Comments on: New Type of Scraped Comment Blog Spam

By: growmap

growmap — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:57:01 +0000

Hi Steve,

Akismet has so many of our regular readers and commentators flagged as spammers now that we disabled it in this and our other blogs. See the many posts I’ve done recently on the issues with Akismet.
growmap´s featured blog ..Akismet Deletes Comments Bloggers NEVER SEE!

By: Mitchell Allen

Mitchell Allen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:37:36 +0000

Gail, I have seen the precursors to this type of spam: the spammer scraped only an exact duplicate of one of my own comments.

Apparently, the spammers are becoming more sophisticated. There is an amateur version of this (or maybe it is not related) where the spammer slaps a generic comment and punctuates it with a tilde. Apparently the tilde is some kind of terminator. It’s a dead-giveaway that it’s spam: paste the comment into Google as an exact phrase and you’ll see it pop up all over the blogosphere!

Cheers,

Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s featured blog ..To Have and To Hold ‘Til Deft Filters Part

By: Akismetting Spam Is Good SEO : Performancing

Akismetting Spam Is Good SEO : Performancing — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:42:36 +0000

[...] wanted to also bring to light a new technique that these comment spammers are using which I discovered through Growmap.com. Apparently, spammers [...]

By: Steve@The Twisted Writer

Steve@The Twisted Writer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:47:44 +0000

I’ve been using just Askimet for a while on all my blogs, and it seems to work like a champ. I’ve never found any “real” comments that got flagged, and only a small handful (less than say 5) made it through.

By: Bill@PHP code snippets

Bill@PHP code snippets — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:18:58 +0000

Mitch, based on running forums for quite a few years, and having been involved in “creative marketing” coding with Yahoo groups in the far past (emphasis on past), I can tell you spammers use catch-all e-mail addresses on cheap domains (or even hacked ones) through which a script reads any incoming mail and click verification links. E-mail verification will not stop spam.

And regarding captchas… Although they can be programmatically solved nowadays, with some effort, spammers have found it much easier to just offer a secondary service somewhere such as a web proxy, and relay captchas they come across to real humans (who believe they have to solve it to continue using the service, unwitting that it’s third party and part of a spamming operation).

The solution to spam is not possible outside of being different. And by that I mean a custom solution that you don’t popularize. For example, I made a small custom forum with a custom captcha. The captcha is extremely basic and it wouldn’t take many lines of code to decipher the three numbers represented in their un-antialiased, 2-color glory. But it’s all custom, with custom file-names etc and no references to any blogging or forum software. Spammers are not a problem at all due to this. It wouldn’t be economical for them to cook up solutions on a site-by site basis.

By: Mr. I

Mr. I — Mon, 25 May 2009 05:05:00 +0000

Hey Internet Strategist, Ironically, you just suffered the type of spam you were talking about in post! See my comment above ( anchored #comment-5876 ). Chat just copied. You should delete this. Spammers can do anything to get links, and this one got it! Mr. I’s last blog post..Free Report: Commenting Guide For Bloggers

By: Internet Strategist@GrowMap

Internet Strategist@GrowMap — Mon, 25 May 2009 04:20:56 +0000

Hi Chat, You might be right there. Akismet should have blacklist and whitelist features. I am still getting spam even with math and Akismet so it is obvious I need to add something else. I'll have to check into Defensio and Raven too. Internet Strategist’s last blog post..How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business Part 1

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:17:02 +0000

If you're new to blogging there is so much still to learn. If you have any particular questions you need answered feel free to ask. Asking directly is a much faster way to get just the answer you need when you need it. Blogger's needs do change as their goals change. Internet Strategist’s last blog post..WordPress 2.7 Threaded Comments Works In Thesis

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:15:23 +0000

Do you have any evidence these are manually generated? They could be or they could be smart spambots. Looks like it is time for us to use something that makes sure the bots can't comment. Internet Strategist’s last blog post..Promote Your Business Without Cash

By: Internet Strategist

Internet Strategist — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:13:54 +0000

Thank you for sharing what works best for you. We are always researching and do plan to implement another spam solution in the very near future. Wading through spam in Akismet to rescue the few that are real comments is a waste of time. Internet Strategist’s last blog post..Do YOUR Blogging Goals Include Monetization: Benefits Our Readers Receive