name+random numbers @ gmail spammers

Over the last couple of weeks I've seen a large uptick in the number of possible spam accounts Xenforo is moderating. The email address follows name.random numbers @ gmail.com

Is anyone else seeing this? I'm trashing about 20 accounts per day.

 

Yes, I'm having the same issue with Gmail accounts using random name+numbers that usually matches also the supposed username.

Other emails that XenForo is moderating are those where the username is equal to the domain name, usually a lengthy, keyword stuffed account name, let's say [email protected]

Of course I'm also trashing all of these dubiously legit member accounts.

 

Not anymore, since @Iconic installed some spam-plugins on my forum. Our security/captcha is really tough for some people and we always receive questions on our fb from users asking "What's the biggest virtual pet site?" Even though the question is very easy to answer especially if you've been playing games in my niche for awhile. We used to receive a lot more spam members when we were running vBulletin 4.

 

Aside from the spam angle here, it is valid for people to use [email protected] so they can try and cut down on incoming spam to their inbox. I do that for many sites I don't necessarily trust, or even for aliases if I want to categorize things better.

It's a tough choice for webmasters... do you alienate the power users who want control over their inbox, or do you allow spammers to abuse it.