Forum spam robots attack

Daily registrations by robots looking to post forum spam. I have a subscription website controlled by the Valanx plugin and valid subscriptions give a "Hello Administrator" greeting with name, email, username, IP, and ISP information.

The bogus registrations send admin email from the string in en-GB.com_user.ini: SEND_MSG_ADMIN which includes only name email and username. The bogus registrations always use username=name and a throw-away email address so very few actually confirm the registration. Just annoying to see the database getting cluttered.

SEND_MSG_ADMIN comes from only two locations 1) /administrator/components/com_joomdle/helpers/system.php and 2) /components/com_user/controller.php.

How to prevent execution of that registration path in Joomdle? They must have a human operator as Captcha does not slow them down.

Are you using the kunena forum as well? I too am having problems with spam, here in Joomdle and much worse in my day time company forum. Even with tools such as captcha the robuts are getting through. Soon I will be trying to figure out if they are getting through kunena or through joomla's logins.

No, our websites do not use Kuena or any publicly viewable forums. I suspect they are using the Joomla signup because of the SEND_MSG_ADMIN text I receive in the email. Legitimate signups have email through the ACCTEXP_ASEND_MSG from the Valanx plugin.