New Spam Tool: Email Domain & IP Banning at Sign-Up

[Eric Suesz]

We're no fan of spam at Ning. We know it can be an annoyance, especially for Ning Creators who choose not to moderate membership. While we can't solve for every type of spam attack, we have put in place a number of spam tools in the last two years that can make a difference. If you haven't turned all of those on yet, we encourage you to take a minute to make sure you're Preventing Spam in the best ways you can.

Today, we're releasing another spam tool that allows Ning Plus and Pro to perform both email domain and IP banning. 

IP banning is a request we've had over time from people here on Creators, so we are sure that a few folks who've wanted to see this will be happy that it's now available. The feature is fairly straightforward, and it's entirely optional. You'll see a new column in Member Management for IP addresses, and you'll see the option to block in the Sign-up/Sign-in area.

Block IP addresses at sign-up

You can prevent anyone coming from a specific IP address from signing up for your site. Just enter the IP address you want to block, and no one will be able to sign up from that IP address.

Block email domains at sign-up

Similarly, you can choose email domains that you want to block from signing up for your community. If you see spam coming from an email domain like [e-mail], you can block all sign-ups that come from the @sharklasers.com domain.

Of course, these are powerful tools, so we recommend using them carefully and thoughtfully. If you ban an IP that hundreds of thousands of people potentially use, you cut off access to thousands of potential members.

• These options are only available to the Network Creator; not admins.
• You can remove the bans you put in place at any time.
• If someone is unable to sign in because of these blocks, they will see a specific message. The specific message is located in the Language Editor and can be customized.
• If someone is unable to sign in, they can still contact you, provided you have not turned off that option. That option is located in your own personal Email Settings area (Feedback and problem reports).
• The reports you receive from members having trouble includes the email and IP address, as well as whether either is blocked.

One other thing to note about this feature is that you may see that an IP record is "unavailable" in your listings. In most cases, this will be because the member joined before we were able to capture their IP address (i.e., before this tool was turned on a few weeks ago).

Want to know where an IP is geographically located? Look it up on InfoSniper

You can read all about how to Block an Email Domain or IP Address from Signing Up in the Help Center.

[Vincent Wright]

Great, Eric...

[Marianne McGee]

I appreciate all the introspection and the desire to learn from the way these spammers work but I have a real practical issue on our site. I don't blame someone for abandoning their site if they are getting the level of spam that I am dealing with every single day. The numbers of spam enrolments has just massively increased! I keep suspending them but they are relentless. I have suspended more than 26 spammers that have registered since last Friday alone. Someone mentioned banning a country. How is this done? I know that these spammers have originated in India as a result of studying the Google analytics information. If I could ban this country I think I could solve my problem. I don't want to ban more than India because we have an international site and members from all over the world. Help, I need a solution and fast!! 

[blackmist]

nice sharing Eric..

[Ben Low]

Hi there

I have been getting spammed by the same people that I have banned. I have updated my email domain and IP banning list using @Ramon and another list (Thanks!) and spammers still get through. What can we do to stop it?

I haven't had spam for a really long time until this release got implemented. Now it's spam everywhere on my network again.

Ben

[Eric Suesz]

Hey, Ben. I might need you to contact our support team. What would be wonderful would be a screenshot or something that you think shows the issue. If you're saying email domains are blocked but a spammer signed up from that same domain, or that an IP address was banned but someone was able to join anyway, well we definitely want to know any details about that. I had one report that someone had that sounded kind of like this, but I don't think we've heard anything similar. So, please do contact our team. We'd like to check it out. 

[Ben Low]

No worries

Will do, I've had the same ip address 198.134.107.53 get through about 5 times in the past 20 minutes.  When/If they get back on, I'll send through a screengrab so you can see.

Ben

[Ben Low]

Hey Eric

Attached images that show the spammer and how I already have their email domain and IP banned yet nothing is working. Hope theirs a solution to this as I have a lot of the other spammer tools in place already.

 

[Eric Suesz]

Appreciate the reports, guys. Very helpful. 

[Fernette Eide]

Eric,  We still see the same spammers although the domain and even IP are blocked. Did you know this?  Is there anything else we can do? 

So far adding a picture requirement helped the most, but because ours is a dyslexia site - we hate to ask people to do so much to sign up.

[mark]

Welcome to the @12minutemail.com club. Looking forward to the fix too.

[Virgil G.]

I'm gettig the same problem; ban some IP numbers and they keep coming back.

[mark]

I have the same issue Ben, create a help ticket and include screenshots.