Profile Bots

[_Zenith_]

There is an incredible influx of Profile/Spam Bots coming into FFR and I want to ask, what is the progress being made against preventing/removing these sources?

If nobody wants to take the tedious time to sit there and filter through which ones are actually Bots, there is a simple distinguishing detail against them:

Their Grand Total is always 11, which is impossible to obtain by any means (unless forcefully placed the number there), and their Average Ranks are always the same (once you find one confirmed bot it makes it that much easier to find others).

If the people currently battling these Bots don't have the constant time to Ban them, I wouldn't mind sifting through Bots to ban them (if I had the power) on a constant basis. There was a suggestion by a player to deal with them another way but I forget the exact suggestion so I'm going to contact them to post in this thread about said suggestion.

[Rapta]

I've only seen bots have grandtotald of 15 or 17

[_Zenith_]

If that is true, then I guess GT isn't the most distinguishable way, but the majority and practically every one bot I've seen and then refreshed to see "Banned" have all had 11 GT, but even then 15 and 17 is still impossible to achieve by legit means.

They all have Average Ranks with 0 games played too as the best indicator, and right now the only latest profile is a Bot.

[psychoangel691]

Just report bots when you see them and they'll be taken care of.

[_Zenith_]

Originally Posted by psychoangel691

Just report bots when you see them and they'll be taken care of.

Alrighty I can do that.

[psychoangel691]

I mean it would be nice to get something better in place to prevent them at all, but right now I don't think that's going to be happening. So for now the reporting should be sufficient to get rid of the ones that appear.

[badman7772]

i can see preggers changing his profile stuff to match a bot.

[V-Ormix]

[Frank Munoz]

all of these are bots

except for MrODeath and CorneliusV

[justin_ator]

Perhaps this isn't a say-all-end-all solution but I feel like this is a pretty strong indicator that we need a more up-to-date version of vBulletin (or other forum format / site sign-up security) on the site...

[psychoangel691]

nvm apparently it's already in place, fffff

[Kawaiimachine]

Originally Posted by V-Ormix

Caught me :v

[Rapta]

Originally Posted by psychoangel691

nvm apparently it's already in place, fffff

What is already in place?

[psychoangel691]

recaptcha

[_Zenith_]

Is email verification in place?

My vague memory from the suggestion was something about either having email verification or only allowing certain ones? I distinctly remember the mentioning of mailinator being banned from the site as a latch to get the influx of bots to dissipate.

If my vague memory of the suggestion is wrong, then is there a way to have specific trusted email providers to be the only register-allowed emails to be used to make their account on FFR or is that too much because of how many email providers there are out there?

[psychoangel691]

I think email verification is in place, but not totally sure.

[gold stinger]

Originally Posted by _Zenith_

There was a suggestion by a player to deal with them another way but I forget the exact suggestion so I'm going to contact them to post in this thread about said suggestion.

Not sure if this is referring to me because I've went on small tangents before in Team Pony chat about it.

Originally Posted by psychoangel691

I mean it would be nice to get something better in place to prevent them at all, but right now I don't think that's going to be happening. So for now the reporting should be sufficient to get rid of the ones that appear.

You have a blacklist filter for IP's, yes? I swear that one was introduced awhile ago because the website has been DDoSed before, and it was used to filter DDoS-related IP's.

Utilize a blacklist for e-mail providers that users can sign up with. That will usually crush a lot of bot creation since the majority of them use anonymous e-mail providers such as mailinator. If possible, check the e-mails associated with bot accounts to see what kind of e-mail they signed up with, and cross-reference it between other bots and you'll get your target e-mail providers.

People running bots usually use anonymous e-mail providers that require no passwords to access and contain every possible inbox that could be created, so they're available at the moment you sign up an account with them on any website.

This doesn't mean people who are using mailinator accounts won't be able to use THAT e-mail address with the website, it just means they won't be able to sign up further accounts using that e-mail provider.

Not sure if there's actually any e-mail verification because as far as I know, the alts I've made in 2013 didn't require e-mail verification and both used mailinator.com as their e-mail accounts (Goldstinger & Haxorus).

[_Zenith_]

Originally Posted by gold stinger

Not sure if this is referring to me because I've went on small tangents before in Team Pony chat about it.



You have a blacklist filter for IP's, yes? I swear that one was introduced awhile ago because the website has been DDoSed before, and it was used to filter DDoS-related IP's.

Utilize a blacklist for e-mail providers that users can sign up with. That will usually crush a lot of bot creation since the majority of them use anonymous e-mail providers such as mailinator. If possible, check the e-mails associated with bot accounts to see what kind of e-mail they signed up with, and cross-reference it between other bots and you'll get your target e-mail providers.

People running bots usually use anonymous e-mail providers that require no passwords to access and contain every possible inbox that could be created, so they're available at the moment you sign up an account with them on any website.

This doesn't mean people who are using mailinator accounts won't be able to use THAT e-mail address with the website, it just means they won't be able to sign up further accounts using that e-mail provider.

Not sure if there's actually any e-mail verification because as far as I know, the alts I've made in 2013 didn't require e-mail verification and both used mailinator.com as their e-mail accounts (Goldstinger & Haxorus).

Yes it was you I was referencing to and I'm glad you posted in here (I meant to contact you but never got around to actually doing so) :[

[psychoangel691]

I know there was email verification in at some point because when I was admin I had people coming to me to activate their accounts, they weren't checking their email and doing the verification. Whether it's still in place I have no idea.

[mrpreggers]

you racists