Spam Bots -- How The Heck Do You Deal With Them?
 

I own Masked Crusader and I am getting flooded with spam posts on a daily basis. They are mostly coming through proxies, but yet so are some of my regular users, so I cannot just ban proxies.

I have tried every single forum spam blocker on the vB4 mod forums and nothing is working. I NEVER had these kinds of problems with vB3. Is there something in the way that vB4 is written that just makes it an easier mark?

How are you dealing with these POS spambots? They are really getting on my last nerve.

Thanks!

I would suggest using Q&A instead of image verification. Make the questions specific to your forum.

It's relatively easy to get rid of the spambots - as Lynne said, a good Q&A will stop virtually all of them. Unfortunately, spammers are adapting and now the big problem is humans. Very difficult to prevent them from registering, and the good ones are virtually impossible to distinguish from legitimate members!

I have had ZERO spambot registrations since I went to Q&A question. I have a logic question setup that I do not think that machine can answer.

I also ask a couple of questions that relate to my forum subject. A spammer would probably have no idea how to make correct answer.

I have also blocked a number of IP address ranges as I only allow membership from USA.

- Roger Berke -