Weird Users Registering

jumwerth
(@jumwerth)

16 years, 10 months ago

I have a WordPress blog (www.jeffreydinsmore.com) that’s basically just a small thing for my friends and family. Lately I’ve been getting a lot of registered users with .ru emails. I don’t allow users to post anything but comments, but does anyone know what might be happening? On the off chance that I’ve somehow gained a loyal Russian following, I wouldn’t want to just kick anyone off as a user, but I’m a little nervous that it is spam and/or hacker related. Has anyone else had this situation?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

Chris_K
(@handysolo)

16 years, 10 months ago

Oh, safe bet it is spam related.

Have you tried any of the spam plugins? I’d start with Bad Behavior. It may block ’em before they even get a chance to comment. There may be some anti-spam measures for registrations, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t know. I don’t force folks to register to comment.

— standard anti-spam blurb follows —

Install and activate Akismet or Spam Karma 2. Then install and activate Bad Behavior.

http://akismet.com/
http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/
http://homelandstupidity.us/software/bad-behavior/

For those who struggle with the Akismet directions: http://wordpress.com/api-keys/

See also the Combating_Comment_Spam page in the Codex.

harknell
(@harknell)

16 years, 10 months ago

.ru is definitely spam unless you happen to be a russian language oriented blog (which I doubt). BTW, anyone registering with a .info email address is also definitely a spammer–that extension might as well die as it’s being totally overrun by spammers since it’s easy to register.

Adam Brown
(@adamrbrown)

16 years, 10 months ago

harknell: The .info comment is 100% wrong. Click on my name if you don’t believe me.

Some of us bought .info domains before the spammers started buying them up.

JohnL
(@johnl)

16 years, 9 months ago

Thanks for this info.

(1) I’ve had an surge of spam-like subscriptions which I pruned by hand.
(2) I’ve now installed Bad-Behavior on one blog to examine its effecs.
(3) “Totally overrun” sounds a bit hyperbolic to me; I, too, own a .info URL that’s legitimate (behaviormod.info).

moshu
(@moshu)

16 years, 9 months ago

I second (third?) this opinion about .info.

On the other hand: if you don’t have “anyone can register” clicked – do you still get fake registrations? (just wondering)

moshu
(@moshu)

16 years, 9 months ago

You may also want to try this solution:
http://www.village-idiot.org/archives/2007/01/10/wp-deadbolt/

dlo
(@dlo)

16 years, 5 months ago

The Sabre plugin is an appropriate answer to this issue.

You can check it at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sabre