Lately our forum has been having a problem where large numbers of accounts have been set up that appear to be fake. Most of them use Yandex email addresses but there are others. I suppose it could be a good thing to have a large member count, but I am more interested in reaching the world wide Radical Community than having a large number of members. So I am periodically deleting the accounts that appear to be fake. If you have an account that has been deleted by mistake please email me at CharleyH@RadicalSportscarRegistry.com and I will help you get back on the Forum.
One way I know an account is real is to add an avatar (the picture tied to your account). They are easy to add and they make it easy to know you are a real person. Also Posting helps.
Thank you, and I apologize if I delete any real people by mistake.
Charley
Thanks for keeping an eye on this. It reinforces the legitimacy of the forum
Welcome to forum ownership.
A couple of ways to combat this are (at least with vBulletin forums) to install a bot blocker. If anyone can sign up in less than a given time (I think I’m set at 10 seconds) it’s a bot and it automatically sends them off into web never-never land and bans the IP address.
Second way is to switch from automatic response/membership and do it manually each morning as you enjoy your cup ‘o joe. You can see if they’ve added a spamming link in their profile, you can check their IP address against black lists and give ‘em the boot before they ever get registered.
Don't be afraid to boot people that don’t seem fully legit either. If they are and don’t get a “your approved” response, usually that person will contact you and ask why not/what’s up? You then respond and approve them.
Spammers SUCK.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW-What a Ride!'"
Thanks Richard. How do you know if it a spam link? Is that why they sign up with fake accounts?
Thanks,
Charley
Most of the time the url that the potential member will put in is pretty obvious.
It’ll mention Russian dating or web cam or something sort “product” or “service”. They’re often fairly long with lots of slashes in them too. Instead of something fairly simple like www.yellowdogracing it’ll be www.fredsbank/russiangirls/katrinas/blog/mesexyforyou
Fortunately I’ve not had any Nigerian Princes try to join recently.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW-What a Ride!'"
It's been a real issue for me too... I co-run RS200.org forum and for a time we had multiple signup requests daily...
It's been a lot less lately since implementing a simple but effective protection... We have a code that we publicly display in a publicly accessible part of the forum which needs to be copy/pasted in a question field during registration. That seems to be enough to screen most if not all "bots".
On suspicious registration requests I also double check them using www.stopforumspam.com/.
Fortunately I’ve not had any Nigerian Princes try to join recently.
😆
I had some software tools added to the site to protect us fro these fake users. When those were added they “re-booted the site so you may find that if you had changed your screen name it may have reset to the initial name you used when you signed up. You can change your screen name by editing your profile.
Charley
