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The comment spammers are getting smarter

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by sarahk, Sep 13, 2014.

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  1. #1
    I've been having a quiet chortle all day watching the notifications come through from a small blog - comment spam that is actually making it past Akismet

    [​IMG]
    The blog is in English and has no information that might be valued by someone residing in Iceland

    [​IMG]
    Funny how neither comment has a working domain name.

    [​IMG]
    This one is really clever. The post was about a woman called Sonia and was designed to tug at the heartstrings - however totally mislplaced and again, no working url.

    I'm guessing someone has a bot in the making and is still testing it.
     
    sarahk, Sep 13, 2014 IP
    Smyrl likes this.
  2. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #2
    No working URL but it could be a test comment to see if it gets approved, then you will get spammed even more.
     
    dcristo, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  3. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #3
    Approved either on my site or just getting past Akismet in general.

    There are some key typos in all of the messages which make it easier to check for successes.
     
    sarahk, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  4. iowadawg

    iowadawg Prominent Member

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    #4
    I found that after constantly being bombed by comment spam on my blogs that it was easier to just cut off comments!
    Really, now no comment spam since no one can comment.
    And no, it has not hurt my blogs at all having no comments.
    Am seeing more and more blogs, from the very huge ones to new ones, doing the same thing.
    Tried used DISQUS, but even then there was too much comment spam.

    So maybe try cutting off comments.
    See how it works out for you.
     
    iowadawg, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  5. darkvisje

    darkvisje Well-Known Member

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    #5
    I use disqus for my comments and almost only have legit comments! maybe something to think about!
     
    darkvisje, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  6. WLEadmin

    WLEadmin Active Member

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    #6
    They're mostly pasted forum posts, I think: that way, they don't follow any pattern of "love your posts" crap, like most bot-generated spam. Comment posting bots post whatever you tell them to - I've had Wikipedia text, product descriptions, stuff in languages I can't read, offers of guest posts and tons of random forum-style stuff, like those. That's the problem with spam: there's usually a human behind it at some point, so it's very hard to catch everything!

    Love the Miss Asia America one! :D
     
    WLEadmin, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  7. HF Evan

    HF Evan Member

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    #7
    Miss Asia America too gave me a good chuckle. I don't know if that's an actual title or not, but even so, gave me a good laugh! Problem with spammers is they become more intelligent every day. Unfortunately it's going to take a long time and a lot more work for them to finally start realizing that spamming other peoples' blogs isn't the best way to promote their own websites.
     
    HF Evan, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  8. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #8
    Akismet does a good enough job in most circumstances so I'm happy to leave it open - every so often I get a lead on something related to the blog that I wouldn't have got if I'd put barriers up. Gmail puts the notifications in my updates folder so I only see them when I actually go looking.
     
    sarahk, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  9. snakeair

    snakeair Notable Member

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    #9
    I removed the website URL field from the comment section. That made a ton of spam stop besides other plugins I use. Its so hard to find real human on topic comments these days on the blog.
     
    snakeair, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  10. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #10
    I have a submission form on a site where all they can put in is their name, their partner's name and a phone number. But still it comes. The scripts don't care, they just submit away.
     
    sarahk, Sep 14, 2014 IP
  11. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #11
    I get a lot of spammy comments that pass through akismet as well recently. Not sure why, they are not hard to spot. Weird
     
    DomainMagnate, Sep 15, 2014 IP