My phpBB v3.0.8 being used by spammers

[mdurham]

Has anyone else discovered that their phpBB v3.0.8 is being used to send out spam emails? I did not notice until I recently checked my Webmail and discovered that this was going on with my forums. I discovered it only because I was receiving "failed to deliver" notices to an email address I don't normally forward (account@whbuzz.com, or something like that). I regret I seem to have irretrievably deleted all of those emails.

I know they were sent using phpBB because they were using my (unique) phpBB Admin signature. I know I did not send them because the vast majority of them were in Cyrillic.

I have had an ongoing battle with spammers joining my phpBB forums, which I can handle, but I have had to shut down new user registrations in order to prevent further spamming from my account. Does anyone have a better solution to this problem that will allow legitimate new users to register and use my phpBB forums?

Lastly, if you have a phpBB forum, you had better log into your Webmail and check to see if you are getting bounces for emails you have not been intentionally sending.

[Tony]

I turned off outgoing member email ages ago in my vbulletin. As I recall I didn't have much choice as the server no longer accepted emails from non-registered sources. i.e., my board can still send out emails since they all come from my admin email addy, but the most a member can do is send PMs.

[mdurham]

I already have outgoing member email off too. I've made some changes though and turned things back on, so I'll have either solved the problem or I'll have a more concrete example soon.