Site getting spammed - becoming unreadable

[MattF]

Seems like there's been a tremendous amount of spam posts with Chinese (I think) text in the subject (I won't open the threads). If I select "new posts" the site is unreadable due to all the spam.

Matt

 

[TimG]

Yeah, it definitely sucks. Ive been off the forums for a while and just logged on this morning to see this. I'm sure Jared is working feverishly on a fix!

 

[McFitty]

I dont understand why! Most of us cant even read it. What is the point? Epic troll fail.

 

[CouchAssault]

If you open one of the threads, click on the user, then click on ignore they disappear.

There were only 2 users this time, so it took 30 seconds to ignore both.

 

[BnB19Laramie]

If you open one of the threads, click on the user, then click on ignore they disappear.

There were only 2 users this time, so it took 30 seconds to ignore both.

This. I didn’t even have to open thread on mobile. Quick fix for viewing.

 

[slimchance]

yep .. the ignore worked for me .. thanxs

 

[MattF]

Very helpful - thank you!

Matt

 

[edrclark]

@Jared B Banned him. If you report them, the next time a moderator logs in, we can remove them completely, there is a button for that

 

[Jared B]

There were multiple reports and about 50+ spam messages. I'm going to crank the spam settings up a bit which can delay some genuine registrations but will make it harder for the spammers.

Also I might consider adding another moderator that is typically on late at night/early in the morning that can help out in situations like this.

 

[grinch72]

There were multiple reports and about 50+ spam messages. I'm going to crank the spam settings up a bit which can delay some genuine registrations but will make it harder for the spammers.

Also I might consider adding another moderator that is typically on late at night/early in the morning that can help out in situations like this.

Awesome. I was trying to figure out how to report them and to whom. Also from the other night when I was watching them, they appeared to ab attempting SQL injections, etc, or use some sort of API to post them. It looked like they were testing and testing over and over again until they figured it out. I'm not sure what version of XenForo you are running but the older ones were definitely susceptible to injection attacks. I would make you are patched to the latest code of 2.1.1

 

[Jared B]

Awesome. I was trying to figure out how to report them and to whom. Also from the other night when I was watching them, they appeared to ab attempting SQL injections, etc, or use some sort of API to post them. It looked like they were testing and testing over and over again until they figured it out. I'm not sure what version of XenForo you are running but the older ones were definitely susceptible to injection attacks. I would make you are patched to the latest code of 2.1.1

There should be a little box beside the post that you can click on and hit report. As for upgrading to XenForo 2.1.1 we are on 2.0 now and Ive been updating all the plugins for the last few days to prepare for upgrading to 2.1.1 in the next few days.

 

[banditsc]

There were multiple reports and about 50+ spam messages. I'm going to crank the spam settings up a bit which can delay some genuine registrations but will make it harder for the spammers.

Also I might consider adding another moderator that is typically on late at night/early in the morning that can help out in situations like this.

Might want to look at using a CDN like Incapsula or Cloudflare to front the site. They can easily block entire countries or IP blocks and also block known spammers, etc. I use Incapsula on a car forum I administer and it really helped stopped the spammers. I also use Cloudflare on a car club website and it works well there to. Both of those have free options.

 

[Jared B]

Might want to look at using a CDN like Incapsula or Cloudflare to front the site. They can easily block entire countries or IP blocks and also block known spammers, etc. I use Incapsula on a car forum I administer and it really helped stopped the spammers. I also use Cloudflare on a car club website and it works well there to. Both of those have free options.

Definitely something I will look into. We were using cloudflare on our managed server but since moving to our new dedicated server I haven't had the chance to do that yet. We have been relying on stopforum spam and a few other things for the past few weeks but I definitely want to get it handled for good.

 

[Jared B]

Might want to look at using a CDN like Incapsula or Cloudflare to front the site. They can easily block entire countries or IP blocks and also block known spammers, etc. I use Incapsula on a car forum I administer and it really helped stopped the spammers. I also use Cloudflare on a car club website and it works well there to. Both of those have free options.

Just to update this, we are now using Cloudflare for anyone interested.

 

[edrclark]

Good, I had to ban a spammer yesterday

 

[Jared B]

Good, I had to ban a spammer yesterday

It's no guarantee we won't get spammers, I was actually wrong and we were still using a light version of it before as it followed to the new server but I am now using a dedicated Cloudflare account, not one provided through the hosting provider. I do believe it should help block unreasonable amount of spam, but registrations are also checked against a spam database, theres an invisible captcha on registration and a lot of known spammer e-mail domains are blocked and some still do get through.