Blocking spammers and the unwanted

[Stairs]

I am currently under attack from someone in San Jose (so the IP Addresses suggest) and Moscow.

They are registering new users with Bio's that advertise a business and with userid and passwords that would lead directly to that business.

How do I stop these b*****d's without clamping down heavily on the site for decent users?

I am not technical and so be gentle with me.

At the moment I have switched to 'Account Activation' to stop these new accounts becoming live but I now have to sort through the 'awaiting' accounts and delete the unwanted accounts - 99% of them!

I see a Captcha option - what does that do and how do I set it up if it's the way to go?

[sarisisop]

I am currently under attack from someone in San Jose (so the IP Addresses suggest) and Moscow.

They are registering new users with Bio's that advertise a business and with userid and passwords that would lead directly to that business.

How do I stop these b*****d's without clamping down heavily on the site for decent users?

I am not technical and so be gentle with me.

At the moment I have switched to 'Account Activation' to stop  these new accounts becoming live but I now have to sort through the 'awaiting' accounts and delete the unwanted accounts - 99% of them!

I see a Captcha option - what does that do and how do I set it up if it's the way to go?

Do you have Stop Forum Spam set up ?

Admin CP > Configuration > Stop Forum Spam.

[Stairs]

I am currently under attack from someone in San Jose (so the IP Addresses suggest) and Moscow.

They are registering new users with Bio's that advertise a business and with userid and passwords that would lead directly to that business.

How do I stop these b*****d's without clamping down heavily on the site for decent users?

I am not technical and so be gentle with me.

At the moment I have switched to 'Account Activation' to stop  these new accounts becoming live but I now have to sort through the 'awaiting' accounts and delete the unwanted accounts - 99% of them!

I see a Captcha option - what does that do and how do I set it up if it's the way to go?

Do you have Stop Forum Spam set up ?

Admin CP > Configuration > Stop Forum Spam.

Yes - I have that enabled - not sure which options need to be ON but it is in use.

[sarisisop]

Try knocking your Minimum stop forum spam weighting down.

I have mine set to 0 that is being very aggressive, but I feel if anyone genuine wanted to join they would contact me if stop forum spam through them out.

*Have everything set to yes apart from usernames

[Stairs]

Try knocking your Minimum stop forum spam weighting down.

I have mine set to 0 that is being very aggressive, but I feel if anyone genuine wanted to join they would contact me if stop forum spam through them out.

*Have everything set to yes apart from usernames

OK thanks - I am set I guess at a generous 50 so will reduce that dramatically

[sarisisop]

OK thanks - I am set I guess at a generous 50 so will reduce that dramatically

Keep an eye on your logs it will help you decide the best setting.


Tools and maintenance > Left hand side > Spam Log.

[HLFadmin]

Requiring new registrations to answer a question is also helpful.
Q. What is the name of this forum?

In extreme cases, one method I saw is also a question.
Q. open a new tab with http:\\thisforum/question, read the question there, and put the answer here.

The question is a numerical puzzle "what is two thousand zero hundred and seventeen minus four"

[meetdilip]

See if you can set up NoCAPTCHA. Very efficient against spammers.