I use vBulletin with TTF fonts in the captcha. I doubt my board would be much of a target given its select audience but who knows what goes on in the minds of spammers.
Yes, the reason I ask is that I run several boards running different software (vB, phpBB, SMF, punbb) I notice phpBB attracts more of the *.ru spam
So I setup www.collectorforum.net about 2-3 months ago... Then left it. Then checked it a few days ago... "WOW 589 users!" thousands of posts lol go check it out yourself. That's what happens when you let "weeds" grow in your gardeN!
Never thing like that, you must have some 6th Sense! Some Usernames are clear they are Spammers though!
I set up my forum with permissions so only people part of a select usergroup can start a thread. That way the spammers are funneled into only replying to threads. Less mess. Though you could do it so only approved members can respond too. You just need to have a thread explaining the situation (sticky that thread) and have people PM you to add them to the list. Unless it's obvious they are non-spammers and then I add them myself when I'm going through and doing the regular mass delete.
I delete anyone with Health related poker related or adult related names as soon as they sign up a long with their IP.
I notice a lot of @gawab.com email addresses being used by spammers. Here's what I found at wikipedia...
gawab.com and mail.ru two of the biggest offenders. I'm sure there was one or two others that I'm seeing a lot of, I'll post them when I find it in the next spam profile search and destroy.
@ukr.net is another I see from time to time. The thing is though, I don't ban these from being used. Because it makes it easier for me when they do use them, rather than them trying a different email provider.
I wouldn't base anything on the username itself. Forum spam is just like any other new medium, the bad guys are just going to get smarter with time and technology, unfortunately there are more bad guys or so it seems than guys trying to fight things like that.