How are users getting around the "Moderate new members" function?

[eNtitY~]

I have had the "Moderate new members" in place on my site for a year or more now, every now and then I have noticed users who made new accounts that I didn't have to verify. But yesterday, some people that were banned registered a bunch of account name and spammed the forums for a long time, many many accounts were used and I didn't verify one of them. I am the only admin so I know someone else didn't do it, how was it possible they got around it and what can I do to make sure it doesn't happen again?

[ssslippy]

Its not possible to get around this. I would double check your permission settings.

[eNtitY~]

Well 8 or more accounts were made today between 12am and 7am that were never verified. It showed them as registered users when no one ever verified them.

And users awaiting confirmation cannot post.

[ssslippy]

Do you have any automatic promotions setup?

[eNtitY~]

Hmm apparently I do. Must have been setup by a previous admin, but I have no idea why.

Reputation Comparison Type - Greater or equal to
Reputation Level - 0
Days registered - 0
Posts - 0
Promotion Strategy - Join date
Promotion type - Primary Usergroup
Move user to usergroup - Registered users

I'm going to delete that, but why does it only do it for some people? Thats weird because majority of the people I have to validate.

EDIT: It was for "users waiting email confirmation", so maybe its because these users didn't confirm there email before they logged in, and majority of the people go straight to their email to confirm.

[ssslippy]

the cron only runs so often so u might be catching people.