January 30, 2022 9:24 AM EST
Hei Tiffany.
about email banning.
Try this method. Ive mentioned this before.
Part of the problem is, a single user can create and send many many many emails, but they will all come from the same IP. (example, i had one IP address sending 147 different emails addresses. i simply blocked the ip and never got any spam emails from that ip again)
So instead of blocking emails, block the IP. This will cut the amount of email verification work.
So after a few days you will see a huge drop in spam emails and negative sign in attempts made by none members( these are automated computer sign in attempts). also the amount of emails sent to verify emails will also drop.
Yes you may block another user with the same ip address, but the chances of it actually affecting your membership numbers is to teeny tiny to be a concern. Since most ip addresses are usually shared between 1 and 5 people.
Also, check your SEO.
all search enquiries use SEO to find social sites, gaming sites and others. This is a good thing, but also a bad thing because it can single your site out from others and so you start to get more spammers. Remember, most of these spam emails are generated and sent by computers and not by people.
So you could try rewording your [ key word search ]
When i search [ friends realm ] i also see [ friend realms ] [ friend realm ] another very popular social and gaming sites. This also could be the problem. Similar site and social names, this will get people accessing your site instead of another site by mistake. ive seen several sites with copycat site names and then they wonder why they getting more spam and negative member signin reports on their spam and banning list.
This is also a high volume spam search technique, the more popular a site or site name is, the more of a target it becomes.
You could think about creating a more unique site name, with a more local language key word search.
Another thing to try is making your site [ invite only ] but this means you need to encourage friends and local people to be more active.
You can, If SNS have it, a plugin that allows [ mobile phone number ] authentication, sign in / sign up instead of email signup verification.
something to think about.
mikel.