[kevinh]

We have had three now in two days, with the following usernames;

TopGUN2k12
Pills2k11
TopBrands2k11

In each case the email address has had a Polish domain but the IP address has not corresponded (USA, Brazil and UK), so it's fair to assume all information is false. None of the subscriptions have been confirmed.

In each case the username shows up as a new registrant on many vBulletin forums in the preceding 24 hours, which suggests the work of a bot.

It's worth pointing out that the Q&A questions on our site are about an obscure brand of British car and would only be known be enthusiasts. The questions could be answered with a bit of research on the web, but bots don't do research

So it appears that the bot must be exploiting a vulnerability in vBulletin. I know it would be best to update but I have so many custom mods on my site I am concerned that updating may break some of them.

We have decided to implement the promotion system as a precaution, so that a new users first post is moderated.