Ban on new registrations using gmail addresses

Quiff Boy

We've had quite a few spammers registering recently, all of which have been using email addresses from google's free gmail service.

This suggests that spammers have found a way past gmail's registration process to create fake accounts, and they're now using these to spam forums such as Heartland.

To this effect, we have had to ban all new registrations where the user a @gmail.com address

Existing forum members with gmail addresses are unaffected, but if you're trying to register a new account with a gmail account you will see a message saying "your email address has been banned".

We'll leave this blanket ban in place for a week or so to stem the tide of would-be spammers, and then we'll see what happens.

If you are trying to register for a new HL account, and your email address is from gmail, we'd suggest you try using another email address. If you absolutely don't have or can't get any other address please get in touch and we'll see what we can.

Thanks
QB & the mod team
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Quiff Boy · Post #2 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:33 am Post subject:

it actually looks as if a lot of the gmail spammers are from china.

probably something to do with the current conflict between china's communist state govt and google.

we're just caught in the cross-fire.
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Quiff Boy · Post #3 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 11:07 am Post subject:

interestingly,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/20/reports_says_cyberattack_on_google_lifted_code_for_password_system/

When alleged Chinese hackers infiltrated Google's internal systems in December, they lifted source code for a password system that controls... ...single-sign-on for millions of users across myriad Google services, including Gmail...

Wierded Out

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Pista · Post #4 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:00 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the tip off.

s
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DocSommer · Post #5 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:39 pm Post subject:

Another reason to upgrade phpBB - the recent version brings different captcha solutions by default. There's probably a mod for the older versions available somewhere as well...
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Quiff Boy · Post #6 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:00 pm Post subject:

aye, its a fair point... although we do use a custom captcha mod already

the main reasons holding me back from upgrading are:

1) creating a few themes to port users across to - i'd like to go live with at least 3 themes but havent really had the time to do anything that would do a new board justice Sad

and

2) current user birthdays are a mod for phpbb v2 and would get lost in the move over to v3 - i keep meaning to look into writing an sql script to export the current birthday settings from the user table, reformat the strings and then re-insert them into the v3's user table, but again i havent really have the time Wierded Out

hey ho

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DocSommer · Post #7 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:17 pm Post subject:

Yeah I can imagine that it's quite some work but maybe some questions has been already answered (like that b-day issue). I made some good experiences at the official phpBB forums, especially during the first steps in the phpBB world.

I haven't noticed the other themes here around so far, probably because I like your red/grey default theme so much that I never felt the need. Well, the alternatives looks quite need as well, especially summer and the industrial groove machine.
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Obviousman · Post #8 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 7:21 pm Post subject:

Wasn't this ban on previously as well? I remember I wanted to switch to GMail at one stage but held it off as HL didn't allow for it ?
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Quiff Boy · Post #9 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 8:44 pm Post subject:

we've had to turn it on a couple of times in the past, but have turned if off again after things have calmed down and/or google have fixed their security hole Smile

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Obviousman · Post #10 Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 9:18 pm Post subject:

Ah, when you switch it off again, could you let me know? It'd mean I'd be able to move over Smile

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Quiff Boy · Post #11 Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:27 am Post subject:

We lifted this ban for a while but we've had to put it back until Google stops the spammers signing up for their email addresses.

We're getting too many bots over the last few weeks registering using @gmail addresses Sad

AFAIK it shouldn't affect any HL members how currently have a gmail address associated with their HL account, but it will stop anyone updating their email address to a gmail one.
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the cake is a lie
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