Help with Spam

Hey,

I have set up a Dolphin site at www.zoov.co however I have been having some bother with spam accounts. I haven't even advertised the site yet for users but I constantly get sign ups and the accounts all have the same weird plain avatar uploaded, they are also using the blogs to post content about products/services.

In order to reduce this myself, I have changed the terms and conditions today to advise users that they must upload a genuine profile photo within 48 hours as part of our account verification process. Don't know if it will work but I am struggling with this one.

Basically, I am looking to know of any methods I can use to reduce spam accounts like these. The plain avatar that it being uploaded on all of them is filling my outline which is making my site look really dodgy.

Your comments and help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Spammers don't care about legalise.  Try adding some simple questions to the join form (e.g., 4 + 4 = ?) or splitting it into multiple pages.

To split the join form into multiple pages: Administration -> Builders -> Profile Fields.  Click on a block to edit it, and select a number from the drop-down menu labeled "Join Page".  The count starts from 0 (page 1).  The fields under that block will be on that page.

I was getting a few spam accounts on a regular basis.  I would go in and delete the accounts but of course sometimes they might be up for a day before I spotted them.  Nathan has given some good advice.  Forget about the reCAPTCHA, it only irritates your legitimate sign-ups and makes it harder for them to sign-up because they can't read the things.  The fact is, reCAPTCHA has been broken by the spammers for some time now.  The only way reCAPTCHA can work is if the images are impossible for a human to read.  I split my join form into two pages, the first page has the data fields that must be entered and the second page has the data fields that are optional; making it easier for sign-ups to just move on and complete the form.  The first form has a maths question that must be answered before moving to the last page, and the last page has a maths question that must be answered before the final join.  There is a tutorial on here for changing the join button on the front page to read something other than "join"; such as "next" or "continue".

Since I made the changes several days ago, I have yet to have a new spam account, they may return but if it was bots signing up, this has made it much harder for them.

Ok, that's great. I'll split the join form. Can one of you instruct me on adding a question to the form? Like the example, I want to have one saying 'What is 4+4?' and they must enter '8' as the answer.

Thanks

Here is a tutorial with graphics on adding the questions to the join form.

http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/D7-1-Simple-Spam-Bot-Stopper.htm

I will find the post on changing the join button text on the first page later or perhaps someone will step in and list it.