The ALL Florida Online Corvette Club - View Single Post - gmail accounts are temporarily being blocked at registration

**Rich Z** · 08-22-2012, 05:18 PM

I have a series of about 10 question and answer challenges for registrations. The email address used must also be verified by clicking on a link in an email sent to them upon registration. I audit every new registration and block any that are either obviously bogus, or even just somewhat suspicious. If the IP address does not resolve to their stated location, they get the boot.

I used to use the CAPTCHA method (which is an option in vBulletin) but I heard that it got cracked and was no longer a reliable method.

Yesterday I changed ALL of the questions and answers in case the spam bots had identified and automated the responses to them.

I have ceased blocking IP addresses for blocked spammers. I was at around 350 blocked IP addresses, and I believe that many could cause more problems then it would solve.

Blocking gmail does seem to have quieted things down quite a bit. Hopefully I won't have to keep it blocked for too long. I know some legitimate people do use that email host.

08-22-2012, 05:18 PM	#3
Rich Z Internet Sanitation Engineer Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Crawfordville, FL Posts: 15,125 Name : Rich Zuchowski	I have a series of about 10 question and answer challenges for registrations. The email address used must also be verified by clicking on a link in an email sent to them upon registration. I audit every new registration and block any that are either obviously bogus, or even just somewhat suspicious. If the IP address does not resolve to their stated location, they get the boot. I used to use the CAPTCHA method (which is an option in vBulletin) but I heard that it got cracked and was no longer a reliable method. Yesterday I changed ALL of the questions and answers in case the spam bots had identified and automated the responses to them. I have ceased blocking IP addresses for blocked spammers. I was at around 350 blocked IP addresses, and I believe that many could cause more problems then it would solve. Blocking gmail does seem to have quieted things down quite a bit. Hopefully I won't have to keep it blocked for too long. I know some legitimate people do use that email host. __________________