Fake spammer subscribers showing up after 3.8 update

Check out some plugins, for example: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/bad-behavior/ ; https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/cookies-for-comments/ ; https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/spam-free-wordpress/ ; https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/stop-spammer-registrations-plugin/

`I am going to try the last one but the rest of them don’t apply. The last one seems like it targets spammer registrations. The rest target the spam after a user has been created. I’m trying to prevent creation of unauthorized subscribers. The others aren’t applicable because you don’t need to subscribe to create a comment, and no comments have been submitted anyway.

I am curious as to why this problem suddenly popped up after I updated to 3.8. Yet another problem with this update.

Those are good plugins that Tara has shared. Are you getting comment spam, trackback spam, pingback spam?

If you are then a combination of Akismet and Cookies for Comments is effective.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/akismet/
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/cookies-for-comments/

This one is pretty good too.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/spam-destroyer/

The WordPress 3.8 update has nothing to do with spam being increased on your installation. But it is a good practice to have a spam control plugin.