[thelist] tracking spammers

[Meshack]

One trick I used when making a form a while back was to put a blank form
field that is hidden from the human user. Bots will often fill out every
field on the form. You can then check, if the field was filled, then you
most likely have a bot. 

I don't like checking for a match between name and username. My name is
unique enough I use it as my username for a lot of the websites I visit. I
would be really annoyed if I was blocked because a site thought I was a
spammer.

-Meshack

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Bob Meetin
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 6:06 AM
To: the >> "thelist at lists.evolt.org"
Subject: [thelist] tracking spammers

Several of my websites commonly get hit by either low paid human spammers or
spam bots.  The registration form employs a good captcha function and the
form IS being used.  Recently I started capturing data about the spammer
wanna-be's.  The patterns are obvious.

IP: 173.242.118.133
Name: Affesibre
Email:testxr30 at o2.pl
Username: Affesibre

1) Although they use differing email suffixes, .pl is common and none of the
750+ valid members use that domain.
2) Name matches username = nonsense
3) IP address varies
4) Password = nonsense and always 10 characters
5) Special hidden fields are not being filled in

I can trace the IP to various countries, not much help. There are valid
registered members on the site who register with the same name and username,
so I can't really use that, although I've considered respectfully requesting
that username and name not match.

Password = key. I was thinking that these were humanoid but in that the
passwords are always 10 random characters, that makes me think perhaps
otherwise, perhaps the same program has been passed around the spammer
block. Idea: If  $name == $username&&  string length $password == 10 then
choke.

Other ideas?

--
Bob Meetin
dotted i - http://www.dottedi.biz
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobmeetin

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