[Michael Chandra]

We've had quite a few smart spambots recently, that word-by-word repeat previous posts where the topic contained words similar to the current one. These bots will later on add spamlinks into their signatures so they can help with SEO.

I suspected these are easily missed, so I've been going through users of the past months with 1 post and ran into a bunch of them that are still there, some in forums that I never check. So a headsup for other users, if someone makes a rather-confusing post as their first (and likely has their name as signature but this may not always be the case), you'll want to keep an eye out. Or you can google their post, see if it's indeed a 100%-rip from someone else's.

[Imveros]

Yeah I've noticed all the crazy old thread necros. How are they getting past the word scramble that you need for your first 10 posts? Or is that not a thing anymore?

[Michael Chandra]

I suspect a human factor is involved, which would explain why some of the spambots still haven't had their signature changed a few months later, while others did. The machine would solely arrange for the post's contents and location then.

[Namikaze]

Also, CAPTCHA and it's ilk are vulnerable to some advanced bots.  What I don't get is why someone with an advanced bot would go onto a hobby forum instead of something like Google's plethora of support forums.  It might be that there's a human element involved, as Michael suggests, which would mean that someone is actively going through the trouble of doing this.  It's not like the posts last long - they get reported the same day.  When I used to moderate a gaming forum for some friends, we'd get stuff similar to this (much less advanced and much less frequently) and it always annoyed me.  It's almost like they're saying, "we can do this forever - can you?"

[Michael Chandra]

During my check I ran into months-old posts with edited signatures, so yes, while most are reported the same day some fly under the radar.