Spam - constant flow spoiling our Forum

[bontfaen]

How on earth can you/we stop the constant flow of SPAM emails into our Forum. They're spoiling the genuine users experience big time. If there's no way to stop this SPAM then I may have to reluctantly consider deleting our forum entirely! Mike

[GregChapman]

Who are you allowing to post at the moment? I.e. Anyone, Registered users, Members, only those in other groups you have created?
What arrangements do you have in place to stop unwecome users posting?

[bontfaen]

Hi Greg

Only Registered users, Administrators and the LCG Co-ordinators.

Is there a route I need to check to stop this unwanted posts?

I thought by only allowing Registered users people would have first
need to register and that would need an approval by an administrator?

How do I set the permissions to stop these unwanted intrusions. It would
be good if anyone who wanted to register must come via me as an
administrator, is this possible?

All the spurious posts are from email addresses which seem similar.

I keep banning these new users as they appear along with their posts but
they just keep coming with a new name and email address?

Mike

[GregChapman]

bontfaen wrote

I thought by only allowing Registered users people would have first
need to register and that would need an approval by an administrator?

No, registering is an entirely automatic process, requiring no approval. It merely lodges an email address on the system, allowing you to ban it or grant permissions that those in the "All Users" group (those who have not registered an email address) don't get.
<quote>How do I set the permissions to stop these unwanted intrusions.
I presume you've added manually all your coordinators to the "Members" group. You should go to:

Options > Users > Change permissions

and turn off the permissions "Create_topic" and "Reply" for the "Anyone" and "Registered" groups and make sure they are turned on for "Members" and "Administrators".

It would be good if anyone who wanted to register must come via me as an
administrator, is this possible?

With the permissions set as above, anyone not authorised to post on your forum will be greeted by a screen inviting them to request permission, similar to this:

All the spurious posts are from email addresses which seem similar.

I keep banning these new users as they appear along with their posts but
they just keep coming with a new name and email address?

That is the nature of spammers they use robot scripts to generate multiple email addresses and others to register and post on forums. It is worth using the options at:

Options > Application > Extras & add-ons > Email & Notifications > Notify me when someone registers

That will send you an email with the registration details as they occur and provide a link direct to their profile screen where you can ban them if they look suspicious. With luck you'll get there before they post - though with the permissions set as suggested above, that should stop them dead anyway!