A nice traditional new spam in the FC Forum:

IP address for this post
59.103.114.173 [ 1 Post ] [ Look up IP address ]
Users posting from this IP address
GeorgeHarry [ 1 Post ]

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 07, 2021 - 11:08 pm: Edit

Module C8: Dark Futures
molowrsadwws-03/07, 10:36 pm-Authentication ErrorYour

By Thomas Mathews (Turtle) on Monday, March 08, 2021 - 07:27 am: Edit

A second one here:

Module C8: Dark Futures
molowrsadwws-03/08, 06:10 am-Authentication ErrorYour

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Monday, March 08, 2021 - 10:46 am: Edit

Both posts deleted and that Ukrainian range is blocked.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, March 08, 2021 - 04:49 pm: Edit

Jean, is it possible to block suspect countries?

Russia might head the list.
north Korea(assuming they aren’t already blocked...)
Ukraine...

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Monday, March 08, 2021 - 05:45 pm: Edit

It gets "interesting" using Discus. It is sort of tricky to block a whole country, without blocking IPs you want to allow.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 09, 2021 - 06:34 am: Edit

I could be mistaken, but if the BBS is being targeted from country “X”, then blocking that country for 24 hours should be an option under consideration.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, March 09, 2021 - 10:19 am: Edit

Jeff, you are mistaken. That would literally take hours of my time to block one by one and then unblock one by one.

By Mike Dowd (Mike_Dowd) on Tuesday, March 09, 2021 - 10:43 am: Edit

Strictly out of curiosity, are there any more "modern" message board software packages that have a more robust spam filter than Discus that one could import extant messages into?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 09, 2021 - 11:13 am: Edit

No, on both counts. Nothing more modern does what Discus does. Nothing more modern blocks spam as well as Discus does. Nothing more modern can import the existing messages.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, March 09, 2021 - 01:05 pm: Edit

It would seem the answer lies in the registration system.

If a living human registers and sends a confirmation email, then that is one (singular) ip range to authorize.

If, on later review, it turns out to be spam, then it is still only one.

Granted, it makes it more difficult to allow new participants to join... but we are talking about a legacy platform. It’s not Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. New (younger) users will be far more likely to seek modern social media sites.

Spammers are being legally prosecuted in the U.S., so it may be logical to expect the more active spammers to originate outside of the U.S. if Ukrainian spammers are a recognized danger to the BBS, then it should be addressed.

the only valid counter argument should be if all or a majority of ADB internet sales originate in Urkraine. The lost business would too great to forgo.

If, however, total internet sales to Ukraine customers is 1% or less of total sales, the blocking of Ukrainian web IP addresses would have only a 1% or less impact on ADB.

Infact, if the BBS is being attacked from a country that does not, has not ever had an internet sale for ADB, then there is zero reason to not block access.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, March 09, 2021 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Jeff, the spammers are NOT registering. They overwhelm the software until it breaks and posts a message saying they aren't authorized to post. That is because they AREN"T registered.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Tuesday, March 09, 2021 - 05:11 pm: Edit

As for blocking overseas IPs. When people are overseas, they would show as being from that country, when they get their products in the US. We've been spammed from Germany, Italy, France, Romania, the US, and the UK. We've also sold products to people in those countries.

FOr EVERY IP range, I would have to go in and manually type xxx.xxx.xxx.* I cannot simply ban 185.100.87.001-185.105.99.255. I know some of the IPs are spoofed. Some are coming from companies and it is one single port that is compromised, usually a Tor exit node.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Thursday, March 11, 2021 - 03:26 pm: Edit

Garth:
I know that both new "users" on the FC Forum posting incredibly decent questions are spammers who are copying stuff from somewhere (Reddit, apparently). However, until or unless they start posting the actual spam, or they tip their hand by posting the same question as different users, we are honor bound to treat them as a real user.

But the usernames are dead give-aways that both are spammers.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, March 13, 2021 - 05:36 pm: Edit

Mike, your prediction was accurate. Both of the recent threads have replies with embedded spam-links.


Garth L. Getgen

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Saturday, March 13, 2021 - 07:59 pm: Edit

Posts are deleted, though the threads remain. I'll lock them if I have to.

IP Information:
IP address for this post
23.237.58.112 [ 1 Post ] [ Look up IP address ]
Users posting from this IP address
salimkhop89 [ 1 Post ]

IP address for this post
178.159.10.78 [ 1 Post ] [ Look up IP address ]
Users posting from this IP address
midharana35 [ 1 Post ]

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Sunday, March 21, 2021 - 10:53 pm: Edit

The last user (midharana35) did another post (presumably copied from Reddit). It looks innocuous enough, but Steve shouldn't expend much effort answering in depth.

The post originally had a link in it. While it actually looked like it might have been ok, I didn't want to take the risk and removed the link.

It is kinda odd to see one of these return, as they had all been one-n-done until this point.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 22, 2021 - 12:04 am: Edit

I cannot tell who is real or fake. The question deserves a full answer even if a fake poster does not deserve one. Real customers will read the thread.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Monday, March 22, 2021 - 07:48 am: Edit

IP address for this post
5.107.8.198 [ 3 Posts ] [ Look up IP address ]
Users posting from this IP address
midharana35 [ 3 Posts ]

This user had already proven they weren't real. Then they wasted no time in doing this spam follow up. I have already deleted the spam post.

And I wasn't saying to not answer. Just don't spend a lot of time doing so, as they had already proven to not be a real user.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, March 27, 2021 - 07:30 am: Edit

Four new Spams on FedCmdr trying to sell Jammers. Two different user-names: blanderdelpha & LondaGloss393


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 27, 2021 - 07:51 am: Edit

Mike, every question deserves a proper answer, even if a ot posted it, because real users will see the thread. Those real uses who come along days and weeks later need to see the answer they would want to see if the questions had been their own. It is the question not the spammer that deserves respect. So I will take the time the question requires even if the spammer does not deserve an answer.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Saturday, March 27, 2021 - 10:39 am: Edit

IP address for this post
64.64.224.89 [ 2 Posts ] [ Look up IP address ]
Users posting from this IP address
blanderdelpha [ 2 Posts ] Search
LondaGloss393 [ 2 Posts ]

Two more in the FC Forum. Fortunately, both are from the same IP address making the same posts.

They were *just* posting, too, and posted one more before I finished deleting the others. I'll check back later to make sure I get the rest.

These were old-style and didn't even include any useful questions from Reddit.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 27, 2021 - 11:57 am: Edit

I didn't see any new posts when I was there two minutes ago, which means Mike did his job!

By Kosta Michalopoulos (Kosmic) on Monday, April 05, 2021 - 07:05 pm: Edit

Looks like one new spammer in two separate topics:

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Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: After Action Reports (Finished Products): Module J: Fighters!

By Howardwhape on Monday, April 05, 2021 - 06:48 pm: Edit

Authentication Error
Your username/password combination was invalid, or you do not have permission to post to this topic. You may revise your username and password using the form at the bottom of this page.

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Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Non-Game Discussions: Military History

By Howardwhape on Monday, April 05, 2021 - 06:45 pm: Edit

Authentication Error
Your username/password combination was invalid, or you do not have permission to post to this topic. You may revise your username and password using the form at the bottom of this page.

By Kosta Michalopoulos (Kosmic) on Monday, April 05, 2021 - 07:07 pm: Edit

And again, same guy in:

Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Company-Conventions-Stores-Ideas: About the Company: Current ADB News

By Howardwhape on Monday, April 05, 2021 - 07:02 pm: Edit

Authentication Error
Your username/password combination was invalid, or you do not have permission to post to this topic. You may revise your username and password using the form at the bottom of this page.