MyBB Community Forums

Hi all,

Recently my forum was hit by a bout of spammers, initially it was only around 10 accounts that posted around 70 threads. These were dealt with and all was ok.

Over the weekend, in a short period of time, i logged on to find over 1000 threads and posts in another attack. At the same time, my admin CP was targeted with around 200 log in attempts.

I have had good spam prevention in place for a while, with additional user questions, blocked known addresses etc, but it seems to be failing and ive had to resort to manual account activation.

Any tips?

Cheers.

My tips:

Install Spamalyser.
Stop using the MyBB Default captcha; just use RSQ
Change the powered by MyBB phrase to say some thing like Forum Software by MYBB - keep the link back of course - or use an image.
Modify your registration page a little, move some fields about. Automated scripts will then fail and you can concentrate on the human spammers - most of whom will get caught by spamalyser

Check the profile fields of the users - has anyone got a link back that is attracting spam?

Thanks for the tips Lee, anyway to 'mass' check user fields for the web link?

Yea - you should be able to check in ACP.

Go to users and create a view where the website field is not empty.

Imo register time is the best spam prevention plugin
http://www.mybbsecurity.net/topic-register-time-v-1-1

I suggest you to use this plugin: http://mods.mybb.com/view/signup-questions

It helped me alot, just set some not difficult not easy questions and no bots will register, thats how it is for me.