Steve Barbarich Registers on forum and creates a linked "signature" that takes the user to a website
This individual has registered on my special interest group forum multiple times. When he/they do that, they appear on the front page as a new member. Anyone that clicks on the new members "Profile" will see that there is a link, usually the name "Steve Barbarich" which takes them to a different website. I've checked the registering IP address for this person/persons and it varies from place to place. He/they use a different registration and email (always a gmail account) each time that they register. This is fraudulent use of my forum (and probably others). It is to gain clicks. Forum owners should be aware of this and be vigilant to check each new user. If it links to a commercial website then it is probably fraudulent.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Chaiya
Virginia,United States
Suggestion
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, April 16, 2018
Do you own your forum server? Or at least have a control on your forum application? If so, you may need to put some afford in protecting your forum. What you can do is that you need to set up a 24-hour grace period after signing up for approval. Then you may check the approval list twice a day. If anyone who is suspicious like that, block/remove them. Otherwise, approve the person to become a new member of the forum. However, this method doesn't prevent those who modify their profile later on and you would need to be more due deligent (e.g. not allow URLs in the profile, etc.).