Just give it a few months. I'm in the remote part of Nigeria. Mail travels on turtle back.

Luckily, this happened on June 20th, the longest day of the year, giving our crackerjack specialists extra time to resolve the issue.

Quote: odiousgambit

this is not simply spam, but primarily a Denial of Service attack
link to original post

I agree. Looks like there is some spite mixed in with it. Hard to believe anyone would think that was a profitable move, or that anyone would think anything good would happen if they call those numbers.

Quote: gordonm888

Quote: rxwine

I think the posting limit thingy needs to be adjusted for new signups. Or maybe we don't have that any longer. Or maybe it doesn't work the way I thought..
link to original post

Our strategy for handling spammers has always been Bop-a-Mole; ban the spammer and delete the thread/post. these are coming in so fast that they are overwhelming us, the actions required to Ban and Delete take longer than the time before the next spam post arrives. And obviously, Dieter, Wiz and I don't work 24/7 and can't persistently serve as a meat shield against this kind of attack.

We need new restrictions on creating threads for new members; the spammers are also creating multiple accounts from the same IP address - we need some kind of a software-driven automatic response to people that are doing that.
link to original post

If they're from the same IP address, can you ban the IP?

Maybe we’ve been hit as part of a certain country’s cyberwar retaliation.

Because the software for this forum is one off, I doubt it has much anti Spam measures. If it were more traditional, you could implement anti spam apps and something like Akismet, because those are written to plug into known forum softwares.

Someone could talk to miroslavlav see what he may do to upgrade this antiquated software with some more modern anti spam measures. I believe there is code written that rejects any registration that is entered in less than a certain number of seconds, as well as reCaptchas and such to slow down bot registrations, and then Akismet I understand keeps a list of suspect IP addresses and emails to block registrations from known spammers.

At the time Wizard created this website he could have bought a lifetime license for some established forum software and we could have even had app accessibility, and free UPGRADES over the years, but that would have cost a few hundred dollars. Cost might not have been the factor, maybe he wanted the WOV forum to somehow be seamless with WOO, and didn't realize that he could have had both and kept the forum running on a separate software.

In any case, WOO functions fine I suppose, but WOV is by far the old man out among forums. Forums in general I suppose are not as prevalent anymore as things like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, BlueSky, Reddit, WordPress, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and relative newcomers like Peertube, StreamLabs, Twitch and Kick, but for someone who just wants to create some kind of meeting place forum software or something like WordPress remains inexpensive versus trying to create a new TruthSocial.

When it comes to any website where content may be posted by visitors, you can't say you've arrived until you're getting spammed! Bots generally don't bother with dead traffic sites.

The Adventures of MDawg thread typically DOES attract spammers! but these new spammers seem to want to make their own mark with their own threads.

Quote: MDawg

Someone could talk to miroslavlav see what he may do to upgrade this antiquated software with some more modern anti spam measures.
link to original post

(trimmed decimatively)

Such conversations are surely happening.

A long-existing and very popular one is vBulletin, that's proprietary but reasonably priced, and phpBB is a FOSS equivalent of that.

It should be possible to port existing user accounts, threads and content to one of these installs. But if this software is unique a special tool might have to be written for that purpose.