[Forum] Sudden Spam Attack Since Last 3-5 days! reCAPTCHA Broken?

[The_Big_K]

We've been noticing sudden growth in spammer registration and the spammy posts since last 3 to 5 days. We first had Question-Answer verification which seemed to be broken so we switched to reCAPTCHA - and I'm quite sure it's been broken as well. Am I the only one or other vB owners are also noticing the same?

Any specific instructions/tips/feedback to fight spam? I'm considering manual approval of all registrations.

[Andy]

The Q&A works very well, but you have to use a question that is not generic or simple. Here is what I do.

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php/377906-How-to-prevent-spammers-from-registering-on-your-forum

[HMBeaty]

reCAPTCHA has been broken for a long time now. People can't read it most of the time (at least I can't), and bots can get through it all time. So your best bet would be to try a couple modifications on vbulletin.org, as well as using Q&A verification as Andy posted above

[Wayne Luke]

One thing about Recaptcha is that only one word needs to be correct. The system was designed to help improve OCR of old books and have the time, they don't even know what the results are supposed to be. So they give you one good word and one bad word. If enough matches come from the bad word, they update the system.

I recommend using the spam-o-matic addon. It is fairly stable and works well with little need for support. Most importantly it allows you to move beyond captcha methods and query a live database of spammers.