Spammers

[Buckaroo]

Maybe not this.

[computerphoto]

I did a whois on the website. Can someone complain about abuse and get them shut down?

Name: camfree.co.uk
Internationalized Domain Name: camfree.co.uk
Registry Domain ID: D_84081437-UK
Domain Status:
clientTransferProhibited
Nameservers:
dns1.namecheaphosting.com.
dns2.namecheaphosting.com.
Dates
Registry Expiration: 2025-10-04 18:17:50 UTC
Updated: 2024-10-04 18:18:04 UTC
Created: 2024-10-04 18:17:50 UTC

Name: Namecheap, Inc.
IANA ID: NAMECHEAP-INC
URL: https://www.namecheap.com/
Abuse contact email: abuse@namecheap.com
Abuse contact phone: tel:+1.6613102107

Registry Server URL: https://rdap.nominet.uk/uk/domain/camfree.co.uk
Last updated from Registry RDAP DB: 2025-02-12T00:35:25.437Z

contact https://www.namecheap.com/ maybe they can shut down the DNS which is domain name server, for the domain, that means the domain would be dead

[computerphoto]

but the admin here should be able to block the IP addresses, and or delete their accounts.

[computerphoto]

Stop Forum Spam
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2614661

I still think this should be looked into

[computerphoto]

preventing spam - Stopping Spam - Techniques and Strategies

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2122696

[Debbifan]

Yes, the forum is nearly unusable at this point

This is the worry. The latest assault seems almost personal and vindictive in its scale. Genuine additions / updates to stories and comments get swamped by the crap, with the danger that some get lost or unnoticed and users begin to stop bothering to search them out. Surely counter productive even for the scammers but one can not expect common sense from them.

I think only Viredae has the authority to change the registration / posting conditions but it is something that is now much needed.

[KiTA]

Having ran a phpBB before that got attacked the same way

1. Updating phpBB was VITAL. They specifically target older versions.
2. Setting new accounts to require email approval helped, but not much.
3. Setting new accounts to require admin approval helped, but it caused a lot of work.
4. Adding a few dozen questions (picked randomly) for use on registration helped, but they eventually got past that.
5. Blocking the entire country of India, Russia, China, and the Ukraine via class-A IP blocks helped, but it probably blocked real users too.
6. Individual IP blocks did NOT work. They use compromised computers and VPNs.
7. Other anti-spam features (like Captcha) helped too.
8. Manually deleting users with 0 posts after say, 15 days, helped -- many of the accounts would sit there until suddenly activated later on, likely an attempt to avoid "you can't post here your first X days on the forum" type stuff.
9. Manually deleting users with ICQ and other now closed social media networks helped -- the bots input these to appear "real" but I know of no modern users of those sites.
10. Restricting users to a small subset of the forum until they have X number of posts or Y number of days or something similar may help -- the bots will activate and spam those regions instead of the rest of the site.

[Trundle]

Having ran a phpBB before that got attacked the same way

1. Updating phpBB was VITAL. They specifically target older versions.
2. Setting new accounts to require email approval helped, but not much.
3. Setting new accounts to require admin approval helped, but it caused a lot of work.
4. Adding a few dozen questions (picked randomly) for use on registration helped, but they eventually got past that.
5. Blocking the entire country of India, Russia, China, and the Ukraine via class-A IP blocks helped, but it probably blocked real users too.
6. Individual IP blocks did NOT work. They use compromised computers and VPNs.
7. Other anti-spam features (like Captcha) helped too.
8. Manually deleting users with 0 posts after say, 15 days, helped -- many of the accounts would sit there until suddenly activated later on, likely an attempt to avoid "you can't post here your first X days on the forum" type stuff.
9. Manually deleting users with ICQ and other now closed social media networks helped -- the bots input these to appear "real" but I know of no modern users of those sites.
10. Restricting users to a small subset of the forum until they have X number of posts or Y number of days or something similar may help -- the bots will activate and spam those regions instead of the rest of the site.

Really hope this is being listened to.

The forum is close to being unusable. I find it difficult to find out whether or not a story has been updated or it's just spam. It seems a targeted attack, it's not going to end unless something is done about it. Just deleting their posts hasn't worked. I dunno if it's someone who was previously banned from here or it's just some total weirdo troll.

It cannot go on like this.

[dublinjohn]

....
10. Restricting users to a small subset of the forum until they have X number of posts or Y number of days or something similar may help -- the bots will activate and spam those regions instead of the rest of the site.

I like this idea/suggestion, I can't believe that I didn't think to make it

Really hope this is being listened to.

The forum is close to being unusable. I find it difficult to find out whether or not a story has been updated or it's just spam. It seems a targeted attack, it's not going to end unless something is done about it. Just deleting their posts hasn't worked. I dunno if it's someone who was previously banned from here or it's just some total weirdo troll.

It cannot go on like this.

Agreed

I'm actually happy to do a bit if the boss wants to trust me with mod powers, I'm around most days, currently I fear the mods are being overworked with these "attacks"

[TeenFan]

The number 8 suggestion, deleting members who don't post during a period of time...that one would remove many legitimate members.
A large majority of members are lurkers only, and they never post comments or stories. Not sure how much work would be involved in
monitoring members levels of activity.