Bots keep maliciously attacking APH. Something must be done about this!

[tchow847]

Recently there have been 4 bot attacks that were almost consecutive, all aimed on the General Chat on APH. Thankfully, they were all banned, but it's only a matter of time before another bot strikes again.

The following accounts were bots:
selasaeuy (banned)
tsasokpei (banned)
seninadem (banned, too)
gividap (also banned)

Worse, tsasopkei and seninadem posted almost simultaneously at the same day! This could indicate that the next bot attack wouldn't be one or two, but three or even four in a single hour!

To prevent this from happening, we need to do something about this bot trend! We need something that can automatically ban bots the moment they post an ad!

[Xnite]

Bots are a major pain, but unfortunately they are a fact of the internet. I'm not sure there is much more we can do. You can only go so far before you start denying legitimate users.

[flashgamehacker]

Bots are a major pain, but unfortunately they are a fact of the internet. I'm not sure there is much more we can do. You can only go so far before you start denying legitimate users.

I have a suggestion if you are interested?

A while ago I was having trouble with bots on an invision board I used to have and I added some code to check stopforumspam.com for known spammers IP's, email & usernames when registering (After captcha validation) and if in the database they would be denied registration, and IP, email & username added to the ban filters and it worked really well

There may be a mod already available for VB which does the same or if not then if you need any info on adding this here then let me know?

[tchow847]

Another bot attacked APH as we spoke.

The following user is a bot that maliciously ambushed APH with a mahogany ad at 11:49 AM:
lukmaias

Reporting that unauthorised automaton now.

[selectLOL]

I banned it, and i wouldnt speak of an attack. There have been worse times already, and that is just adverting spam. If you dont know, the forum software we use is used by alot of others, and some ppl write bots for spamming there. They infect the computers of others, and let those search and spam then.

If we had a bigger problem with them, i would suggest captcha codes for users with less than x posts. But thankfully its not the case.

[tchow847]

I think there should be captcha codes for every single new account that is registering into APH.

I have a suggestion if you are interested?

A while ago I was having trouble with bots on an invision board I used to have and I added some code to check stopforumspam.com for known spammers IP's, email & usernames when registering (After captcha validation) and if in the database they would be denied registration, and IP, email & username added to the ban filters and it worked really well

There may be a mod already available for VB which does the same or if not then if you need any info on adding this here then let me know?

Yes, that's a good idea, too. That can be a good line of defense against bots that are smart enough to know captcha codes. The other captcha (the one that shows images and stuff) should be required before posting, entering forums, or sending PMs.

[Xnite]

There are captcha's for registering users.

The problem with adding more captchas is that you end up annoying real users more then the bot spam does.

[tchow847]

Then just the IP mod thing. Since the mod isn't applied yet, people should stay alert. In fact, people still have to stay alert even after the mod, since some bots could "evolve" later on and cloak itself from the mod code.

[selectLOL]

I dont think we need that right now. They rarely appear, maybe 3-4 at once, but that was it then for a while.

[tchow847]

Another bot struck again, advertising on a game called "Pirate King," the game of which doesn't exist. These things are evolving, now they now how to make a scam!

The following bot struck:
alaskaska (reported, in progress of being banned. EDIT: Banned)