Attack of teh Bots!!1

[Tanja]

anyone noted how many new "members" this board got the last few days?

[SmartBoy16]

over 120 this month! i noticed that yesterday.

[Jam0864]

i dont see why someone would bother to register, then not post.

[SmartBoy16]

  our comunnity is growing faster every day! it now at 200 new members this month!!!  :surprise: \_0

[bluemonkmn]

I turned on the email activation feature for member registration, and since November 19th, 50 registrants have been added without even activating their accounts, so I guess there is some sort of automated thing registering users, and I'll be deleting the accounts that don't activate.

[SmartBoy16]

I turned on the email activation feature for member registration, and since November 19th, 50 registrants have been added without even activating their accounts, so I guess there is some sort of automated thing registering users, and I'll be deleting the accounts that don't activate.

you should get one of those weird word verifications like:

on facebook, if your don't verify your email, an annoying mesage appears like this one appears for anyhting that you do and you cannot continue without typing it corretly. (for some reason it won't verify)

[durnurd]

If you log out and attempt to register, you'll notice that this already exists.  Doesn't help much, apparently.

[SmartBoy16]

If you log out and attempt to register, you'll notice that this already exists.  Doesn't help much, apparently.

its the exact same word every time! i think you need a littile more variety


hey! you got 999 posts

[bluemonkmn]

I suspect it's session based.  I get the same one if I use the same browser and refresh or go back the the page, but if I start a new browser, it's different.  I didn't bother to try finding out if it's different within the same session after registering a user.  I hope so.

[SmartBoy16]

i looked on google for anyone else that might have had the same problem. i found one the happened about 2 years ago

search for this on google:

how to stop robots from logging on to forums

and push "I'm Feeling Lucky" (or the first option)

[bluemonkmn]

What I don't understand is, what's the point?  These accounts can't be used to send emails can they?  Has anybody been getting private messages from these accounts?  What?

[Tanja]

i haven't gotten mails or pms. but they have viagra ads in their signature, and pr0n homepages. (not all)

[Jam0864]

why is viagra such a common thing for a forum bot to advertise...? I never understood why in particular they chose viagra.

[SmartBoy16]

i think theyre gone!

[bluemonkmn]

Yeah, I think turning on email confirmation and/or increasing the complexity of the obscured text graphic made a difference.