I think we all have had this problem. I tried several extensions but nothing worked until I added captchas with the Confirm Edit extension. This still lets people create new accounts, but they have to solve a captcha. A pain for users but it works.
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit
jake4d jake@debatrix.org 615.418.3858 www.debatrix.org
-----Original Message----- From: Helmut Hullen [mailto:Hullen@t-online.de] Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 3:37 PM To: mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Mediawiki-l] blocking drug spam
Hallo, mediawiki-l,
I have a lot of problems with drug spam on my wiki
http://arktur.de/Wiki/Spezial:Logbuch/delete http://arktur.de/Wiki/Spezial:Logbuch/block
The spammer (who uses a bundle of IP adresses) first creates a user with a name including the drug, and then he creates a user page with a contents like
Benutzer:Order Pletal Cilostazol No Prescription
Order Pletal Cilostazol No Prescription. Discounts and Bonuses, For women Drugs. Purchase Fast and Discreetly Online No Questions Asked!
***** Click This for Order Pletal Cilostazol No Prescription *****
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I may not block signing up users (does mediawiki allow blocking new users?), and therefore I have to look at least daily for new users. The drug spammer changes round about every hour the user page, and because the user has signed up the spammer can feed the user page from everywhere.
Now I have more than 500 spammer users (exactly: I had). I delete the page, I block the user, I block the IP address range. It's a nasty job.
And I delete the user in the database using "phpMyAdmin"; that's the way the spammer has to sign up again and show the IP address of his actual system. That's a very ugly way.
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* (Aktuell) (Vorherige) 2009-12-03T00:08:43 74.74.249.248 (Diskussion | Sperren) (809 Bytes) (Zurücksetzen | rückgängig)
* (Aktuell) (Vorherige) 2009-12-03T00:00:24 Order Pletal Cilostazol No Prescription (Diskussion | Beiträge | Sperren) (796 Bytes) (Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: "<h3><font color=blue>Order Pletal Cilostazol No Prescription. It's much cheaper than ordering at your local drugstore! No prescription is needed! <br><br> [http:/.")
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And I block some IP address ranges via ".htaccess" - there is some strange inconsistency (?) within mediawiki; I have seen it especially with the address 76.245.246.55. I had blocked the range (at least I believed having blocked it), and the spammer used the address nevertheless.
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Is there any chance a) to block such spam in a simplier way? b) to delete the user pages and the user entries in a simplier way?
Viele Gruesse! Helmut
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