SPAMERS. Able to PM members now?

[TOMC28]

I am running 3.8.1

Over the past 2 weeks I've had 3 different spammers be able to post PM's to my members, without even being fully moderated.

These latest 3 were in the "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" bucket.

Somehow they are also "only" pm'ing the primary users.

They aren't spamming with "PORN". Today and yesterday they were spamming a ITUNES knock-off site (I won't even list it here, b/c I don't want them to get what they want). Two weeks ago they were spamming look-a-like "ROLEX" watches.

I have the CAPTCHA turned on, plus I moderate all members. I've BANNED their root IP addresses. What else can I do?

Thanks, Tc.

[Lynne]

What are all your PM settings set to for Users Awaiting Email Confirmation?

[TOMC28]

Hi Lynne.

Ok...firstly. My human verification is set to "image verification". Should I set that to something else?

Private Message Permissions for "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation":
Max Stored Messages: 0
Can Use Message Tracking: No
Can Deny Private Message Read Receipt Request: No
PM users whom reached quota: No
Max recipients to send at one time: 0
Message Throttle Quantity: 0

However....I also then checked "Unregistered/Not Logged In" settings. And under Private Message Permissions.... Maximum Stored Messages was set to 50. I changed this to 0. Not sure if that will do anything....because, these guys whom are getting in are already into the Users Awaiting Email Confirmation.

The same was true in the "Users Awaiting Moderation". I've changed the Maximum Stored Messages from 50 to 0.

[Lynne]

Now that you've changed those settings to 0, see how it goes now. It sounds like that was probably your problem.

Some people say that using the Question and Answer verification is best. I use recaptcha. I think you just need to figure out which works best for your forum. (Spammers also seem to come in waves.)

[TOMC28]

Lynne.


THANK YOU a million times over! I added the QUESTION AND ANSWER VERIFICATION. I realize this was a BASIC issue, but every single day for over TWO YEARS I had to manually delete 15 to 30 spammers whom were "awaiting moderation", in addition, a few always got in and spammed my members.

Since January 3rd I've had ZERO----yes Z-E-R-O of these spammers get thru to the moderation step.

Sincerely, Tom