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Muadib

Muadib

Paranormal Adept
All the new members with similar names that never post? Did something change that made it easier for a bunch of bots to start signing up again?
 
Gene Steinberg said:
They are supposed to be blocked if they fail spam tests, but some still get through.
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How is that possible? You mean that they fail the test and are still allowed through, which doesn't seem possible, or do you mean they've figured out a way around the spam test?
 
I suspect a lot more than a few are getting through. It can't be merely coincidence that so many new members with exactly 9 characters that match a basic database type random generator would show up all at once. It looks to me like they've bypassed the security either manually or by OCR or other technology.

It's time to beef up the system. I forget whether or not there is also an email verification process, but if there isn't, then maybe that's something that should be added before they get the auto-welcome message. It would even be better if there were a minimum post count required in order to attain permanent membership status.

If they keep coming in at this rate, it won't be long before they've got so many fakes in the system that they can bring it down with a mass spam attack.
 
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Ah, Muadib, you beat me to it. I was on the point of launching a full-scale question to Gene on this very problem!

But also, if I'm not mistaken, there seem to have been a few 'normal' names signing up in amongst the fakes but they don't seem to be following through and posting, yet.
 
Goggs Mackay said:
But also, if I'm not mistaken, there seem to have been a few 'normal' names signing up in amongst the fakes but they don't seem to be following through and posting, yet.
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I'm suspicious of a lot of those so-called "normal names". Are you including those names with a real name and an add-on in the "normal" category?
 
It's just some harmless offshore folks with your best interests in mind wanting to tell you how to make money from home. :D
 
I was going to sign up as @$!#/^&gethardtonite but there was somebody with that name already :)
 
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Gene Steinberg said:
Some of those names you do have to wonder about, though.
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There was a real run of 9 character names beginning with a normal name plus some add-on. That's a standard signature for a dictionary type attack via a database of names followed by some random generated characters. Some sign-up procedures also offer similar choices though when a name is taken. I don't know if the Paracast does that. But it still looks suspicious. Once you get a couple hundred fake users signed up, the next thing that you'll notice is testing with gibberish, or just straight to the spamming. Last time I looked, the 9 character names were still coming in.
 
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I agree about the coolitude of showing bots. What's less cool is the number of them! 20 bots to to 7 registered users! (to 40 odd guests now, to be fair) :mad:
 
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