Spam attack, registration disabled

[PTRACER]

Over the past few days the forum has received more and more spam attacks. I think the "bot" responsible is actually a human because they seem to be answering my motorsport questions rather easily, and they are filling in their profile correctly (Favourite car, favourite driver etc.)

So, for the time being I have disabled registration until I can figure out a way to stop this.

[erwin greven]

When it is a human it will be very difficult to stop it.

[PTRACER]

I know, the last few times they posted just the once. I was surprised to find 24 posts this time!

Anyway, I'm installing the latest "I'm Not A Robot" captcha from Google, we'll see how well that works

[PTRACER]

I can't install this as the PHP version on the server is not high enough, so I have opened a support ticket with the host.

[Ian-S]

Do you have random question? Been so long since I joined that I can't remember.

But as Erwin says, if it's human they'll easily get past I'm not a Robot.

Given we're a pretty well known, but small group, maybe admin activation should be be used for a while, at least that way you can monitor who is signing up and kick anything suspicious out, or give them a Japanese Dock Inspection.

[erwin greven]

It is a pity we have not the advantage which, pardon me, facebook has. I am one of the moderators of the fb Bobs Track Builder page. When ever someone wants to be a member we always look at their account. When there is no affiliation with Motorsports, rFactor or anything with track building they get a block. A few times i give an "ignore": when they are serious, they try again.

[PTRACER]

Until today, I had a Q&A captcha with questions like "Name the famous German F1 driver? Michael Sch____ ". The spambot was getting past them.

I switched to a more simple "What is the next letter in the sequence? A, B, C, D, ?" as a test, and it guessed that too.

Now I've reset it to admin authentication only. I need my host to update the PHP version and then I can install reCaptcha 2 from Google.

UPDATE: Our host is migrating us to a newer server and we will be able to have higher security options