Spam and Login Attempts

chrisp

Admin
Staff member
Many of you have been getting failed login notifications from our system recently. This is caused by one or more people, most recently from China, trying to guess passwords in order to gain access to accounts so they can spam our forum members. At least, that's what we believe their intentions are. All of these attempts from overseas are quickly blocked by our server's firewall after a few failed login attempts, but not before a message goes out alerting you to the login attempt.

This login attempt poses no security risk to your account or to the server. It's more of a nuisance than anything. We have gone to extreme lengths before to combat this, such as, blocking all the IP addresses for entire countries where this spam originates, but there are tradeoffs to this. The more IP addresses we add to the firewall's block list, the greater the drain on the system and the slower the server becomes. So, we have to find a good balance.

Brian and Peter review EVERY new user registration and remove all those that look suspicious. And it's fairly easy to tell who the spammers are just by looking at their originating IP address and their email address. Occasionally, we have a new user registration that looks legit, and may even come from a local Shaw or Telus IP address, but then we find them spamming, so we punt them immediately. Again, these clowns are more annoying than they are a threat.

All we can do at this point is ensure that we don't use passwords that can be easily guessed, like those in this list of worst passwords of 2014 or something like "fish123" (don't laugh, it happens). To change your password, click on "Settings" at the top right of the page (you have to be logged in). That will take you to your profile page, where you'll see a link "Edit Email & Password" under the "My Settings" section.

Cheers,
chrisp
 
Thanx for the heads up via e-mail and the link to this thread guys. Someone tried to hack my account today.
 
My latest one tonight:

Dear SpringVelocity,

Someone has tried to log into your account on SportFishingBC Forums with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes.

The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: 119.90.127.3

All the best,
SportFishingBC Forums
 
Just wondering why I get a "Do You Want To Leave This Page?" every time I hit "post".

The post will not upload until I click "Leave This Page"......
 
I can login to my account but i cannot post for the life of me, had to create this account just to ask for help.....
says i don't have permission ?
existing username is "vanboozin"
what can i do ?
 
Nueneberg, Switzerland for me last night! I thought the Swiss were a peaceful, neutral country that didn't want to cause any harm? :rolleyes:

At least the Nigerians offer money.....Swiss just offer spam. :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This is the IP that tried to log into my account.

A more detailed IP address report for 162.221.202.230 is below. At the time you pulled this report, the time zone of 162.221.202.230 is America/Vancouver. The current local time of 162.221.202.230 is 16.08.2015 07:25:53. More IP details of 162.221.202.230 are shown below along with a location of the address on a map.

IP Lookup Result for 162.221.202.230IP Address: 162.221.202.230

Organization: eSecureData
ISP: eSecureData
City: Coquitlam
Country: Canada
State: British Columbia
Postal Code: V3B
Timezone: America/Vancouver
Local Time: 16.08.2015 07:25:53
 
None taken Lippy. It's not always safe to assume that folks posting on page 2 have read page one, much less the title of the thread. These spam/login attempt notices make them justifiably nervous. Safer to stomp on every spark than risk the fire......
 
Received my failed log in notice around 4:30 AM this morning. Did a Google search for IP 89.234.157.254 and it is located in France.
 
received mine yesterday, google showed the ip was from the Netherlands, hope at least it was a female with big tulips, lol.
 
Nueneberg, Switzerland for me last night! I thought the Swiss were a peaceful, neutral country that didn't want to cause any harm? :rolleyes:

At least the Nigerians offer money.....Swiss just offer spam. :p

I hate the Swiss, so damn neutral. They couldn't take a position if their life depended on it. It's the quiet ones you've always got to watch out for. Haha
 
Back
Top