# Bots spamming forum
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 5, 2024, 6:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704 "2024-12-05T18:49:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hamzah\_Alani](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Hamzah_Alani)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 6:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704/1 "2024-12-05T18:49:28Z")
Bots have been attacking our forum and our mod team has grow tired from deleting their posts. This started sometime last month, then stopped for a short while and started again now. Is this a discourse issue or what?
Also the previous admin retired and the current one isn’t very active, so keep in mind that we’re somewhat new to discourse and the backend side of it, and would appreciate any help with this.
And we have filtered common words the spammers use, but we’ve realized that they make a post with random characters, then edit the post into their advertisement to avoid the filters.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 6:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704/2 "2024-12-05T18:57:54Z")
If you’re not using Akismet, that will likely catch at least most of it.
It’ll require your admin to configure it, though.
> [@Discourse Akismet](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-akismet/109337):
>
> discourse2Summary Discourse Akismet allows you to fight spam with [Akismet](https://akismet.com/), an algorithm used by millions of sites to combat spam automatically.hammer_and_wrenchRepository Link [https://github.com/discourse/discourse-akismet](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-akismet)open_bookInstall Guide [How to install plugins in Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-plugins-in-discourse/19157)Features What does it do? Akismet helps keep your site free of spam by automatically scanning all posts from new users. Scanned posts that Akismet flags as spam are immediately removed f…
> **[Pricing](https://akismet.com/pricing/)**
>
> Visit the post for more.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704/3 "2024-12-05T19:02:46Z")
If you haven’t already, you may also want to take a look at [Tips for Preventing Spam](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-preventing-spam/264020/)
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704/4 "2024-12-05T19:22:38Z")
Looks like there are some consistencies with how the spam is worded, which can help — consider adding “helpline” to watched words (also covered in the spam guide) [Watched Words Reference Guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watched-words-reference-guide/241735)
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### Author:  [@Hamzah\_Alani](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Hamzah_Alani)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704/5 "2024-12-05T19:46:17Z")
Thanks everyone for the help, I’ll look into Akismet and the other methods that have been mentioned.
> [@awesomerobot](#):
>
> consider adding “helpline” to watched words
We’ve done that but sadly these bots found a nice workaround— they make a post with random text to avoid the watched words, then after making the post and it gets approved they edit it into their spam… not to compliment the spammers but that’s kinda smart 🥲
Thanks for the help though!
Yeah, I’ll be giving that spam guide a nice read, and I’m sure we’ll beat these bots!
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704/6 "2024-12-05T19:47:44Z")
> [@Hamzah\_Alani](#):
>
> We’ve done that but sadly these bots found a nice workaround— they make a post with random text to avoid the watched words, then after making the post and it gets approved they edit it into their spam… not to compliment the spammers but that’s kinda smart
I think that while “require approval” does not, the “flag” option also works for edits. Have you tried that?
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### Author:  [@ozkn](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ozkn)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bots-spamming-forum/340704/7 "2024-12-05T19:59:29Z")
It will work if you disable new users from editing.
```plaintext
edit post allowed groups
```
You can disable tl0 from this setting