iElectrify

If you’re suddenly seeing lots of new “users” in your WordPress blog that don’t belong there, it’s time to bring out the heavy artillery and blow those spambots to bits!

Left unattended, these spammy users can wreck havoc on your blog by creating posts, altering links and sinking the reputation of the blog you’ve worked hard to get traffic for.

Currently, WordPress doesn’t have a CAPTCHA for user registrations, which means spambots can register as they please on your blog.  Fortunately, you can stop user registration spam easily using the SABRE plugin.

SABRE stands for Simple Anti Bot Registration Engine and it lets normal visitors register on your blog (if they wish), while stopping spambots dead in their tracks.  But SABRE goes well beyond just a CAPTCHA (which smart bots can detect and breeze right through) – it also includes:

• A math test option to throw the numerically-challenged for a loop.  You can also change the complexity of the math test – so go ahead and toss those spambots an advanced trig question and watch the junk registrations grind to a halt.
• Option to block visitors on whether or not Javascript is enabled (it’s commonly disabled on spambots) or if their IP address is on a ban list.
• Having the blog administrator (you) validate user registrations, or asking the user to verify their registration by clicking on a link in their email (another strategy that befuddles spambots)
• And a whole lot more that you can customize to make your blog registration’s security as tight as you want.

To learn more and download SABRE – click here.  Once you install and configure it via the Plugins menu in your WordPress Dashboard, you should see automated user registrations on your blog stop completely.  Happy spambot hunting!

Tags: user registration spam, wordpress spam, wordpress user registration