Help & Support

First decide whether the messages appear to be automated, or coming from an individual user.

Cbox works hard to prevent automated spam from reaching your Cbox. However if you are having trouble with such spam, you can require all users to solve a CAPTCHA before posting, by changing your CAPTCHA setting to "Strict" at your Settings page.

For spam from an individual user, first try banning the user. At your Messages page, select the unwanted messages and click "Ban". With a paid Cbox, you can ban the user from within your Cbox by logging in as a mod user.

Abusive users may attempt to evade bans by accessing your Cbox from behind an anonymizing proxy, via a VPN, Tor, or similar service. With a Pro Cbox, you can enable "Auto-ban proxies" at your Settings. You can also enable "Strong bans" there, which makes bans more resilient against changing IP addresses. However, it also increases the risk of bans affecting other users.

You can also strengthen individual bans by selecting them in your Blocked users list and clicking "Strengthen". This "widens the net" on an IP ban. Note that this can prevent other users of the same ISP from accessing your Cbox, so you should ensure the duration is short on such bans.

If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox, you have more access control options. It's recommended to always enable the option "Users must be registered to post". Normally, you would also enable "Users can password-protect their names" so that they can register themselves; for more control, you can disable this option and register users manually.

You can also choose to disable new registrations temporarily to "lock down" your Cbox. Existing users will still be able to log in and post.

Finally, if you disable the option "Users can password-protect their names" you can still enable "Users can authenticate via Facebook" — now new users can join your Cbox via Facebook, but if they are banned then their Facebook identity is also blocked.

Some other things you can do if you experience recurring abuse of your Cbox:

• Delegate moderator authority (Premium and Pro) to trusted users who are able to monitor your Cbox during times you are not.
• Use Moderated Chat mode (Pro) to prevent users posting directly to public chat. Their messages will need to be approved by a mod.
• Place your Cbox in a members-only or private area of your site, such that users must log in to your site before they can see your Cbox.
• Implement User Integration (Cbox Pro), which ensures that only users who are registered on your own site can post.
• Configure and enable the Site whitelist (Premium and Pro). This prevents your Cbox embed code from being displayed on any other site.
• Generate a new Security tag and republish your Cbox embed code. This revokes access for any user who may have a link to your Cbox but no longer has access to the page it is embedded on.
• Disable the Quick link. This will prevent users from being able to access your Cbox except via the page you have embedded it on.

Finally, if abuse continues, you should contact us. We want to keep all Cboxes free from spam and abuse, and will do what we can to assist.