Proxy Spammers

For a while now I have been having a problem with a group of trolls that love to harass my forum, either through spamming, or just harassing the members under different names.  I have banned them multiple times, banned the IP, but they are getting around it simply with a free download proxy, my current defense is shutting down my forum to new joiners which is only hurting me since I am left defenseless.

Is there anything at all that I can do to get rid of them?  I do not want to disable all proxies (If that's even possible) since we have members whom are in a dorm that has one normally for the schools protection, but I will if I have to and cut my losses.  Any and all help is appreciated.

Hello NRPGAdmin,

I believe you have two choices which are possible by yourself.

1. ) Keep the forum open to new members and ban these said users each time they come back to harass your members. It would be good to check for faulty/fake emails, and make sure that you have email activation for new accounts, you could also use Admin only activation for accounts as well.

2. ) Close your forum to new members from anywhere to a week or a month. If these persons find that they cannot join your forum anymore, they will most likely give up and move onto something else.

Also try this:

Do not react to the trolls. What I mean is do not post about them on your forum or reply to their private messages and/or emails. Just ban their accounts and delete their spam posts.

I have already done all of these options, this has been going on for months, and has even escalated to the point a rival site has been made just to harass mine and try to steal my members since I have to frequently turn on admin activation.  The group of trolls were once members that got themselves banned, so they have a personal grudge against the site that seems never ending.

I'm trying to see if Forumotion has any stronger ban methods, anyone I can report this to, or what I can possibly do to end this once and for all.  It is to the point I have to schedule people to be on 24/7 just to prevent a spam attack and ban the accounts before I have to spend hours cleaning up html porn spam.

Forumotion will only get involved if they are breaking the Terms of Service (referring to their forum). Forumotion does not have any other methods to ban members.

So I am basically stuck dealing with this with no help?  The security on the forum is rendered useless by a free download proxy.  They openly announce that it is them, and announce that they are using a proxy to get past the bans.  Is there seriously no one that can help me on this issue?  I should not be stuck sitting with my forum on Admin approval because the security you offer is like paper in this scenario.  Forgive any frustration in my response, I have been dealing with this issue for months, and now I'm being told basically to suck it up and kill my forum by keeping it on admin approval.

Here are some threads about security:

https://help.forumotion.com/t11386-forumotion-maximum-security-for-your-forums

https://help.forumotion.com/t51-internet-security-on-your-forum-habits-to-be-avoided

https://help.forumotion.com/t75418-my-forum-was-hacked

You will just have to continue to ban each account that is created by them.

Sadly, none of this helps.  I have done all the safety precautions, I have the IP's limited (It doesn't help when a new IP is made with a click of a button) on making new accounts, and I have people watching for strange activity.  I have physically done everything possible that is listed, but my Forum still has no protection against a proxy.  I appreciate the attempts at trying to help me with this problem, but if there is truly nothing I can do but sit here and keep getting screwed over by the proxy spammers then I guess that is all I can do.  I am to the point of taking legal action against them if possible, is there any recommended/required process for this?