XF 1.5 Huge Spam increase?

[xert77]

Hey,

I have noticed a huge spam increase over the past 1.5 months & was wondering how to stop it. I have Google Captcha active on registrations & they are still getting through? At the moment we are manually deleting them.

I also have another issue, legit users are getting registration moderated due to their username matching possible spammers. Is there a way to turn this off? Our viewers are trying to register with usernames such as 'ellie' and getting registration moderated - This is a problem because I am not always able to be on the forums daily.

Thanks =D

 

[Mike]

There's no way to turn off just username matching without turning off general StopForumSpam matching.

In terms of the spammers, you'll find that they're likely backed by humans (from India, etc). CAPTCHAs won't stop them. Ideally, you'll need to identify terms they use that your users don't use and block them via spam phrases. (There may be add-ons that can block entire IP ranges, if that fits your requirements.)

 

[xert77]

Is it safe to turn off StopForumSpam and not get too much spam? I guess I could turn that off & then have a registration question that only our viewers would know & not spammers?

 

[Mike]

It's really something you'd have to try turning off to see, though you can check the spam trigger log to get an indication of how often it's being hit (legitimately).

Using a question for your subject matter is a reasonable approach, though not necessarily fool proof over time.

 

[W1zzard]

Try this: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/tpu-detect-and-block-spam-registrations.2973/