Help! Urgent! Need to remove over 100 spam addresses now!

[ruben]

Dean,

To my horror, I discovered over 100 spam addresses in one of my LMP lists today.  Here are a few of the email addresses I found, just to give you an idea:
HQMIAkNb6N@aonehotwebdeals.com
jZT230AasbkhxsI8@aonehotwebdeals.com
Nnc0txbi5X02@aonehotwebdeals.com
NumDlF22GRuc22J1@aonehotwebdeals.com
Q5qN636iWAU@aonehotwebdeals.com
QFCN2NwlZH@aonehotwebdeals.com
d343R45H5Bs@aonehotwebdeals.com
CY1Cg22@aonehotwebdeals.com
c9wc2ecLJX121@aonehotwebdeals.com
7K437wZeNXvwd08u@aonehotwebdeals.com
Great_Stock_Picks_440@compuserve.com
remove@buysusa.com
removeme@buysusa.com
G17n70SxwtYI4@giantwebsoftware.com
Jl2cUSw93@giantwebsoftware.com
fnntqgzf2@163.net
exy0ynwwgy@yahoo.com
eu1jrmdbf@public.guangzhou.gd.cn
eqo571a@hotmail.com
K8gG1H7LXR@downwithnobody.com
list@artaddiction.com
list@artauction.net
N7kN3136@bigtimewebwizard.com
dn4egp@mbox.digsys.bg

The problem is, the way LMP is configured now, I have to sit there and Delete each one by one.  Dean, there's over 100 -- there's got to be a better way!

Please, please add the little boxes by each address so I can select which address I want to remove and remove them all by clicking on Delete once.  Otherwise, I'll go mad!

I need this function NOW.  Not in a few months or next week.  These guys are spamming from my list.  They won't stop until I get their names out of there.

Rufina James

[chufford]

Do you have phpMyAdmin? That would do exactly what you need. You could Browse the lm_users table and click on the checkboxes and then click the remove button.

BTW, it looks to me like all those addresses are bogus and won't go to people. If you have the LMP bounce handling enabled, they will remove themselves after some mailings since they will probably all bounce.

I hope that helps.

[DW]

Unfortunately, this is a problem Rufina has been facing for some time.  It seems that one or more evil subscribers is using vigilante tactics to make her list management difficult.  :cry:

Rufina, are all of these subscriptions coming from the same IP ADDRESS?  If so, we can delete ALL bogus subscribers with a custom PhpMyAdmin command.

delete from lm_users where ipaddr = '123.123.123.123';

It is unlikely that the (l)users are going to go to great lengths to change their IP for each subscription.

We could add some custom code at the top of your signup.php file to prevent them from signing up from each IP they use..

Oh, and if you accept subscribers by email it may be time to rethink this approach (use form subscription instead) because the IP address won't be available to block..  We would have to further track the headers of the signup messages (much more difficult) to block this type of subscription.

[ruben]

Dean,

How do I find out if they are all from the same IP address?

Also,  is this the custom PhpMyAdmin command?

"delete from lm_users where ipaddr = '123.123.123.123'; "

If so, where do I put it and how do I use it?

Unfortunately, I can't change the fact that this list accepts subscribers by email.  The subscribe address appears in the resource box of an article I wrote years ago which is now posted on numerous websites.  I can't even find all the places where it's posted.  I have already tried asking the webmasters to change the address on the sites I located the article, but they don't respond.  

When you offer a royalty-free article on the internet - you lose all control over it.  Yet, this is an excellent, legitimate form of free promotion that increases sales and traffic.

Would making it a double opt-in list solve the problem?

Rufina

[chufford]

Perhaps you should change the published subscribe email address to be just a autoresponder. Rather than subscribing them to the list, emailing to that address could send them instructions (URL) to signup to the list. Only a person would read the message and signup.

Just an idea...

[ruben]

A great idea, but I thought every time someone responds, they automatically get subscribed into the list. I didn't know LMP will send out an autoresponder message without subscribing someone to the list.  

If there's a way to do that, please let me know.

Rufina

[chufford]

Actually, what I meant is that most mail servers can be set to send an autoresponse when a message is received at a specified address. Accomplish this from the mail server settings and not from LMP. Then, disable the email-to-subscription script.

Your idea of the double-opt-in would also work I think.

[DW]

How do I find out if they are all from the same IP address?
Also, is this the custom PhpMyAdmin command?
"delete from lm_users where ipaddr = '123.123.123.123'; "
If so, where do I put it and how do I use it?

I suspect the malicious subscriptions are coming from email subscription since it's easier to write a script for this than one that submits a form over and over (though, that too can be accomplished fairly easily..).  This means the IP address may not be available.

Just in case they do use the form method, though, check for IPs by clicking "Edit" next to some of the entries in the user database.

The custom command I mentioned was an example.  You would need the real IP address(es) for it to remove the correct users.  Running the command won't stop future signups until I give you some custom code for the top of signup.php to block subscriptions from the IP(s).

If it is or isn't form-based subscription or if it's email subscription-based abuse then then yes, I believe enabling confirmation (double opt-in) would be the way to curb this attack for now.  The attacker(s) could still get around this, and most other methods, if they are persistant however.  :cry:

[ruben]

Dean,

The IP address is "Unknown" on all that I checked.  I'm sure it's the same for all.  

That still leaves me the task of individually deleting each one.  Is there any possible way you can give me code for checkboxes by tomorrow so I can simply check off the addresses I need to delete instead of having to delete each one separately?

Rufina

[DW]

This feature has been a long time coming.  I will try to have it in the next release.  I can't do it right away because the new files expect major database changes and there are some in-progress features that aren't ready to be released yet.  Basically, it wouldn't be worthwhile to implement it into the older (current) files because I would have to duplicate the changes in the newer files.  

[ruben]

Dean,

I figured out a way to get rid of them.  I set the bounce to to 1 message in 1 day and sent out an email. That didn't do it.  So I reset the bounce to 1 message in 0 days and sent out another email.  That did it!  Most of the spam addresses disappeared from my list.

Unfortunately, so did a lot of other legitimate addresses.  Some were people I know - and KNOW their email address is still good, but maybe just too full.  Oh, well, I mainly wanted to get rid of the spam addresses and it worked.  Strangely, none of the spam addresses showed up in the "Bouncing User Removed" email notifications.  I wonder why?

Rufina

[amanda]

Can we have a BULK remove feature?  I have this in my old program, and will really miss it.  It can work like the "import users" feature, except it will unsubscribe rather than subscribe.

[DW]

Rufina,

Glad to hear you figured something out.  I have a report of a problem with the bounce notification.

Amanda,

I will see what I can do about your request!

[gwill23]

I fumbled around and used the following command to delete a bad bunch of emails that were bouncing on me.  Host4Profit just spanked me for overloading the servers.  I must have grabbed a list of bad emails and imported them by accident.

DELETE FROM `lm_users` WHERE char_length(bounces) > 10;

ecentially this deletes any email who has bounced more than once.

I know you found a solution but I'm posting this for future use.