I have been tracking and logging spam bots for a while. I classify a bot as a spam bot if it doesn’t follow robots.txt. I just started to track users that use these bots and I log IP, username and email address. What I am going to do is list these users and their information. I will keep the list updated so you can reference it and block these low life spammers. Check back here often to keep up to date with new additions to the low life spammer list.

Here is the low life spammer list. If you want to add to it post a comment on the low life spammer list page and I’ll add it.

The Low Life Spammer list was updated on March 18TH, 2009. New low life spammers added.

The first thing I do everyday is to check the uptime monitors on all the servers. If I see no problems I check my email and reply to any requests for services. If there are problems I login to the server to troubleshoot. If the problem is causing probems with access to any sites I’ll make a change to DNS to point the domains on the server to the backup server so I can troubleshoot without effecting my users. Once I get a handle on what is wrong I’ll fix it. If it is a hardware problem then I’ll start a ticket a my host and track the ticket throghout the day. Once I get notified things are fixed I undo the DNS edit. If the problems was on one of the database servers then I will sync the data before I change DNS to make sure nothing is lost.

On a normal morning with no problems this takes abot an hour. I do this before anything else so  if everything is fine I’ll take a shower and go for breakfast before starting the rest of the day. After that it’s time to check all the sites, replying to threads, checking for new submissions and interacting with the users.

On days when I have scheduled maintenance I’ll start to prepare for the process. If it is a server level software upgrade, php or mysql for example, I’ll post downtime messages on all sites and notify the admins/moderators. I do these types of upgrades laIe night or early morning and always give everyone at least 2 days notice. I’ll then do the prep work. Download what I need to the server, setup the batch files to automate the process and then take the server offline. If downtime will be long say if I am going to upgrade the OS on the server then I will change DNS and point affected sites to the backup servers. I rarely do OS level upgrades. My thinking on OS level upgrades is if you have to upgrade chances are the server has been online for a while and the hardware is dated so why not upgrade to a new server with the new OS? I will normally just add a new server to the network and move sites to it and then take the old server offline. After all prep work is done I’ll go work on client requests. If my workload for the day is small after I finish I’ll relax for a couple hours and then do the upgrades later in the night.

This is a typical day and depending on the amount of client work I have it could be anywhere from 10 to 18 hour day. If major problems arise it could be a continueous arround the clock day.

The life of an admin is never boring.

To stop the post spam I use reCaptcha.  It seems to be the most effective against spambots, but, for the low life spammers that still do things manually even reCaptcha doesn’t help. The main purpose of these spammers is to get backlinks to their sites and services. What I did was create a new usergroup called Registered Members. The new group has the same privileges as the default Registered Users group.

Read on to see how to set up the registered users group and the new registered members group permissions to help combat vBulletin forum spam.

First thing we do is edit the registered users group. Disallow usage of the link bbcode. If a spambot or a low life spammer that is doing things manually registers the first thing they will do is post some spam. When they try add a link to a post they will get the no permission error. This stops them in their tracks. This is not completely fool proof. If they check the option to not automatically parse links the spam links will be posted they just will not be linked. Akismet will even let the post in since no links are actually posted.

Some of these spammers know it isn’t as easy as it used to be to post spam in threads so they have come up with a new type of spam. Private message spam. A spammer signs in and the first thing they do is head to the control panel and proceed to PM every user except for admins and moderators. I’m not sure this is automated since the bot would have to know who is an admin or mod. Either way it is the most annoying type of forum spam and has caused many forum owners and users pain. This is very easy to stop.

Open the usergroup page and edit the registered users usergroup again. In the private message settings use these settings.

1. Maximum Stored Messages:  0
2. Maximum Recipients to Send PMs at a time: 1

Those settings disallow sending private messages for Registered Users.

Now we don’t want to disallow PM’s for everyone except mods and admins so we create a new uer group called Registered Members. Create that group and give the group the default permissions that an unedited Registered User would have. Turn on bbcode and setup private messages. For private messages I use this.

1. Maximum Stored Messages:  10
2. Maximum Recipients to Send PMs at a time: 2
3. Message Throttle Quantity: 2

This will allow the new group to have a max of 10 PM’s stored in their PM folders. Will allow them to send 2 PM’s at a time and will not let them send another 2 until the time limit set in options is expired. You can set it up any way you want. After all if the users meets the requirements to be promoted to this group they aren’t there to spam.

Save your changes. You’ll need a way to move users to ths new group without doing it manually. This is where the vBulletin promotion manager comes in to play.

In the usergroup menu in the left frame click the promotions link. Select add new promotion. Set up the promotion like this.

1. Reputation Level: 0
2. Days Registered: 30 or more if you choose
3. Posts: 3 or any number you choose
4. Promotion Type: Primary User Group
5. Promotion Strategy: Posts
6. Reputation Comparison Type: Greater or Equal to
7. Move User to Usergroup: Select the Registered Members group

After a user has 3 posts they will be promoted to the new Registered Members group with full posting and PM permissions. This will stop 90% of all post and PM spam.

Why is this effective? A drive by spammer is only interested in one thing. To post links to to their wares. They use a bot to register or do it maunually. Once they register their only goal is to post spam. This will not allow them to do this. They will try and fail. When they fail they move on to another forum. Sure you’ll have a user that will never be seen again, but, your community will be spam free. It’s munch easier to prune users then to contantly clean out spam posts.

If you have any question or think this post was helpful post a comment. No need to regisiter to comment. I use a very effective anti-spam measure on this site.