Strange additions to names on new registration

[PixelGal]

Is anyone else seeing people registering with seemingly normal names that have a small unrelated letter before and after the proper name? Any idea what this could be? Are they attempting to do something in the registration fields that could create this effect? Do spam groups try to identify themselves to others in the group some way so they know they have been there. I have had quite a few of these recently and I am wondering if anyone else is seeing it.

[Wayne Luke]

Have not seen this. Can you provide an actual example?

[PixelGal]

http://www.foodnetworkfans.com/forum/members/neloystewarth.html

http://www.foodnetworkfans.com/forum/members/ostephanedunnv.html

http://www.foodnetworkfans.com/forum/members/ejinaweaverk.html

http://www.foodnetworkfans.com/forum/members/mfrankiehensonu.html

There are more but that gives you an idea. They all seem to have yahoo.uk email addresses but different IP addresses.

[Wayne Luke]

I have no idea at this time why this is there. Does it occur with all markup removed and addons disabled?

If so, then open a support ticket. https://www.vbulletin.com/go/techsupport/

[PixelGal]

It has to be a group of spammers doing this. They all go right to the profiles and try to edit them, but they do not have permission as a new registration. There are normal registrations too. I am getting more and more of these daily. I am going to try changing my registration questions and see if that helps.

[PixelGal]

Spam has dropped off. Do they check registration questions for sites and have a way to bot in with the answers? How often do we need to change our questions?

[Wayne Luke]

There are several bot programs where a question and answer can be programmed. I recommend if you're using this method that you use several questions and answers. Then a random question will be shown when a registration is attempted. Not foolproof but can help.

[PixelGal]

Thanks. I had several, but they must have been using something like that to get in. Many of those that did try to get around the post limit to add links and edit profiles made it very obvious that English was not their first language.