Brand new forum and getting spammed

[flounder]

There were so many posts about this I spent 3 hours last night and didn't really get anywhere. I am running version 3.7.4. I turned on email verification last night, but it didn't help.

I keep getting these posts with porn links . Looks like a computer is constantly logged in with the name looking liks this "****googlebot.com" always trying to create an event.

Is the best thing to approve all registrations? Whatever the best thing to do for this, I will spend the time to do it.

Thank you in advance

[glennybee]

Add a question and answer verification at registration and also enable captcha or recaptcha.

When you ban the user, ban their IP too.

[wda2015]

Looks like a computer is constantly logged in with the name looking liks this "****googlebot.com" always trying to create an event.

haha.. google bot does this but it does not harm your website, the spam will be from elsewhere.

[flounder]

I can ban their IP from my host - does Vbulletin Ban IPs in 3.7.4?

[Steve Machol]

There is no need to ban search engines from your site, but if you must you can ban IPs here:

Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> User Banning Options -> Ban IP Addresses

Also please see this thread: How to Reduce Spam and Registration Bots

[AVC]

There are moron spambot operators that spoof search bots to fool webmasters, make sure you check the IP's, don't trust user agents.

Check IP's here: www.dnstools.com

[rocky123]

Add "Human Verification Options" in your website. Hopefully that should stop them without having any IP ban.

Another suggestion is make sure Visitors can not post in your in forums without registration.

Hope this helps you.

[glennybee]

Here's a list of email addresses that can be banned aswell, they are known to be used to spam forums.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148061

[hoover]

Add a question and answer verification at registration and also enable captcha or recaptcha.

When you ban the user, ban their IP too.

what is recaptcha? is this a module? where can I find it?

I have the same spam issues on a new forum.

[xxalexkimxx]

You can banned IP via .htaccess
Here's the code:

Options -Indexes

<Limit GET HEAD POST>
order deny,allow
deny from 00.000.000.00
</LIMIT>

00.000.000.00 = IP

[yacenty]

I'm also using 3.7.4 P1 and recaptcha build in in 3 weeks I got over 30 spammer accounts and about 3 spam messages in relatively fresh forum.
how to fight with them? recapcha was shown as the best anti spam mechanism,
any idea how to block spammers?

[AVC]

Ban all blacklisted open proxy IP's and check out this forum www.spamkill.org