Spam Problem?
 

Despite taking a good amount of prevention methods, I have recently had a surge in the amount of spam accounts registering - although, the majority dont post? - possibly due to having disabled the posting of links until 5 posts have been made.

I know they are spammed accounts because literally 9/10 signups as of late have the date of birth as 1st Jan 1980 and bizarre usernames/emails.

Theyare suspect in that they all seem to have a date of birth as 1st Jan 1980 and bizarre usernames.

To signup they have to answer the question 'are you human', where they have to type yes/ye/yeah etc in the box to verify. I also have the Check4SPAM mod installed.

I am at a loss how to prevent such sign ups.

Could anyone please give me any advice?

have you enable recapcha? also have you put the askimet spam key (you can find it onto worldpress site)? maybe these features help you ...

If they can bypass Q&A - it indicates that the person signing up is human.

No, I disabled that. Its a personal dislike of mine, it can discriminate against some members who have visual problems. I sometimes struggle with some...

Thanks though, will research the askiment spam key.

I thought that initially but I am certain its not the case. The last sign up a few minutes ago for example was;

uvwx144
tianxin520520@gmail.com
Again, the date of birth was 1st Jan 1980

A quick google search and the first that comes up is www.stopforumspam.com

These sign ups arent actually posting spam in the forums but they are driving me insane. :(

Thanks for the replies lads, any further feedback appreciated.

askimet is a nice feature ... try this a tell us ... ;)

I am looking now KURTZ but I am not entirely sure what it does, or how to apply it to vBulletin. I am sure i'll get it in the end though.

You sign up and get an API key, which you put into vBulletin. The option is under the "Spam Management".

it simply scan ALL (also you can change this value) posts over your board ... if this system finds something like a spam thread/post or also a user (i believe) it puts these things into your moderation queue ... i tried this and it works really good ...

If you are looking for a way to curb the bogus registration, I would suggest this mod:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=176481

It uses the stopforumspam.com service and has made a significant difference for me.

Thanks a lot for the help you lot :)