Spamming

[Admin]

I am sorry to all users about the recent spam attacks but between myself and the moderators, whom I owe a great deal of thanks, we act as fast as we can to stop the attacks and clean the site up. Yesterday evening I was able to stop an attack as it was happening but they came back just after midnight which unless I am awake at that time I and/or the moderators can't act on it till first thing in the morning.

 

Last night I turned off any new registrations but it seems they were able to break through that during the night so I am investigating that today.

 

Once again, my apologies if this has caused anyone any inconvenience.

[Admin]

LOL, solved the problem on how they were able to bypass the turned off registration setting. I saved the setting on this site but on the Social Australia site which endured the midnight attack it seems I didn't save the setting to turn off registrations, so my fault but all good now. I am on so many meds at the moment so the brain just aint working right 

[red750]

They were still coming at 2:00 am when I went to bed. We had many NBN dropouts affecting both internet and Foxtel, so it was difficult to keep up. You'd clear and block everything, there would be a lapse in NBN, and when it came back there would be another 8 or 10 lined up. I couldn't keep count, but there must have been at least 100 spam posts before I gave up and I estimate at least 40 registrations.

[tillmanr]

Thanks for your efforts team. 

[onetrack]

They always seem to start spamming as I go to bed about 10:00PM WST. That's midnight EST, so I get the job of trying to delete them! But I can only report them, I'm not a moderator, and as result, Red750's mailbox filled up with my dozens and dozens of spam reports, as he was up and trying to delete them, too! As fast as I reported them, there'd be several more added. Plus, it takes a while to go through the spam reporting process.

 

There must be some way to slow them down, such as limiting the number of posts in, say, a 10 minute period, to perhaps just 5 or 6 posts?

 

I wondered if someone had set up a bot to keep posting the crap. Some people must have pathetic lives, if that's all they can do is spam websites.

[tillmanr]

Maybe control the new member applications. Delay posting ability until physically approved by a moderator. 

[onetrack]

Yes, a lot of forums use that process, but as most moderators are unpaid volunteers, it can sometimes take 2 or 3 days to get approved to post. Then they limit your postings of images until you've made several postings, which is a reasonable attempt to identify genuine posters.

One of the common traits of spammers is their use of nonsense usernames, as they run out of ideas for usernames, and can't think up common-sounding names. However, the FB Marketplace spammers like to use innocuous-sounding common Anglo names, and that can be a giveaway.

[sfGnome]

The MGL Avionics forum was being wiped by spammers and DOS attacks, so it now has a Cloudflare front end that you have to get through before you get to the site. It’s a (tiny little) bit of a pain to wait for access (generally about 15sec), but it means that the site is now available whereas previously it often wasn’t. 

[Jabiru7252]

My understanding is that the 'spammers' are just 'bots' - that is, software that's doing the dirty work. God help us when they turn their attention to our cars, medical equipment and robot girl friends.

[onetrack]

One of the reasons I would never purchase a vehicle that requires a website subscription to operate it, or even to access "further features". Yet, many manufacturers say this is what they are aiming for in the future. Not only an additional cost burden, but the wireless link is the weak point.

Already, many cars are being stolen as thieves clone remote car keys simply by standing next to people who have their remote in their pocket. They operate in pairs to fool the car into thinking the owner (via his remote key) is nearby, and then use a portable device to generate a spoofed radio signal to unlock it. They can place tracking tags on the car, and then find out where it's being homed or parked, and then come back and drive it away. One reason the experts say you should always carry your remote in a RFID-blocking case.

 

https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/subscription-overload-the-car-features-you-may-have-to-pay-for-monthly/

 

https://www.wired.com/2017/04/just-pair-11-radio-gadgets-can-steal-car/