Anti-spam and hacker prevention

[oldgoaly]

Ok, we had our 1st real member get snagged in the spam blocking we have been doing behind the scenes. I am the one that is running all the ip's that are registering or logging in while I'm online. I run all the internet addresses thru different Anti-Spam sites.
How does it happen? Well you the member have done nothing wrong, your internet supplier has given you a bad ip address. Some one else has used that ip to spam or hack into forums or websites. What to do? Call your internet supplier explain you are paying for an honest ip address, they should switch you for no charge. If they give you the run around and say spam doesn't exist.... Get a new honest internet supplier. This will put the bad isp with a bunch of banned / useless numbers and just maybe starve these sleeze balls off the internet. Oh by the way there are fake google spiders and other bots they are getting axed too. Dick hasn't said anything but I'm sure the "more ip's" emails are getting old. If your ip gets banned let the admins know, but most of all get after you ISP for being the problem! Hopeful you understand, we aren't looking at logged in members, to many troublemakers to check every ip address. tt

[oldgoaly]

Just to give you an idea on how many we are talking about. Here is what I've collected Tuesday morning/ afternoon in 20-25 minutes connected to the site to read posts (haven't replied much) These spammers / hackers are trying to get in, slowing down the servers / websites.

89.149.242.12
94.228.34.235
208.115.111.68
217.174.161.152
66.90.73.33
66.249.82.1
218.24.35.164
119.46.110.247
109.230.220.90
84.88.67.222
109.123.70.47
199.15.234.109
84.88.67.222
109.73.66.51
95.135.216.202
All trying to register or log in
One I didn't list it was trying to hack the site but is not list in any of the spam sites. These are from countries all over the world including the US, parts of the old Soviet Union and China are leaders in this crap. The member who was blocked should not have any problem getting a new IP address, none of the surrounding ip addresses are shown in Spam fighting sites. One other word keep your spyware and virus protection programs up-to-date!!!!! tt Dick email with these is on the way!

[oldgoaly]

Just to let you know we are still kicking some spammer/hacker butt! We see them trying different tactics. But once they are found the network of anti-spam sites share that info. So hopefully you connections and downloads are going more smoothly. Thanks for making this the Largest and Friendliest group of Metalshapers on the Internets tt

[Tony Sanchez]

---Terry, thanks for all of the work that you do behind the scenes.
---Tony

[track roadster]

I was recently refused entry to another metal site. would you please check my address and see if it is o.k. let me know before you drop me please and i will try to get it fixed. thank you

[jlrussell4]

Hi Bob,

Welcome to Metalmeet. If you are in your ip address is O.K.. Some sites have different criteria than others.

Glad you are here - now join in the fun

[oldgoaly]

Bob, most of the blocking is from other parts of the world. If your IP was blocked due to a previous user of the address you would not be here. A quick way for anyone to check their IP is to find it here http://www.whatismyip.com/tools/ip-whois-lookup.asp then copy and paste your IP to a google or bing search. now if your IP comes back with listings in Project Honey Pot or Stop Forum Spam CALL you internet supplier!!! btw this is your IP 67.102.106.87
Welcome to the form!

[oldgoaly]

Just to update you on what has been going on. We have had a number of waves of hackers / scrapers / spammers. The new thing is rent a block and attack! really this is easier the zap, when they send a wave they are not in numerical order. This is where the fun begins, I copy and paste some of their IP addresses and find the range they are in. Then I send Dick another email with these ranges he blocks them by the bucket loads.... this is separate from the run of the mill spammer. Now to tell you how some members get stuck in this mess. When your register and all member's do the system remembers that IP address. So if your at work or library even the corner pub, the system will recognize you as a guest till you log in. All these hackers / spammers try to do the same log in. I'm watching for them! so if I see a guest logging in I will run the ip thru a number of different sites. One is google and sometimes I use a qualifier like IP# plus "spam" Well when it comes back with 8 pages of spam listed 99 out of a 100 I caught me a spammer. Ahhh but if you are a large company and many people have spam lunch or complain about spam in all parts of the internet, it fools me! There are two more ways you can get caught. If you move and get a new IP it could be on the spam "Blacklist" same with a dynamic ip. We don't put you on that list, your ip got there and I found you!
Now if you are not a spammer, send a message to the admin when you get the banned message, or if you can log in some other way let one of the moderators or administrators know what is going on We will get you fixed up asap! as far as numbers members having problems I think we have had 6, lets say 10, Dick sent me the banned list in a email, I counted 3500, thought I was about 1/2 way thru the list. Gmail cut it off! too much for a email boy did my firefox bog down. Just a note if you change your internet and you have a problem let us know! We will be happy to fix the problem!
Take care! and Thanks for being apart of the Forum!

ahhh one more thing! if you post your phone # or email address break it up as these scrapers are just searching the internet for those then they sell those to the BLEEP ba**ards who spam the heck out of you!!!