Last night there was a suspicious post about MP3's (gone this morning, I noticed), and now today there have been two pornographic posts. (All in the Writing Instruments forum.)

Is this related to the new server? The registration issues?

Just wondering, and hoping it can be resolved.

I noticed and reported one recently. I don't think that the problem is related to the server move though, as there were also some of those postings before the move took place.

The post I saw was pretty graphic so if you're of a delicate nature you might not want to even look as these suspiciously titled posts. I hope we can get them off here fast... Hmmm.... I guess I'm of a delicate nature. Ick.

There's one in the Writing Instruments section brazenly entitled 'hardcore hentai toons'. I've reported it to a moderator. Man, I don't want that stuff here; sometimes my kids visit FPN.

There are two more in here now! Moderators we are being invaded please clear these out!!

Since all the bad ones seem to have many links and images, is there a way to configure board software to auto-moderate posts of new members who use outbound links and/or images?

Yeah, spammers, they sign on, make their one post, and then move on. About the only thing the Administrators can do after deleting the post and the account is, if they can trace down the ISP, lodge formal a formal complaint.

If the source can be tracked down you might try a complaint with your jurisdictions equivalent of our Attorneys General. Some jurisdictions do take such things very seriously.

Weird. I thought that the registration process would effectively prevent this kind of garbage. I'm assuming that the Administrators can de-register this jerk.

We try to ensure that posts are removed ASAP.

Of course the spammers are blocked, terminated etc, but patterns are hard to find. As everyone knows, they are inventive at finding new ways to post just about anywhere. I suspect that we are receiving more attention because we are growing and appear fairly high up on searches. Makes us a bigger target.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We do talk about them, but usually a disadvantage pops up that makes more work than removing the posts is. For example, putting all new members on moderation until they have posted some number of posts often pops up. Unfortunately, that places quite a tall workload on the mods and admins as perhaps 1000 posts per day would have to be screened.

The registration process is supposed to limit access, particularly the CAPTCHA process where one must manually intervene to begin registration. Also, having to respond to a validation request means that they have to provide a working email address, and see our bot generated request for them to respond. Between these two, I think that most are filtered out.

But, as you know, we have been having trouble with the CAPTCHA, and a lot of registrations need manual intervention now. The validation process is also exhibiting some problems, resulting even more manual registration requests.

So, we have even less manpower to deal with solving the problem...

Still, while the level is above the desireable rate of zero, it isn't really high. For example, on my account, which is protected by an antivirus program, I receive between 150 and 200 spam messages a day, of which all but 4 or 5 are caught and dumped. The FPN average of messages getting through isn't that high yet.

Anyway, we need a fix for the CAPTCHA and a look into the validation failures. The S/W provider has been asked to investigate.

Regards,

Gerry

Welcome to the internet!

These aren't actual people, they are spambots working through proxies....

That's why my suggestion was more moderate: only moderating posts of new members who posted outbound links, images, or uploaded images. (Or if the software offers the granularity, more than X of those in any one post).

I do not believe uploaded images are a concern. The bot most likely goes from forum to forum posting the same message, it most likely CANT upload an image, but it CAN use HTML to link to an existing one.

That should make it even easier, no? Just search the text for an image link if this is the user's first post.

Another board I frequent didn't let me post any images, links, or attachments until I had been a member for a certain period of time. When I tried to do so, my post didn't appear until it was approved by the mods/admins. Don't know how that's implemented, but maybe it's a solution worth considering?

Are you sure? These bots need to read the validation message sent back by the board requiring them to click on a link to enable their membershiip. I suspect that requires human intervention, which is why the spam we are seeing is really low compared to what one sees if no validation is employed.

Regards,

Gerry

The ones that get through here on FPN are not spam robots, they are live people. My own boards and I'm sure FPN gets hit with hundreds of attempted automated posts every day from the spambots. But to get onto boards like this one that use a captcha, require email response to register, and in the case of my boards require a challenge response for every post that requires solving a constantly changing word puzzle, it takes humans.

There are "sweat shop" operations in China and Korea that employ thousands of youngsters, usually college students who need the extra cash, who post spam on boards like this and who also play multiplayer games for money. Players of these multiplayer games will pay considerable sums of money for powerful swords, magic rings, and so forth, that one is normally supposed to earn by investing long hours in playing the game. But for cash you can shortcut the process to becoming a powerful bigshot by simply purchasing the items. Those items are won by Chinese college students who are experts at the game.

For years I have tried all sorts of tricks. Back in March I managed to finally stop such posts completely on my boards (I write my own software) by coding up a filter that identifies http:// links and then runs a keyword match. I studied the content of numerous spam posts and created a list of keywords that are a tipoff that it's spam. It's always either porn or pharmaceuticals and with a list of about 40 keywords / fragments, I'm guaranteed a hit if it's spam. So far, it's been 100 percent effective. (knock wood) Once in a while it will nail a legitimate post but that's rare. Posts that trigger the filter are marked for moderation and do not become visible until I take a look at it.

Good post Cap'n.

Yes, those were my thoughts exactly. Unfortunately only a few here are as S/W capable, and indeed, even if we were, the board S/W is commercial. Changing it, even if we could, would be limited by the loss of any support by the company after mod as it wouldn't be common SW anymore.

We are inputting to the company BTW, and future upgrades will likely improve on the SPAM rejection quality.

In the meantime, vigilance is the best solution, and possibly it may be seen as unproductive to the companies paying, even for the incredibly low wages paid to Chinese summer students. I really don't think anyone will find posting on a board that gets them between 10 to 40 views only once per registration per IP address etc. to be economical. [I hope!]

Sorry for those who have peeked and seen unwelcome material. I suggest that you don't peek if the title gives it away - just report it unseen. We'll still get 'em. I have a strong stomach...

Only takes a little time....

Regards,

Gerry

Well, at least so far it's pretty rare for the porn-types to get through to this forum. I was surprised, however, that they actually take the time to get real humans to register and post their junk.

Most boards are not as closely supervised and administrated as FPN. On most boards spam posts hang around for a lot longer. FPN is an exception in that it is watched very closely and most spam posts are detected and nailed within minutes. On most boards the "return on investment" for spammers is much better but I doubt the spammers pay attention to the difference. An exceptional board like FPN, that is pretty much a waste of time for the spammers, is part of the "cost of doing business".

I think the numbers do work. (Well obviously they do, since spammers continue to be in business, hah) But consider that some of my Google ads pay 50 cents a click. If working from a list in an organized manner one person should be able to enroll in and post spam on quite a few boards per hour. It probably pays okay, unfortunately.

Now I've seen it too; YUCK is not a bad choice of words. You know, if you add up all the time these contaminators distroy, it must be at least 1 lifetime per infection (and ofter much more). Don't you think then, that capital punishment is well deserved?

Is "celebrity sexy tatoos" in the writing instruments section more garbage???? I don't even want to check it myself.... Anybody less sqeemish want to look????

Yes, "celebrity sexy tattoos" is more garbage. I closed the window before I could hit Report because I didn't want to risk the video starting, but the gestalt was obvious.

Mobilize the Bloodguard ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H moderators!

Yep, garbage, not anywhere as bad as the others though. I have noticed that all of the innapropriate posts had a smiley post icon next to them, so that could be a giveaway for the future.

AaacccK! Is it reported now???? That stuff is creeping me out. Is there anyway to alert others or report it without having to get an eye-full??? I noticed it had the same smiley face icon as the others too.

I sent a PM to Stylo (1 of moderators for Writing Instruments) identifying that post as spam.

Thank you MinasTirithScribe.

Yes, your probably right...

BTW I am one of those who plays multiplayer games, where thousands of children are employed to "farm" virtual money for resale over eBay. I also would like to point out that both parties taking part in a real world trading transaction(Trading cash for in-game items), will have their accounts terminated.

Since the moderators believe this is a real person. They should be aware that there is someone who hangs out on NNTP: alt.collecting.pens-pencils who is constantly bad-mouthing FPN. Might be worth looking into.

Ehh, several of us are there on a.c.p-p (including at least one mod from here), and I don't think The Drunken Lord would bother posting here. I think he has better things to do than to spam the joint.

I, for one, can say that I appreciate the diligence that the moderators give to controlling and stopping this kind of problem.
Thanks,guys and gals.

John

Can't you just forbid new members from posting attachments, links and script until they get past 5 or 10 posts?

Plain text only would prevent the garbage in the first instance and then I don't think they would have the perseverence to post 5 or 10 times simply to get their junk in.

Actually, what would probably work better is just to have a 2 day delay from registration to activation. If these are spam people they probably don't have the patience to wait 2 days and will move on to another not so well protected board...

We would implement that if the S/W allowed it. It is anticipated that it might be added to the new update to the S/W that we still have to upgrade to.

Lets hope!

Regards,

Gerry

I agree. They seem to have solved the problem with FPN becoming inaccessible from time to time (I haven't experienced that problem since the server upgrade). I have no doubt they will resolve this issue as well. Thanks everyone!

I want to thank you for making a completely false statement on NNTP. I did not accuse anyone, just thought it was worth looking into.

If I were going to accuse someone, I would have also provided evidence.



-Bruce

Point noted, but I did at least provide a link to this thread and what you'd said.

Posting a link to this thread should just cause more FPN bashing over there...
I don't say that the guy is spamming here, but it is obvious he hates FPN for some reason... and has no problem being a royal jacka** in the way he does it...
I would not be surprised to find out that he is a former member of FPN that was banned for abusive behavior. We see the same behavior on Pentrace from people there who were chastised by the Admins.

Yes, but you drew a conclusion that wasn't there, planting that seed in anyone's mind who looks at it. I also didn't mention any names.

I think you should straighten out the record.

-Bruce

Yes, the person later mentioned by Deidre admits to being banned from here. They are going to bash regardless. My objection was to the erroneous conclusion drawn by Deidre when the post was made on the news group, regardless of whether or not the link was posted, it created a false accusatory environment.

While I am suspicious of said person, without hard evidence, I was not going to point a finger that way, which is why I worded my post the way I did. I figured if the admins wanted to follow it up, it would have been handled back-channel, rather than having more stupidity out in the open - especially if the lead were a dead one, which it may very well be.

A little more common sense applied would have gone a long way.

-Bruce

I haven't read acpp in a very long time and I don't think the other admins read it either. If people are bashing FPN there, then that's there prerogative. We have a hands off policy with other sites and do not allow bashing of other pen sites on FPN. However, I just learned of a situation there that needs to be cleared up and I'm having a problem finding acpp post in question. I don't know if this is what you are referring to, or if you're just talking about someone bad mouthing FPN.



As I said, nothing we can do about that.



I don't think the spam posts are coming from an ex-member. Before we did our first software upgrade we had the same problem which was even worse. Our current software is not up to date. We needed to wait for the server move to do the software update. We hope to have that done soon, and hope that solves the problem.

Regarding the porn SPAM we've been getting recently, all (if memory serves correctly) are from China (last designation in email addresses is .cn

We are taking immediate manual action to help reduce the number making it through the system, and looking towards more permanent solutions.

We appreciate your help in identifying the posts if they do make it through, and will work as diligently as possible to remove them promptly.

Thanks for your assistnace.

Regards,

Gerry

Agreed. On splicer.com, where members can't post comments until approved, I get dozens of new members every day, all with names like "cheap viagra", "lose weight fast" and so on. Obviously FPN can't screen every new member and I'm not suggesting that, just saying there are lots of spammers out there with their spiders crawling all over the web. It doesn't require someone with a grudge.

Well, none (or very few) of 'member' names like that are making it through our automatic defences as they stand right now.

What are getting through are ones with less obvious names (admittedly usually nonsense arrangements of letters) and originating from China. The earlier posts suggesting human intervention to get past the validation requirements are the only ones that make sense at this time.

No one (save one pretty mild speculative post) has ever suggested that this is the work of anyone with a grudge; certainly none of the Admins, who are closest to the problem.

We'll get this dealt with, promise....

Regards,

Gerry

Ruaidhrí posted there recently. I'll pm you about the specific post you may be looking for.


Agreed -- this feels like drive-by spamming.

Whaaat!

SPAM mail at work = acceptable(to me) but in FPN... dude this is a place for us FP people all over the world to hang out and unwind.

But its not a fault it happens even in a "secure" server its part of I.T. life. Like splicer, I also receive an occasion SPAM mail with "viagra" related and the "quick wieght loss" etc. etc...

someone who hangs out on NNTP: alt.collecting.pens-pencils ?


Well the mystery is solved, we have his picture: Madide Dominus or Drunked Lord

I help in another message board and we used to have bad problems with bots registering and spamming our boards.

Even though you're using Invision Power Board, this phpBB page helped us a great deal:

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.p...p;sk=t&sd=a

To curtail our problem, we used Registration Auth Control (RAC) using a question very specific to the content on our board in addition to the CAPTCHA. And we have not had a single spammer register since.

For FPN, you'd have to use an equivalent mod. And the question can be something that's literally on the front page for an unregistered guest (e.g. Who leads the Pen Turning and Making forum?). Even though the answer's right on the front page, that additional layer of effort a spammer would have to perform to search for the forum and also type in the word might be enough to deter most of them from registering. And since the vast majority of spam accounts are created by bots, the requirement to use a human for content-specific questions makes something like RAC an effective gatekeeper.

Unfortunately, something more specific (e.g. Name the manufacturer that makes Florida Blue ink) would be too obscure for folks unfamiliar with the hobby.

Thank you for your input. I read quite a bit of the First post of the FAQ and was impressed with the info there.

As to what we can implement on the FPN, I'm not sure, but I would like to see something added to enhance our success in avoiding SPAM.

Thanks again, I'll be pointing this out to our team for consideration. Are you interested in becoming involved?

Regards,

Gerry

Joining this thread a little late, but we all appreciate the help you provide by the quick reporting of these spam posts.

For folks reading at work or in the presence of children, usually the topic titles of these spams are a giveaway to the contents of the posts, so try to resist the temptation of opening them. If you open them by mistake, hitting the Esc button should stop the loading of any linked images or videos (at least it does on Firefox).

Isn't that user blocked from posting or viewing FPN? Reading some of his posts and the responses from FPNers I recognized, it seemed that he was the FPNer formerly known as titivitillius (sp?).