Spammers Getting Around Image Verification

[HobbiesPR]

Same here, however, most of mine are coming in with gmail or hotmail email accounts.

Yes, one used hotmail.net and confirmed the registration.

I just turned ON to moderate the new registrations, this is too much today!.

[slcousin]

I have altered the image verification to Recaptcha and will see if this makes a difference. I still don't think that it is human intervention. the volume and occurrence of SPAM is usually so small.... until today ???

Please could vBullletin investigate further?

Thanks

[TObject]

I just came here to post about this; I see you guys already have a discussion going. Yes, as the other posters said, this is happening.

[birdie]

This current onslaught are not bots; they are humans.

[HobbiesPR]

Lots of the registrations I have seen today, under the user info: Biography: Man

Registering from different locations but using the same entry in the Biography.

[movies3]

my forum is being hit aswell....

[PSDPlayer]

200.63.42.95

Thats one of the IPs they are using also.

[bluidkiti]

Same here. I have been hit hard today at all 3 of my sites. It's a madhouse.

[Dominiek]

It's spam war apparently. I have the same issue.

A few things : the IP addresses are spoofed (fake). The usernames are generated and the email addresses either generated to stolen. There's no point in blocking any of these. It's just a waste of time.

What's important here is that these are bots, NOT humans. I have access to (and understanding of) the server logs and they're way too fast and stereotypical to be humans. Image Verification IS broken.

What Steve Machol suggests is the best short term solution.

[oople]

I added a question to registration - not like shown in the link but a regular question which needs answering and is relevent to the topic of the forum - the spam bots all put 'test' into this field so I know they aren't genuine users...... is there a way to use the regular expression thing to say disallow any user that puts 'test' in this field? Sorry but I've never even heard of the regular expression bit so I've no idea if it can be used in this way..

[shot2bits]

One thing I noticed was that until the user is moderated, when they try and post VBulletin tells them they "are a banned user".

Is there any way of displaying a more friendly message?

[Gio Takahashi]

This was brought up on my forums when one of the spammer tried to get info from us:

Post from a spammer:

Well... interesting site... Im looking for seek-url on your site.Can you advise me?P.S. Anybody know about [link removed] software? Need a link to it...

and info about it:

I am closing this thread based on this information.

Do NOT provide a link to this program.

Wiki Link

Admins: You can change your mind on this but I feel pretty good about my reasonings here.

To user Jelly: I'm sorry, but I doubt your legitimacy of being a beneficial user to these boards. If you honestly need info on this item you mentioned, you can head on over to Google.

that was yesterday, and today we're getting these massive wave of spammers. I think the software may be related. I'm not trying to promote anything I'm just providing information to see if this can be fixed, because this is VERY sudden adn coming in in massive wave.

I already got like 10 to 15 registrations just from spammers alone and had to apply more strict control to stop it.

[bluidkiti]

Post from a spammer:

Quote:
Well... interesting site... Im looking for seek-url on your site.Can you advise me?P.S. Anybody know about [link removed] software? Need a link to it...

I had a new member post something similar at one of my sites day before yesterday.

Info on that new member below:
User Name Zumokillat
IP 200.63.42.85
Location: Kalinka
email [email protected]

[maritimesbob]

Glad I see this topic.

I have also been hit by spammers signing up today. Never had this problem up until today. I have blocked "ru.mail" emails, but now they`re using gmail addresses too. I`m getting them every ten minutes or so.

We have our board set up for admin approval. Going to be a pita having to go through all them all and hoping I don`t zap a genuine registration.

[biglips31]

This current onslaught are not bots; they are humans.

I am getting hammed since last night.. These are bots' not humans.. Lets get a solution here.
I had to actually turn off the registrations.. Thanks