How to tell if a spammer is coming?

[InfamousKnight]

I have over 25 members on my new forum, but I cant tell if they're spammers or not. There username doesnt look like the ones I've seen on my previous forums.
Forum Software: MyBB.

Any idea if they are a spammer? PM me for the link if you're interested in seeing the unknown spam.

[Peter L]

Why can't you show us a link?

Usually if they sound like a bot, they are. Or if they are advertising in their signature, avatar, posts, etc then they may be bots as well.

[InfamousKnight]

Why can't you show us a link?

I don't want to spam on this forum.

[Solidus]

Firstly, note the signature. All lower-case and linking to a random junk site.
Then, look at the posts. These new-gen bots take keywords from thread titles and state facts about those words. It's easy to see.

I suggest using the Minimum Posts Suite plugin from MyBBcentral, use it to disallow signatures until a user has 5 posts.

[Tuskarr]

Obviously he will just re-post other posts. So what link he posts check it if it's infected.

[mycroft]

Obviously he will just re-post other posts. So what link he posts check it if it's infected.

Yes. Commonly they leech posts from other forum. And many people will just comment, "Thanks for this".

Look at the grammar too, if most of them are using wrong grammar, beware.

[Mordalum]

The User Profile will usually have links with there website or whatever they are advertising, and they sometimes create random threads and advertise there products etc and there Signature usually opens it all for everyone to see.

[ShadyX]

If they have strange usernames like abdert12987 they are usually a spammer and they often fill in their website with a strange looking lionk.. same goes with their sig.

[Extornia]

Yeah but the only actual way to figure out if you've been "spam attacked" is waiting for them to create a reply/post and look into it.

[AceInfinity]

Bots will usually try to come up with a whole whackload of useless information in a detailed post that conveniently holds a couple urls. Some try to hide it within their actual text, and some post it like it's a professional email with the link in their signature or at the bottom of the post. I've hardly seen anyone give a post over 200 characters as their first post, so that's another way of easily telling.

You don't see many bots post in the introduction area to introduce themselves either, and usually after they get their first post in, they go offline. What i've noticed in the past.