Tip - Spam Engines

[Mike]

Just like search engines that crawl the net, there are spam engines that crawl the net. All they do is go from website to website and post spam. Spam engines process data, they do not think. This is why the beat the captcha verification, and beat email confirmation.

One of the best hacks out there is the nospam hack (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828&highlight=nospam). This prevents spam engines from registering on your site and posting spam.

The newest version of vBulletin(3.7.0) has the human verification in it. This was a much needed feature.

[Mike]

Spam has taken a turn for the worse. I believe there is someone that is entering human verfication question information into spam computers. It is recommended to have at least 10 human verification questions, and to change them periodically. It is also wise to have your email verification turned on.

We are trying to stay one step of the game here. We have implemented another measure and are testing it to see how it works.

Another thought....How do the spam engines find new sites? Suppose you wanted to set up a spam bots that spammed vbulletin sites? Did you add your site to the list of sites at vbulletin? It would be easy to set up a crawler to crawl this list. I think this is the open door for the spam bots. Think twice before you add your site to the list!

[jellybelly]

Thanks mike i will give the no spam mod a try

[Mike]

Thanks mike i will give the no spam mod a try

This is now in the software for vb3.7.x. No need to get the hack anymore.