Have you ever had a virus posted on your forum by a spammer? We just had a spammed post with a link that appeared to be a link to imageshack that actually contained a trojan, luckily nod32 caught it. I cant believe how people do this, they may earn money from it but its not something I would choose as a preferred career
My best advice is to be proactive with spammers. I check ever new member's IP and email address with stopforumspam.com. If their listed on that site they get banned right then and there no questions asked. Also, I suggest going one step further and banning known spammers listed on Stopforumspam.com. If you're using vB, just go into vb options-banning options-cut & paste IP address in the ban IP section and the email sufix in the ban email section. Now keep in mind when you ban a sufix, no one with that sufix will be allowed to register with your site...using vB software. So I don't list email addresses like gmail, yahoo, and aol. These do tend to get used by spammers but their also used a lot by members. Here is a link that will help. http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/member-staff-management/spammer-email-sufix-list-2900/#post39535
Thanks there, I never got round to adding up the list on this particular forum yet but I am quite sure it will kill it all off for good.
ok...so this IP addy came up on one of our new members.. 198.54.202.146 if you run it on stop forum spam... this comes up 7/20/09 10:25 AM198.54.202.146[email protected] 6/25/09 6:43 AM198.54.202.146[email protected] 5/18/09 1:11 PM198.54.202.146[email protected] 5/7/09 4:20 PM198.54.202.146milano[email protected] but he hasnt spammed at all and has only made 5 posts about a supercharger...he seems totally legit and i already told him i was watching him... whatta ya think?
Interesting question, I honestly don't know what to suggest in this situation. I'm sure spammers have a life outside of spamming but as a general rule I automatically ban anyone showing up on stopforumspam. This person in question could turn out to a be a credit to your site, there is just no telling. All I know is this person is a known spammer using a South African IP address. So I would keep a close eye on them for sure. IP trace for 198.54.202.146 What Is My IP Address? - IP Lookup Results
Just recently, I happened to run across a discussion community created and developed specifically for spammers who choose to make posts of this nature. Rather sickening, if you ask me.
