Spammers Registering - Help !

[vetty]

Hello,

I have installed vBulletin and it's a new site.
Nobody knows about my site.
I have installed few mods, that's it.

I have enabled re-captcha for registration.

But, for the past two days, there are 3 users registered and no posts.
I searched their username in google and found that they are registering in many vbulletin forums, including DB-Tech's forum. Though they haven't posted anything on my forum yet, they have posted spam blog posts on other forums.

Usernames:
--------------------------
1. arudolaa
2. daniela02mcdowell
3. vJoyaMullinsb

How did they find my new site ?
How do I stop it ??? This seems not to be automated by bots.

Thank you.

[sheyworth]

You can make it that you have to approve new users, so when bots try to register you can just deny them. Thats what I do for my website.

[duketxboy]

I would strongly suggest verifying email before registration

[setishock]

You honestly think when you come on-line you're going to stay obscure for long. Search engines and spammers have one thing in common. If you make it, they will come...
About your signup methods. Re-captcha has been for some time now defeated. Bots now can read the text and whiz right in. Some have human masters that sign them up then hand the data to their mindless minions. And other spammers.
I use question and answer as do a lot of others here. It works. Catch to using Q and A is making the question or questions. Related to your site is helpful for those with a genuine interest in the subject matter of your forum. For those outside the subject they either move on or have to do some WAG-ing or some searching. Not too easy yet not too hard. And there in lies the rub. You have to give it or them some thought.
The answer to the question at my forum isn't really all that complicated. Anyone that is a serious anime fan will know the answer. But even they have to stop and think a minute.
I get the oddball signups from time to time. I wash the IP's through stopforumspam to see if they are on the list of badguys. If yes, they're gone. If not I sit back and wait to see what they do.

@sheyworth
That's a time consuming pain in the gazootenblatz. Other than what I proposed above there are many other methods other webmasters use and I'm sure some of them will pop in to this thread and speak their peace.

[Max Taxable]

Install "Ban Spiders by User Agent" and put in:

MSIE 1
MSIE 2
MSIE 3
MSIE 4
MSIE 5
MSIE 6

And all automated registrations magically stop.

For the rest, install "Isbot - Registration time check"

[rhody401]

I haven't had a single spammer in the past month, since switching to HUMAN VERIFICATION (random question), installing vb_bad_Behavior(checks blacklist), and spam-o-matic (checks email address and IP on stopforumspam and akismet databases for known spammers).

This combination works well, IMO.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by rhody401

I haven't had a single spammer in the past month, since switching to HUMAN VERIFICATION (random question), installing vb_bad_Behavior(checks blacklist), and spam-o-matic (checks username, email address and IP on stopforumspam and akismet databases for known spammers).

This combination works well, IMO.

Yeah, I learned though you don't need all that stuff.

[vetty]

Does using Cloudflare with vBulletin helps ?

---------------------------------------------

@ sheyworth .. Thanks for the suggestion.

@ duketxboy .. I thought it was enabled. But I'm wrong. Thank you, I have enabled it now.

@ setishock .. I have enabled Q & A. Thanks for the detailed reply.

@ Max Taxable .. This is something new for me. I'm going through the plugin page by Simon Lloyd. Thank you.

[kroko]

i am using this mod https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=244746 it is working great for me. havent gotten any single bot so far.

[manning]

Originally Posted by sheyworth

You can make it that you have to approve new users, so when bots try to register you can just deny them. Thats what I do for my website.

I have mine set like that, but some how there are bots that get past that too! Ive seen several the last weeks on my new member list without me ever approving them.

Originally Posted by kroko

i am using this mod https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=244746 it is working great for me. havent gotten any single bot so far.

I installed that mod and it does stop 95%+ of the bots, but some still do get through.