This is just a curious question, as I don’t have a lot of problems with bot accounts, but see them being created every now and then.
The account usually goes something like RandomUsername4532, somename3586@gmail.com, Jane Doe (very generic name). They post something to a recent topic, which is kinda on-topic seeming, but off with e.g. typo’s or non-sensical grammar / meaning.
And after creation and first post, they stay quiet. Not spamming or advertising (though some do have a link to a fishy website).
I really like to delete bot accounts, but sometimes I doubt whether or not they are, leave them be… and forget about them. What are these accounts getting from their signup? Might they e.g. use it to make a fake profile elsewhere more convincing? Do you delete account on doubt, or just a wait-and-see?
Edit: They might start DM’ing, to lure other members to some shady place.
Typically, this content is copied from somewhere else on the Internet with a similar topic to your community.
This is preparation for link spam. Perhaps the account creator doesn’t actually have a paying client yet, so they’re trying to build up an inventory of “not brand new” accounts to use for future spamming. Another thing we’ve seen is they let the post sit for a while, to let the moderators see it, then edit a spam link into the post.
I’ve also had some text generators based on the history of the thread, and maybe even some GPT-2 generated stuff. Those are fun, as they can be a real puzzle (“Is this person just bad at English, or… what the hell are they saying?”)
Another thing you can watch is how often the user on. By looking at the last seen in your Dashboard, it will give you an idea of whether or not the person is actually getting on, reading and replying. These data points are also in the list after the username. You can also check to see if the user has email notifications turned off and/or whether or not emails are bounced from the given email address. Bounced emails are usually a sign of a fake address.
I have seen a few “fake-looking” posts before, but they were legitimate posts by people whose English is very poor. To be fair to them, I think of myself trying to communicate with them in their native language. I’d fail terribly.
