What is the point to spamming forums?

[zz000ter]

I set up a vBulletin forum for my friends kids.

Over the last month, for some reason spambots are attacking and posting utterly useless drivel.
Hundreds of fake accounts are set up, most which do nothing.

A few accounts have posted hundreds of drivel posts - meaningless posts

I can understand posting advertisements for legitimate products - but this is nothing but pure vandalism.
Virtually all spammers come from Poland, Russia and China

Why?
Why spend time and effort on something totally useless?

[Marcanadian]

Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

[zandr]

It's not vandalism. They're either dropping links or cookie stuffing.

[zz000ter]

Cookie stuffing?

[LordofthePing]

All they need is one sap to take the bait.

Thats my guess.

[Kingmoo]

It's not vandalism. They're either dropping links or cookie stuffing.

it could be vandalism. When the Internet was in its wee infancy and I was a 14-year old kid, I did some pretty stupid stuff just for kicks.

[zandr]

Cookie stuffing?

Check the posts for 1px by 1px transparent images. The images link to a document that sets a cookie in the browser of whoever views the post. The cookie will usually contain an affiliate ID for sites like Amazon, eBay, etc.

If you want to stop the spam you can get better captchas, close registration or block IP ranges.

[stuntman]

I often thought it was done as a DOS type thing sometimes as well as the above stated reason.

[yao416]

I created those accounts to help you get the website started. Will turn popular soon

[Hot Ice]

I think if they do it enough times, some errors will happen, and they'll have a way into to the admin control.