Stop Bots Posting on PF: Security Solutions Needed

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AI Thread Summary
Bots are increasingly posting spam on PF, particularly using titles like "Watch x Online," prompting concerns about security. Users suggest implementing CAPTCHA images instead of questions and reinstating a policy that limits new members from posting links until they have a certain number of posts. There is speculation that the spam originates from a single group or individual, primarily from countries like India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. While some measures have reduced spam frequency, users acknowledge that completely stopping it is challenging due to the evolving tactics of spammers. Overall, the community is seeking effective solutions to enhance security and reduce spam posts.
adjacent
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I have been seeing titles of this kind:Watch x Online (Where x is a name of a movie)
This is clearly bots posting here.
So I think the admins have to have a look around the security of PF.Bots are able to get registered and post here?PF should have CAPTCHA images instead of Questions.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Yes. And they're so frequent and numerous. Everytime I login I find these posts at the top.
Is it a single person or a group of cranks? Aren't IP addresses of a single user tracked?
 
adjacent said:
I have been seeing titles of this kind:Watch x Online (Where x is a name of a movie)
This is clearly bots posting here.
So I think the admins have to have a look around the security of PF.Bots are able to get registered and post here?PF should have CAPTCHA images instead of Questions.

We are intentionally targeted because of our quality. Captacha was ineffective years ago. The price for humans to solve them is extremely cheap.
 
Would limiting the number of hyperlinks in the posts of new members with less than 'x' posts work?
 
We had a policy before on not letting new members post links in their messages until they have at least 5 posts. It is not foolproof, but at least it made it more difficult for these losers to do what they are doing.

I've been trying to get that reinstalled.

Zz.
 
I think this is just one person or one group of people.What do you think?
All these posts have the same title: Watch ______ Online.
And they post some Hyperlinks.Just every post looks the same.
I don't think random people from the world will post the same thing.
 
ZapperZ said:
We had a policy before on not letting new members post links in their messages until they have at least 5 posts. It is not foolproof, but at least it made it more difficult for these losers to do what they are doing.

I've been trying to get that reinstalled.

Zz.

Why is it a problem to do this? Seems like a reasonable thing to do.
 
adjacent said:
I think this is just one person or one group of people.What do you think?
All these posts have the same title: Watch ______ Online.
And they post some Hyperlinks.Just every post looks the same.
I don't think random people from the world will post the same thing.

That means nothing if the continue to change their IP addresses or disguise where they are posting from.

Zz.
 
adjacent said:
I think this is just one person or one group of people.What do you think?
All these posts have the same title: Watch ______ Online.
And they post some Hyperlinks.Just every post looks the same.
I don't think random people from the world will post the same thing.
They don't come from all over the world. They appear to come from all over India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, and almost nowhere else. We could automatically ban anyone posting from IPs originating from those countries and 99% of the "Watch this!" spam would disappear. That probably wouldn't make our legitimate users from those countries very happy.
 
  • #10
Crime is big business. The criminals who post this - and they are criminals - can afford to hire people to solve captchas, they can afford to hire people to puff their post count, they can use machines all over the world (either legitimately or through zombies) so they are not coming in from a single IP or even a block.

Charging all members before they could post would stop them. This changes the economics, but it would not be acceptable to PF.

One thing that would help is better behavior from some of our members - time spent by the Mentors passing out infractions to those who know the rules and refuse to follow them is time that is not spent taking down spam.
 
  • #11
D H said:
We could automatically ban anyone posting from IPs originating from those countries and 99% of the "Watch this!" spam would disappear. That probably wouldn't make our legitimate users from those countries very happy.
Well,I am from Maldives So that's not a very happy thing to do.

Anyways,Reporting them is really funny.
I think,you should have that policy again.
 
  • #12
adjacent said:
Well,I am from Maldives So that's not a very happy thing to do.
I lied about the Maldives. I was tweaking you. (Your profile says you are from the Maldives.) The vast majority of those spam posts appear to be coming from India, and nowhere else.

Appear is the operative term here. Those spam posts most likely originate from somewhere else. They appear to be coming from India only because there are apparently a boatload of computers infested with malware in India.
 
  • #13
D H said:
I lied about the Maldives. I was tweaking you. (Your profile says you are from the Maldives.)
:smile: I was really surprised because no one from Maldives comes here except me.(At least they are not active)

o:)
 
  • #14
adjacent said:
:smile: I was really surprised because no one from Maldives comes here except me.(At least they are not active)

o:)

I suspect you are only adjacent to the Maldives.
 
  • #15
LCKurtz said:
I suspect you are only adjacent to the Maldives.

:-p
 
  • #16
D H said:
I lied about the Maldives. I was tweaking you. (Your profile says you are from the Maldives.) The vast majority of those spam posts appear to be coming from India, and nowhere else.

Are you lying about India too?:wink::biggrin:
Iam from there!:cry:
 
  • #17
PhysicoRaj said:
Are you lying about India too?:wink::biggrin:
Iam from there!:cry:

No he's not. The vast majority of this type of spam have IP addresses originating out of India.

Zz.
 
  • #18
ZapperZ said:
We had a policy before on not letting new members post links in their messages until they have at least 5 posts. It is not foolproof, but at least it made it more difficult for these losers to do what they are doing.

I've been trying to get that reinstalled.

Zz.
ZapperZ said:
No he's not. The vast majority of this type of spam have IP addresses originating out of India.

Zz.
Maybe PF could refuse to let new members from India post links in their messages until they have at least 5 posts?

Or, automatic deletion of a post and member banishment if they have less than 5 posts and create a post containing links and the words Watch Online. You could even make it so that their post looks like it was successfully created long enough for them to leave. If they really want to be a member, they can email back.
 
  • #19
Atleast 5 posts? How can we be sure they would make five posts that do not require exhaustive moderation? And they can just type the URL's and not post a hyperlink..
 
  • #20
The best way is to automatically delete thread titles having Words "Watch" and "Online" from members with posts less than 50.(No legitimate member will post some rubbish Watch this online.)
 
  • #21
adjacent said:
The best way is to automatically delete thread titles having Words "Watch" and "Online" from members with posts less than 50.(No legitimate member will post some rubbish Watch this online.)
Except for this thread. :-p
 
  • #22
Borg said:
Except for this thread. :-p

Why is that?
 
  • #23
adjacent said:
Why is that?
My bad. I read titles and was thinking posts.
 
  • #24
Borg said:
My bad. I read titles and was thinking posts.
:-p
 
  • #25
Spammers change their tactics on a weekly if not monthly basis. Close one mole hill and another pops up. We actually do try to detect bad hosts and IPs during registration. Often good people are blocked. I get emails almost every day. One professor told me the Philippines are just about completely blocked. There is just about nothing you can do to completely stop spam. These are humans not bots. Or at least a combination of both. Block the words watch and online and in a week they use different words. PF is hot property and they don't just give up. We have been battling them for over a decade. We've had a few big organized attacks. Overall we are doing quite well. Our staff is extremely good at limiting their effectiveness. That being said, stoping and cleaning spam with low collateral damage is something I think about on a daily basis.
 
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  • #26
I believe we had a several post limit in the past, and the cure was worse than the disease. Plenty of people were complaining they can't post valid links just because they are new, or they were posting garbage just to get their post count above the limit. All in all it meant more moderating work.
 
  • #27
I have noticed that these bot posting has considerably reduced(About 1 per day or none(This is what I see) compared to some days before,(About 3-5 posts per day)
 
  • #28
adjacent said:
I have noticed that these bot posting has considerably reduced(About 1 per day or none(This is what I see) compared to some days before,(About 3-5 posts per day)

May be you spoke too soon..
 
  • #29
The number of posts you see is more a function of how quickly it gets spotted and taken down than of how many attempts. There are several per day, and most last only minutes.
 

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