SPAM INVADERS

[noiseguy]

I've noticed that spammers in this forum use completely irrelevant and scrambled up user IDs. Pretty easy to tell by looking at the names I see. If it isn't idiots invading the neighborhood in real life, now it's happening in our online communities. LOL

You know, you'd think that, but legit users come up with some pretty crazy names as well. I used to do verification manually and I deleted several legit users with names that are just as odd.

The current CAPTCHA is almost impossible to read; I get emails about once a month from someone who is color-blind and can't read the thing.

UPDATE: 3 new spammer account in as many hours.

I'm going to try a new captcha... the old one (beside difficult to read) wasn't working anyway.

I may go one more step yet and start IP blocking. Stay tuned.

[evilone]

We got a new "Zanex Medication" spammer!

[Petrock's 1984 Spree]

Nosieguy you just gotta play wack a mole with these suckers

[noiseguy]

I don't do wack-a-mole long term. Too much work. We'll find a better solution and I'll update the board over the weekend.

I've deactivated and/or deleted close to 1000 accounts this week. Either zero post or junk registrations.

I've just shut down self-registration. That means, no new users until I get it fixed.

[that guy]

Could it be a * off user doing this

[martynkim]

Not like anyone gives a RATS ares about what they are advertising!! Just creating havoc.

[eliteguy50]

I keep seeing bots listed at the bottom of the page as active users. I've never really understood the purpose of this but don't they index the pages? Would blocking them lower the rank of the page to the point where it would not be as appealing to spamers.

[noiseguy]

Some of that's done already. For example, you can't put a website up without a minimum post count. That sort of thing. Doesn't matter much, they will keep coming.

[Eft37]

A good one I've run into is a radio button on sign-up programmed to "yes" to the question:
Am I a robot? A human would have to switch this to "no" to get an account.