Probably real people, because they comment something related to the thread and then spam. Like they'll say, "That pink dress does not go well on her, she had a better one in the photos at imafuckingidiot.com"
And why private message? I'll mention their nick openly, give them the finger, put a spell on them and make them swallow my pee. Feels so good. Fucking spammers.
It's also funny how people direct comments to the spammers by comment #, and then when you remove the post it's even funnier.
Something like this:
#1 "She's so pretty, she dated a millionare at ......." #2 "I love her, she seems like a down to earth person" #3 "Fuck you #1, I hope you get hit by a truck and die!"
Then moe/jackson delete the spam
#1 "I love her, she seems like a down to earth person" #2 "Fuck you #1, I hope you get hit by a truck and die!"
you might want to add a mathematical captcha.......where people have to solve an easy addition/subtraction problem before posting a comment. I have a website with a forum and most of my attempted spam comes from robots, usually .ru addresses. I have also started banning ips and it is helping cut down on the amount of spam I get.