As a webmaster myself I can tell you that this is a real problem. We solved it by setting up recaptcha to get rid of the bots, and then they were still coming so I just switched it to where every new member has to be approved by me personally. I just do a simple IP check . If it isn't somewhere in United States I just delete them. Luckily we are a small local group limited to a tri-state area in the Midwest and nobody else has any business being a part of out site.
Most of these spammers come from China, India, Ukraine, and Russia. Every once in a while we will see a bust from some odd country in Africa that you wonder how they even have electricity.
