Here's a suggestion prompted by a recent post on by a spammer: Don't directly reply to spam threads, even to bemoan them or castigate the spammer. It only gets more members to click and read the spam thread by putting it and keeping it on top of the "new" threads list. Instead of replying, just report the spam to our admin with a PM if necessary.
Clicking on a thread does not keep it on the top of the new threads list. Responding to it does that.
When I ran the site I vetted each and every new member. In the past few months I had to read how vetting was unfriendly, it kept new people away, it was too hard, too time consuming, etc.
One internet "expert" led us to beleive that CAPTCHA would be the solution and that vetting was not needed. So how's that working out? CAPTCHA only keeps out machines, not real people with bad intentions.
This will be the norm if new members are not vetted, they come from all areas, not just off shore.