Stop spammers from creating accounts?

[zmanda_it]

I'm getting really tired of people registering and posting spam to our forums [ probably like everyone else here ].

* I've already enabled reCaptcha, which helped a lot with bot registration.
* I also implemented a promotion system which seems to work well at preventing linkspam in signatures.

Spammers still register for accounts and post new spam threads in the various forums. I solved this problem on our wiki by requiring manual account verification using an extension:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmAccount

So my question is this: is there a plugin or configuration option to do the above with vBulletin 3?

[MrHorror]

Just change your registration options to a question. Like for example: The New York Knicks are a what team?

Answer:basketball

[zmanda_it]

We already tried that. The problem is that that approach relies on a static answer. As soon as the spammers realize that their bot is failing, they go the website and do one manual account registration to get the magic string, then update their bot software.

[DarkGizmo]

Originally Posted by zmanda_it

We already tried that. The problem is that that approach relies on a static answer. As soon as the spammers realize that their bot is failing, they go the website and do one manual account registration to get the magic string, then update their bot software.

this is true. I have CYB's Advanced Registration in place and yeah it's the same crap over again after a few days.....

I might actually do the promotion idea...make 3 posts before being able to post links or have a signature.

[GlowHost.com]

Try this:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=248042

Sounds to me like it does everything you guys are asking for.

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by GlowHost.com

Try this:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=248042

Sounds to me like it does everything you guys are asking for.

I recommend that a few times a week on here and other sites, it just works .

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by zmanda_it

We already tried that. The problem is that that approach relies on a static answer. As soon as the spammers realize that their bot is failing, they go the website and do one manual account registration to get the magic string, then update their bot software.

I have many questions/answers and they rotate automatically. This is a standard feature of the "random question." I also instruct users to copy and paste the question into the answer box. The question IS the answer! No way they can get a bot to do that. Never had a problem with spam.

The questions are always long, encouraging humans to copy/paste instead of trying to type it. I have them all essentially the same, just each one worded a little differently. Example:

"If you're human you'll have no trouble with the following - Copy and paste this entire paragraph into the answer box below, then complete your registration. If for some reason you cannot copy/paste, you'll have to re-type this all word for word, into the box below. But surely you CAN copy/paste, right? HUMANS ONLY."

No bots, no spam issue.

You're welcome.

[MrHorror]

Originally Posted by zmanda_it

We already tried that. The problem is that that approach relies on a static answer. As soon as the spammers realize that their bot is failing, they go the website and do one manual account registration to get the magic string, then update their bot software.

Well it worked for us. *Shrugs*.