Dealing with Spam sign ups

My site has been going along quite well for awhile. Registration requires admin approval, so bots aren't getting in to spam the site, the problem is that as of a couple weeks ago, my site must have ranked high enough to garner their attention. I get around a dozen spam sign-ups a day, not terrible to delete, but the problem is all the bounced and repeated emails I get from these sign ups. Starts to become annoying.

I added a captcha yesterday specifically this one: extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/community-builder-extensions/community-builder-management/14751

and verified it's showing up on the registration page. The issue is, it's not working, the bots seem to be able to get around it. What else can I do to prevent bot sign-up?

crossmr wrote: My site has been going along quite well for awhile. Registration requires admin approval, so bots aren't getting in to spam the site, the problem is that as of a couple weeks ago, my site must have ranked high enough to garner their attention. I get around a dozen spam sign-ups a day, not terrible to delete, but the problem is all the bounced and repeated emails I get from these sign ups. Starts to become annoying.

I added a captcha yesterday specifically this one: extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension-specific/community-builder-extensions/community-builder-management/14751

and verified it's showing up on the registration page. The issue is, it's not working, the bots seem to be able to get around it. What else can I do to prevent bot sign-up?

Suggest you contact that extension developer for support.

Joomlapolis also has a CB Captcha plugin (commercial) and we also have a new great CB Antispam plugin (Professional membership).

I realize you guys are a business, but expensive plugins aren't the solution for me right now.

The question I have is this:
would the CB Captcha plugin work any different? You suggest it, but do you have any evidence to support that it would change what I'm seeing? Would bots still be able to get around the CB official one? I assume they're bots as the user names and emails they provide seem to be randomly generated.

Have bots been know to defeat recaptcha?

are there any other kind of anti spam measure that can be used for registration in the CB package?

crossmr wrote: I realize you guys are a business, but expensive plugins aren't the solution for me right now.

The question I have is this:
would the CB Captcha plugin work any different? You suggest it, but do you have any evidence to support that it would change what I'm seeing? Would bots still be able to get around the CB official one? I assume they're bots as the user names and emails they provide seem to be randomly generated.

Have bots been know to defeat recaptcha?

are there any other kind of anti spam measure that can be used for registration in the CB package?

You initially brought up 2 items and I responded to them as best I could.

The second part dealt with other kinds of antispsm measures and yes, I did propose 2 not free solutions.

Regarding your other questions, I also have some of my own like:

what version of Joomla do you have?
what version of CB do you have?
How do you know these are spam bots and not real people?
How do you know that they are getting through the CB registration form and not something else mis-configured on your site (e.g., maybe you still have the Joomla registration form open?)

Joomla 2.5.14
CB 1.9
They often sign up 4-5 times in one second a dozen times in a minute all with identical style usernames and email addresses following a pattern, also if it was a human, they'd realize that the site requires admin approval and they aren't getting through. Signing up is a waste of time.
Joomla registration is disabled, I don't have any other registration components on the site.

crossmr wrote: Joomla 2.5.14
CB 1.9
They often sign up 4-5 times in one second a dozen times in a minute all with identical style usernames and email addresses following a pattern, also if it was a human, they'd realize that the site requires admin approval and they aren't getting through. Signing up is a waste of time.
Joomla registration is disabled, I don't have any other registration components on the site.

is email confirmation on?

you should be able to limit these with the CB Captcha plugin.

can you share a url to your registration page?