When your forum gets spammed

**dvduval** · Jan 21st, 2007, 7:17 am

I just noticed today a forum that I own that I hadn't checked in a long time was hit with massive porn spam. I wonder if this could lead to trouble with google adsense?

I'm still cleaning the forum. It will take at least an hour.
It is phpBB.

**grim** · Jan 21st, 2007, 9:35 am

Good question, the spammers can easily put 'content' that is not approved under adsense's TOS.

**dvduval** · Jan 21st, 2007, 9:52 am

Yes, they have overrun several of my phpbb forums (smaller ones), and I basically had to disable registration except by admin approval. Very difficult to grow a forum that way.

**Kaos** · Jan 21st, 2007, 10:36 am

I hated phpBB just for that reason. I swear the spammers hunt for you when you have it. Used to drive me crazy. You can spend a day just cleaning out, banning IPs and the next day... you get to start all over again! Grrrr... spammers suck!

**zxpro168** · Feb 7th, 2007, 6:40 pm

This could lead to your site being banned but not your entire account. This has happened to me twice. I believe they are using spiders to look for particular adult keywords and the banning is done automatically. However, you could appeal this very easily and quickly after removing the offending text.

-Derek

**dvduval** · Feb 7th, 2007, 8:51 pm

That's good information zxpro168.
So far, I think I'm okay. It took forever to remove all the crap from a couple of the forums, but now I seem to be in good shape.

**grim** · Feb 7th, 2007, 8:54 pm

Originally Posted by zxpro168

This could lead to your site being banned but not your entire account. This has happened to me twice. I believe they are using spiders to look for particular adult keywords and the banning is done automatically. However, you could appeal this very easily and quickly after removing the offending text.

-Derek

That is awesome news, they actually do ban per site and not the entire account at times?
You can see how dumb I am when it comes to adsense, I never heard that before

**cloudybutnice** · Feb 16th, 2007, 2:14 am

We've been trying to get a couple of forums going for a while now. Each day I check them and remove porn and viagra adverts! Gets boring after a while.

**zxpro168** · Feb 23rd, 2007, 9:19 am

I believe they are using robots to pick up certain adult words or phrases on your site. The first time, a warning was given. The second time, no warning was given although I was able to successfully appeal against it. The adsense on my other sites were not affected. It may be worthwhile to set up certain word filters against certain adult words.

-Derek

**Mike Dammann** · Feb 25th, 2007, 1:43 pm

started this thread on vbulletin, thinking they would be interested in helping a little bit more. Seems they are not that interested afterall
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200449

**Big Dan** · Feb 25th, 2007, 8:25 pm

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

started this thread on vbulletin, thinking they would be interested in helping a little bit more. Seems they are not that interested afterall
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200449

I notice vB doesn't like when people make anti-spam suggestions for some strange reason. IMHO, there should be an option on the delete page to "delete thread, ban starter".

**grim** · Feb 25th, 2007, 8:31 pm

Originally Posted by Danny Boy

I notice vB doesn't like when people make anti-spam suggestions for some strange reason. IMHO, there should be an option on the delete page to "delete thread, ban starter".

That would be great. I also wish there was a way to click a user name and auto admin/mod them.

**Big Dan** · Feb 25th, 2007, 8:35 pm

Originally Posted by grim

That would be great. I also wish there was a way to click a user name and auto admin/mod them.

There sort of is, admins can view a user profile and click "User Options", you get transfered to the ACP with the users profile in front of you, from there you can ban or what ever.

It's not perfect, hopefully 4.0 will see better user admin options.

**Saagar** · Feb 26th, 2007, 1:25 am

I have added few additional required profile bits, installed no-spam mode and suggestions by Steve on VB Forum. Since then I have not got a single spam registration.

If you have not already done, you may try these measure, I have found them useful for my forum

**Mxhub** · Feb 26th, 2007, 2:16 am

Get capatha for your site.. at least it reduce spammer registered account..

**Mike Dammann** · Feb 26th, 2007, 9:07 am

There are 2 things they told me in that thread, to stop bumping it and that the suggestion was great. They have a smooth way to put someone off. I will bump it again though. Unless someone here wants to make a comment or start another thread like it. :love:

**Zap** · Feb 26th, 2007, 9:15 am

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

started this thread on vbulletin, thinking they would be interested in helping a little bit more. Seems they are not that interested afterall
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200449

What's with the dates on that thread? September 2006?!?!?!?

**zinruss** · Sep 10th, 2007, 12:14 am

dvduval, please consider upgrade to the latest version.
Forum spam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
* phpBB Forum Spammer Registration Mod - Kill the SpamBots!*by*TimeForBlogging

**JuggernautH** · Sep 10th, 2007, 6:57 am

You know there is a spam acp that's great? Using it on my layoutworks.com forums

Works splendid!

To get the mod go to phpbb.com and dl it and install either thru easymod or manually

If you need help and got some cash for me i can install it for you. Not that much though

**forumlifting** · Sep 11th, 2007, 10:05 am

Spamming is one big problem.

**JuggernautH** · Sep 11th, 2007, 2:04 pm

Yea well if you have phpBB my suggestion is very good, still no spammers on my layoutworks forum and it's been quite some time since i released it. Also installed something that scrambles the terms of agreement links when you push accept/reject rules etc.

**Inside The Shop** · Mar 11th, 2008, 5:30 pm

JuggernautH, my site's been up for about two weeks. Yesterday I installed Anti-Spam ACP. Today I got hit by my first spammer, someone from the Philippines. Anti-Spam ACP blocked it. I was thankful for that.

I still use authentication, but not the email activation. Will that work OK with all the spammers, or not? I am a first class noob!