Bot/fake accounts

[mcompany]

The last time that one bot messaged in the "how did you discover gladiabots", I decided to check out who the latest members are. And it seems like they've recently been a chain of bot, or at least fake, accounts (at least 30-50 accounts). I know that the newer ones seems to specifically set its location to Russia in Russian and sets the "how you discovered gladiabots" as their username. I was wondering if we can get a preventive ban on these obviously fake accounts. Also while we're at it, can we ban months old accounts that have only been active for less than 2 minutes, because such accounts that looks similar to these Russian accounts exist as far back as November 2016

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Alfine
Athenos
AlphaPsychoTherapy
AuthorityOnTransport
AdvancedGuttersInc
AdvancedGuttersNY
adityaengg
aceluxurywinetours
AliseNtona
artanyis
AaronSexia
AafonSexia
arkhyCox
AvbagassureSase
albinGendy
alinpl
admaiEn
Bihib
biggt
bozzGanza
Bagerr
BenchmarkBusiness
BlackHack
Briantex
BeBmout
Billymot
bpetutus
bioteMip
Carlos Adriano Sousa
Cravatosaur
Chapelniksog
cimiples
conriDip
cotphaChes
canrepaf
DentalLop
DumpsterDealsNY
Denismxnax
Danielnup
Deceptic
Dendritics
Darth_Zannah
Dog_of_doom
darkbvasponi
dicuEi
ExpressTransfers
Evangelion
ESDIndia
electhealthcare
ericbraverman
erdiper
Ferrit
FutiasFormalWear
FuryEngineer
fysaacHeark
fimbcengot
Georgetowl
Gorkwobbler
Gredu
GeorgeGog
gismaloge
gaicrafPt
Hectorreto
Hero_of_Legacy
Hiuhtonal
IndiraMa
idhouNuse
Jamesfaf
JacobGaisy
JasonGaisy
JacobRax
jesstoEr
kingco
Krakan
kukelive
kingbomurb
L0RD PlxI
LIWineDivas
LimoBusTruckFleet
linleLam
lemsviNeex
lyuegvat
layconRinc
logsighsi
licackkl
MetaSeth
mabeescaple
mywaylabs
mitchellcohen
Michealtus
monsmennusy
menuricew
Michaelgak
nostrad
novoprint
nnikolSexia
oksansGog
PDKGD12345
peaches760
patrickoliveras
PartyLineLimo
PositiveFlux
Pom
prigyacHeark
pafupike
Pallgegoaleme
Quantum1000
QuickBooksPassword
rekmegek
Robkasty
rehanol
RejjLeffe
RonaldFar
Rafaelcog
Richafvat
riotisa
riffluWeer
raluKela
rtukpe
RustyJer
ryosusThef
Sathura
Sergenius
Scssnys
Splurt
SackPhantom
SandyNunny
Syawntal
semenPiota
sunsstelMa
saasperfab
spokrectep
sinmountcich
sbenevmuch
SandyCak
sarahemmons
ThomasPl
TrumanBlick
The Raider
TimothyCox
ThomasPiota
thuybeaudar
tayrowsMup
teujustLiz
ubmyhhxe
Unton4ik
ultrasoundblindsuk
UpiterRU
Vanedict
Vilefelhinie
vitamixlabNY
VikaerRon
violksmek
willih
WileEQuixote
workprogWers
Xzaingic
Zhar
ZapMan
zeknife
Zanman248


[mcompany]

RustyJer looks like a new one

[mcompany]

jesstoEr is another one

[mcompany]

And another one
ryosusThef

[mcompany]

Add 2 more to the list:
Michaelgak
teujustLiz

[Revenge]

So we ban everyone from Russia? XD

[Revenge]

Wouldn't this be easier if an account was REQUIRED to make a post in order to be verified. If we had a "Welcome" topic forum that would be perfectly acceptable.

[mcompany]

So we ban everyone from Russia? XD

Actually, there is a few here and there that I believe that said it was from Guatemala and a few other places. Either way, all of the accounts specifically do the exact same thing (label their twitter as their username plus 2 letters, usually "OA"; put their way of joining the game as their username; less than an hour of usage). Plus, for an English game made by a Frenchman, this game has a lack of us, English, and French players, so I doubt we have so many Russians that a new one can join every single day

Wouldn't this be easier if an account was REQUIRED to make a post in order to be verified. If we had a "Welcome" topic forum that would be perfectly acceptable.

Sure why not? At the very least, I'd +1 a welcome section

[pier4r]

I welcome the welcome section.

[Kanishka]

I welcome pier welcoming the welcome section.

[GFX47]

There's actually no option for that in phpbb. Or it would need a manual operation every time a new account is validated.
And it would probably lead to thread overpolluted by bot spams :/

[mcompany]

By the way, I updated the first post to have all bot accounts following certain pattern and just in general seemingly inactive accounts (which most of which I am starting to believe are legit)

Also, fun fact, there are actually 3 bots on the forum:
Bot 1 being the ones I keep talking about, like our buddy Susanaleks (which due to the bad members layout, I incorrectly thought the Skype name they set was a twitter name). There actually seems to be a post in off-topic that hasn't been removed, and another that has a signature directly mentioning fifa 2017 (which was a recent Russian bot post here as well). These bots are pretty much confirmed to be Russian and probably take up the majority of just 0 post accounts

Bot 2 is basically just a whole account devoted as an ad. If that do have a location, it is ridiculously exact (as in business address exact). The businesses are almost certainly fake and each bot always has two links in its signature. Definitely a bot that understands this is an English forum and constantly references New York (a state in the US)

The third bot is the bots in the "how did you find gladiabots" post. They always so far end their names with "1979" and promote getting jetpack joyride in their signature. None of those are on the list because I believe only 1 of them is on the forum and I didn't see them in the way I was searching

I need to go and separate the bots from the rest of the list because more of the rest of the accounts are probably legit or I know they are legit (such as Darth_Zannah, TheFinger, and TombSyphon). Likewise, I probably should add more to that list (which also are probably legit accounts)

[mcompany]

I decided to compile a few lists for our current 0 post accounts. This should be better for deleting spam accounts in case gfx actually does something about these bots

First up: Your Russian bots. Please not that they actually increased activity during September of this year

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Georgetowl
ThomasPl
Bihib
rekmegek
Robkasty
TrumanBlick
DentalLop
AliseNtona
mabeescaple
Danielnup
Briantex
RonaldFar
SandyNunny
Chapelniksog
VikaerRon
Rafaelcog
JacobGaisy
fysaacHeark
prigyacHeark
AaronSexia
TimothyCox
ThomasPiota
Richafvat
AafonSexia
arkhyCox
Syawntal
GeorgeGog
AvbagassureSase
Michealtus
violksmek
albinGendy
semenPiota
kingbomurb
riotisa
thuybeaudar
cimiples
workprogWers
darkbvasponi
linleLam
alinpl
riffluWeer
dicuEi
conriDip
JasonGaisy
Billymot
nnikolSexia
lyuegvat
oksansGog
bpetutus
layconRinc
lemsviNeex
sunsstelMa
monsmennusy
logsighsi
bioteMip
pafupike
fimbcengot
licackkl
raluKela
saasperfab
gismaloge
erdiper
spokrectep
sinmountcich
cotphaChes
gaicrafPt
admaiEn
sbenevmuch
idhouNuse
canrepaf
menuricew
JacobRax
tayrowsMup
RustyJer
jesstoEr
ryosusThef
Michaelgak
teujustLiz
Pallgegoaleme
LNRal
rominMl
iapedgar
CharlesUseme
eulaco18
xapedgar


Next Up: Your fake advertisement bots

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LIWineDivas
AlphaPsychoTherapy
BenchmarkBusiness
ExpressTransfers
AuthorityOnTransport
AdvancedGuttersInc
AdvancedGuttersNY
LimoBusTruckFleet
PartyLineLimo
PositiveFlux
Scssnys
QuickBooksPassword
adityaengg
DumpsterDealsNY
aceluxurywinetours
FutiasFormalWear
ultrasoundblindsuk
novoprint
mywaylabs
mitchellcohen
ESDIndia
electhealthcare
vitamixlabNY
ericbraverman


Third: your currently unconfirmed accounts. At this point I'm willing to call anyone who does not speak now as a bot

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Vanedict
Joshia_T
antheos_hvp
iidonotknow1
Irmando
Carlos Adriano Sousa
kothor
peaches760
cacaceantonio
nostrad
IndiraMa
L0RD PlxI
kingco
bozzGanza
Papageno
eluxabe
ukvkane
ayolema
ijwocouu
Bagerr
creativemagicman
Jamesfaf
tacticalbot
RejjLeffe
ubmyhhxe
taby777
Unton4ik
wnmitytxs
millerjohngfy
Superoxide
Yusufhaikal
kongponleu88
Dendritics
ChtiBen
zeknife
paylituzu
MFR
ampprotector
Onlyzen
Jax Raffnix
sarahemmons
TTF
phallyka


Lastly: Your actually legitimate accounts that is known to belong to some player

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Dr.Sky
Dgeamz
Buzz_Kill
Keidox
Dagger
Uber
Quantum1000
PDKGD12345
C4nt3r
Gorkwobbler
ESKimo
Franky
favogiuseppo
Ferrit
DavidDS
stn
Arkis
biggt
fracrist
FtDLulz
DavidThane
Zhar
BOOMERAL77
The Raider
Paul3d
lmtb
patrickoliveras
xana
Atlant
jdrub
MetaSeth
dezemerel
Alfine
G3ordan
Sathura
D.1.6.1
NuCumer
Hectorreto
lurie
Krakan
Athenos
vladon
Sergenius
Rauthdreki
Vilefelhinie
Evangelion
Abbis
Jungleer
Xzaingic
G-Man Jones
TheDDraco
Limao
deadstill
Dubulyue
rehanol
ZapMan
BlackHack
Dalamb
Hero_of_Legacy
fx9
GoIIum
ProjectBurn
willih
BoJIK
TheFinger
ivij
FuryEngineer
uglydisease
Splurt
BeBmout
FM3a
Pom
Deceptic
me the newb
shaolin0013
WileEQuixote
Hiuhtonal
Evanito
artanyis
herzklopfer
SackPhantom
Gredu
F r
Cravatosaur
Darth_Zannah
kukelive
LuckyCat
Nheox
yobmas
IronGiant
theoneomega
Dog_of_doom
Zanman248
UpiterRU
McDuck
mickdaud
TombSyphon2317
Solastin
lio
Darkrai
Alarik
rtukpe
Lique
asdefjak


Do note that this list does not include members that has posted something even though they are known to be bots. Outside of tonight infestation of posts, we have the following:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=515

[GFX47]

I can't ban an account before it makes its move.
The anti-bot countermeasure is currently set to a Q&A. I think the recently created bots are registered manually.
I'm also banning IPs used by those accounts.

[mcompany]

I can't ban an account before it makes its move.

Wait, why not. Phpbb don't let you make bans to such accounts?

[GFX47]

No, I could but mean you don't really know if it's a bot before it spams the forum.

[mcompany]

Umm... yeah. But some other lunatics uses the exact same login habits as bots (which are unusual to begin with), put random advertisement websites in their signature (which imo shouldn't be allowed anyways at the extent that these accounts do it), are mostly Russian and writes in Russian (when this is a game by a French guy, written in English), creates accounts 7 rimes in a single day (when we have a whole forum post mentioning the lack of new players directly), and has no in-game accounts (making it even more suspicious). Right


My lists, at the very least, have accounts that 100% are bot accounts. No "ifs", ands", or "buts" about them. And this wave of new accounts ARE bot accounts and are proving how they are bot accounts. There is no question who is what at this point, especially not for those older accounts, and most of the newer accounts are so obvious that it makes little sense to question it, and it much safer not to question it

[Revenge]

Try this for now: https://www.wikihow.com/Kill-a-Spambot-(Link-Method)

That should work for now until ReCaptcha is incorporated into account creation. Also, good work MCompany on coming up with a list of Fake Advertisement Bots. That must have taken a while.