Hacked or Viral

I have used WordPress in the past with no problems. I just installed a new WordPress Web site on Monday. Nothing was happening on the Web site, because it was new.

Then, yesterday I wanted to test a feature so I created a sample user account on my Web site.

After I created the user I logged into the admin control panel to check the user. Then I left the computer and came back 5 minuets later and refreshed the screen. I saw that I had 3 users, and was confused.

I realized that there was another new account on my Web site, which made me happy, but I also found it weird because it was a brand new domain. I thought it was odd that a real user registered at almost the same time that I created a sample account. For the several days prior to this, there was no activity on my Web site.

Also, my Web site has the Captcha plugin from BestWebSoft, so that needs to be completed before someone can register.

Well, since this has happened I have now been getting my email spammed with new user emails. I check my Web site, and I have been getting ~40 new registrations per hour, ever since. I am now getting a massive user-base on my Web site.

All of the accounts seem to be logging in and verifying their email addresses. I know this because I have BBPress installed, and new accounts aren’t assigned a forum role until the first time they log into the site.

I checked my database but of course IP Addresses are not being logged in the users table, so that provides me with no help. I wanted to see if all of the accounts were registering from a similar IP Address or foreign country.

So either I’ve just created the next Facebook.com and my Web site just went viral, or something fishy is going on here… Maybe I will be getting rich soon.