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[ANSWERED] Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 12:20 pm
by tasadam
Some of you may be aware that we have a script that prevents spammers from joining this site, if they have been entered at http://www.stopforumspam.com

I have a record of how many spammers this script has blocked since its introduction in early 2011.

This competition is just for fun, how many attempts by spammers have been stopped this year only by the script - that is, over the last 15 days?

Post your guesses below, I will put up the answer after a while later this week.

EDIT - Answer HERE.

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 1:38 pm
by Graham51
My work email is about 90% spam and is supposed to have filters that stop over 90% of the spam that comes. I reckon I average 5 spam messages per day so if 90% is stopped there must be 50 spam messages per day. Over 15 days that would be 750. Is that even close?

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 1:45 pm
by Nuts
I could be wrong, I don't think there is any 'auto' spam like email. Spammers here need to go to the trouble of registering in the hope of being approved (almost as tedious as making sure they are not genuine.. some of them are tricky)

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 1:53 pm
by Strider
5217 spammers

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 2:18 pm
by Pteropus
After what Nuts said, I guess 40ish spammers in the last 15 days

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 2:36 pm
by tasadam
Nuts wrote:Spammers here need to go to the trouble of registering in the hope of being approved (almost as tedious as making sure they are not genuine.. some of them are tricky)

This is true. Although there is almost certainly a program or script of some sort out there to assist spammers in keeping control of their email addresses - check this out - this is a list of email addresses from spammers that I have removed from the forum over the last (X) amount of time (no clues).

bgttfg@aol.com
fzmp336@gmail.com
oooytpyirytyyfhfhfhhfff@gmail.com
specialfootwear1@gmail.com
oksanamo@malihin.com
fitflopvgfda@gmail.com
lishishi520@gmail.com
fraser526@littlestpeopletoysfans.com
cadenceflower16@gmail.com
abobbyamitapyikkt@gmail.com
ahmadfarooq52@yahoo.com
0u7@sunglasssaleonlines.com
amximuscahvs@e-mail.com
lalala@mailhotmail.com
beb@ukhost-uk.co.uk
goxia@fasigula.name
qzazgxori_854@mail.com
mixas@malihin.com
nasyambicsmab@gmail.com
cheedagem@gmail.com
alabelpametty@gmail.com
reonecoenoropym@gmail.com
baangelasyanexty@ymail.com
entaitoensuse@lv-bags-outlet.com
jp9hdi4@sina.com
qu.ei.ohfsopdeu4589@126.com
garlaliasalecom@gmail.com
oopzgxyza_022@mail.com
svuzgxzzw_504@aol.com
pjqzgxflh_849@aol.com
vzxzgxzex_897@gmail.com
uppzgxisl_421@aol.com
bbwzgxufr_245@gmail.com
vbyzgxtsu_809@aol.com
etfzgxose_380@aol.com
kztzgxtdi_330@gmail.com
tspzgxgqa_975@gmail.com
qrazgxffm_613@gmail.com
abobbyamitapyikkt@gmail.com
jk7xbu2@sina.com
ulvzgxlrk_955@gmail.com
xthzgxuyo_769@mail.com
uvqzgxfdo_269@mail.com
xgczgxiow_018@aol.com
bwgzgxjsr_718@aol.com
pmzzgxabm_823@aol.com
ciyzgxoov_975@gmail.com
asuzgxvxb_556@gmail.com
cqzzgxjjw_749@aol.com
boczgxwkz_469@gmail.com
pwizgxvze_991@mail.com
ze7ek87xfy@gmail.com
daskaidennaav@aol.com
tfhththth@gmail.com
khfgghjhgjghghggghjhgff@gmail.com

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 3:07 pm
by FatCanyoner
1280

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 3:22 pm
by stepbystep
43,612.5?

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 3:27 pm
by tasadam
stepbystep wrote:43,612.5?

To the power of what?

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 4:40 pm
by doogs
3?

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 4:48 pm
by frenchy_84
825

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 4:53 pm
by neilmny
15000

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 5:55 pm
by Chief
5 .

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Tue 15 Jan, 2013 9:20 pm
by alanoutgear
3.14159

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2013 8:50 am
by shazcol
Zero - they are all automated 'bot' programs

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped!

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2013 6:17 pm
by tasadam
alanoutgear wrote:3.14159

You win the Pie? But you're wrong.

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2013 6:25 pm
by matagi
42

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2013 6:38 pm
by ILUVSWTAS
2.

One's called Tasadam, the other Son of a beach

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2013 6:56 pm
by Nuts
Is that right 8505 :P

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2013 7:01 pm
by ILUVSWTAS
6000 of them are in the game.

Whats your excuse 4307?? :roll:

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2013 7:06 pm
by Nuts
lol, i wonder myself sometimes

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2013 5:56 pm
by ryantmalone
Having run a PR 3 blog, close to 10k visits a month, I would get anywhere up to 1000 - 2000 spam attempts a week.

Being a forum that is in a nice niche, ill bet that a handful of link builders try and post spam links here for paid clients too.

having said that, I'd say anywhere up to the 20 - 30k mark would be a reasonable guesstimate, however anything up to 100k would not surprise me one bit.

And yes, that is for a fortnight. ;)

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2013 6:07 pm
by blacksheep
Tried spam once. Didn't like it. You still see it in supermarkets though...bur I bet no one admits it. Zero then, based on sound logic.

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2013 6:13 pm
by ILUVSWTAS
blacksheep wrote:Tried spam once. Didn't like it. You still see it in supermarkets though...bur I bet no one admits it. Zero then, based on sound logic.



LOL!

My grandmother gave me a can of spam as an xmas prezzie about 15 years ago.

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2013 6:21 pm
by Turfa
Wow... the stopforumspam site lists 41,000,000 known spammers.

So the correct answer should be 16,249 ! ;-)

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2013 7:55 pm
by eggs
1723

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2013 9:21 pm
by Snowzone
Its a bit like trying to count how many jelly beans are in the jar really, you guess a number but you know its probably going to be a lot more...

490?

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2013 9:49 pm
by photohiker
100,000

Someone had to go high :)

I ran a public facing email server for a national company over several years. The amount of attempted relays and spam hitting on our virtual front door per day was astronomical. With a bit of effort and regular fine tuning I managed to drop 99.999% of it into the bit bucket, the lucky employees were none the wiser.

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Fri 18 Jan, 2013 7:26 am
by Son of a Beach
I think the email gateway devices we use here drops over 90% of mail that hits them as spam. After that about 90% of the mail that they allow through is from Facebook, I think. Pity they don't drop that as well.

Re: Guess the number of spammers stopped! [ENDING SOON]

PostPosted: Fri 18 Jan, 2013 10:51 am
by Davo1
157