(Somewhat off topic, but related.)
There is an epidemic of people spamming the sister site k-bikes.com. It is probably one person or a small number of coordinated people. It would not surprise me if they are from India, because that's where the first spam links pointed. They have the same modus operandi - sign up with a new account (which may stay dormant for a while), create new threads or comment on old threads, where there is always a link in the signature. The link in the signature is the spam.
Lately, others are posting ads for iPhones, etc. in the text of the posts themselves, but the same MO - new member posts spam.
The posts may try to be relevant but are often just "cut 'n' paste" from something unrelated. They always miss the mark some way. Gullible people may actually respond to generic posts such as "Which helmet is best?"
If you list the member accounts that are posting the spam, they have the following properties:
* New members in the last few months.
* Location information is "lazy" or simply wrong (e.g., "Las Vegas, CA")
* Names try to look "Western" but just don't fit.
* Never a photo or icon. (But many real members don't have photos.)
* Zero or a small number of posts. Some accounts are obviously intended for this "signature spam" but have not yet posted.
Examples:
User Name: brettconnor, Real Name: david, City: kw, State: kw, Country: kw
User Name: allencolins, Real Name: allencolins don, City:Las Vegas, State: CA, Country: United States
(There were a lot of members who joined with the username "xyz" whose Real Name always ended in "don" e.g., "xyz don".)
To see the list, got to the forums, click on Member Info->Member List, click on the Join Date column to sort it, then click on the tiny icon next to Join Date to sort by latest member.)
Many of the new accounts are real members who have joined, but not yet posted, so don't jump to conclusions. Most of the spammy ones are pretty obvious, where something in the member info is simply wrong. (Or they actually post spam, of course.)
What a hassle.