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founded 2 years ago

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PSA: Many Lemmy instances are currently experiencing massive automated sign-ups (bots)! If you run an instance with open sign-ups, please read! (zemmy.cc)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/fediverse

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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/177673

Cross posting this here for visibility since lemmy.ml federation has been very hit or miss the last week. Original post from @[email protected]

Today, a bunch of new instances appeared in the top of the user count list. It appears that these instances are all being bombarded by bot sign-ups.

For now, it seems that the bots are especially targeting instances that have:

Open sign-ups

No captcha

No e-mail verification

I have put together a spreadsheet of some of the most suspicious cases here.

If this is affecting you, I would highly recommend considering one of the following options:

Close sign-ups entirely

Only allow sign-ups with applications

Enable e-mail verification + captcha for sign-ups

Additionally, I would recommend pre-emptively banning as many bot accounts as possible, before they start posting spam!

Please comment below if you have any questions or anything useful to add.

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[–] AFKBRBChocolate 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Why wouldn't an instance require an email and a captcha? Seems like such an easy add that's totally worth if it even just reduces bot traffic.

[–] RQG 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I can see a reason for email in that people might want to minimize storing personal data.

A captcha seems pretty harmless in any case.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

anonaddy or simplelogin are your friend.

[–] RQG 1 points 2 years ago

Friends? I never heard of them.

I'll have a look though.