An idea to stop some spammers

[bamaster]

It might just be the guys that are registering on my site, but there seems to be a trend here.

During registration, I've added a custom profile field and it's required. It is called "Where did you come from?"

Well, the spambots automatically complete this field with their username. 95% of my spammer registrations do this. Most of their emails don't bounce and their IPs are all over the place.

Is there a way to test for this? Something like, "if profile field matches username then ban"?

Thoughts?

[bamaster]

Bump for the Monday crew.

[Paul M]

Try this ;

Create a plugin linked to the register_addmember_process hook.

Put this code in it (adjust the two variables to suit).


$spamgroup = 4;
$checkfield = 'field6';

if ($vbulletin->GPC['username'] == $vbulletin->GPC['userfield'][$checkfield])
{
$userdata->set('usergroupid', $spamgroup);
}

Note, this is untested.

[bamaster]

Hey Paul,

It works! I tried it myself and I was allowed to register and the very next click gave me the Banned message.

It didn't change the User Title to read "Banned", but that's cool. I'll report after a while about how much this has reduced my spambot registrations.

THANKS A TON!