JS_Harris - 9:40 am on Aug 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

Links in posts are not the only places to find spam. As you mentioned some non post locations allow it.

I just wanted to point out a couple of other ways spammers abuse forums.

- they register, leave a link to their site in their profile and never return (and search engines do find these).
- they abuse the forum PM ability by sending messages privately.

and by far not the least damaging reasons...
- they use a bot to register all over the place so that they can gather an email address list to sell (which your forum kindly provides them with when they register)
- a twist on the above is that they can take the header information from your forum email, compile a list of other member emails (from profiles or memberlists), and spam them as if it was you doing it.
- another twist on the above, damage your forums credibility (perhaps its a competitor) by using your own email address to get your site onto spamming blacklists.

Forums provide a lot of value for spammers if not properly locked down.