The above screenshot is a comment posted to AriWriter two hours ago. It is classic spam, where keywords replace a person’s name and the word “sex” is used multiple times. Don’t be fooled by the lack of a link to click.
Because this blog is powered by WordPress and I run a spam detection plugin called Akismet that automatically places comments meeting certain criteria into a holding pattern, the bestiality comment was not published.
Nor was this longer comment with keyword phrases and multiple links published:
Considering the author manually typed a name, website URL, and email address, it is a wonder why the person couldn’t write a more reasonable name like John Smith or even type an email address that would clearly not be made up. This was made up and this is further proof the above comment about BDSM is spam:
Spammers try to be clever in their comments, such as Andrew Joseph (not his real name) who uses different email addresses and websites in the hope I would publish his comments. In the below screenshots, you can view his identifying information and extracts of his comments:
Sometimes names and email addresses are different, but the website is the same. Don’t be fooled by these comment spammers either:
Take note of the identical comment text and proximity in time stamps:
Bloggers thrive on new comments which are both fodder to inspire and reply, and metrics for influence. But don’t confuse a spam comment with a real comment. None of the above examples are real comments. I hope you see why, and you can identify them down the road.
There are many ways to identify spammers, for the people and robots writing the comments are getting clever. They don’t want to be labeled spammers; they want you to publish their internet marketing gibberish. Will you be misled?
About Ari Herzog
Clyde, Lanora and Nathanael seems to have different IP addresses. So, do you think they use some kind of IP proxy software in leaving their comments?
By the way Ari, what spam detector plug-in are you using?
Regards,
Jason
No idea how things happen I’m not smart enough to understand. Some sort of software, for sure.
Akismet is used here, today.
I have seen some blog commenting (aka spamming) software that comes with a built in proxy switcher-upper.
.-= From Kristi@Blogging Tips to you: Keyword Research for Blogging =-.
I am so pleased you wrote this because I have had trouble with Akismet – some how I ended up on there spam list.
I finally got help from more experienced bloggers than I who told me what I needed to do to get off the list.
The thing is, I am a little blogger with no reason to spam, the experts I talked to said that some people have some warped ideas of what is spam… like if they don’t know the person, they’re spam, for example.
I find this all really confusing.
.-= From Nicola@SimpleDivorce to you: Divorce Advice – Who Do You Listen To =-.
Akismet has helped me on numerous occasions, although the spammers have become extremely clever. I had one that complemented me on how well my site was ranking in the search engines. Before I approved the comment, I looked at his website, and sure enough it was just a spam page. Perhaps you should consider installing a CAPTCHA of sorts (the reCAPTCHA wordpress plugin is pretty good) to prevent these malicious comments.
.-= From James to you: Where to Buy Nail Polish Display Rack =-.
Frankly, James, I care less where a commenter’s website points and more what the comment and supporting data (name, email address, etc) say. Your site has the appearance of such a spam site, especially if I click your link for your latest article and see there are 25 comments mentioned but none of them appear.
Thanks for the specific examples. But I don’t get it.
Is the goal of spammers just to wreck havoc? What possible advantage would they get? I don’t understand why they would waste everyone’s time and emotional energy?
One reason is to test the inefficiency of spam detection systems. Another reason is to hope a blog doesn’t have a moderation scheme, allows the comment, and someone unsuspecting clicks it.
I find that Akismet does a very good job of filtering out spam. I do look through the spam folders for my blogs once or twice a week, because occasionally a real comment does get caught.
I’m very careful about marking comments as spam. I only do it for the obvious ones.
.-= From John Soares @ Information Products to you: Consolidating Your Online Marketing Base =-.
I’ve been receiving similar spam comments for months. I sometimes like what they say, but don’t like the stuff they link back to. I change their link to something that I can tolerate, such as Google. Some of the more entertaining ones I post on my wall of spam, removing any links to the content that was targeted. For the most part, I let Akismet eat them.
Hi Ari! Actually its not very difficult to identify a real comment from a spam comment.Generally spammers do not keep their comments to the point.They tend to write a very generalized comment which will work on many blogs and then use some sort of automated tools to blast a single comment to all the blogs across the globe.So if you see that a comment does not speak anything relevant to your blog post then you can easily make out that it is a spam comment.
As far as Akismet is concerned it does a very good job in detecting spam comments like ‘Nice Post’,'Thank You’.But if a comment is intelligently created then Akismet will not work.
Spammers are getting intelligent everyday so we need to keep up with them.
I have fun identifying comment spam. Here is what I do. I take the comment (especially if it seems genuine and unique but is slight vague so that I wonder) and then I simply place it in the Google search box…and usually–voila!—you find many of the exact same comments out there
It is frustrating to say the least. I have used Akismet and didn’t really care for it. I run a few small websites/blogs for small businesses in my local area and it seems as though as soon as I get WordPress installed, I am getting emails to approve comments, which are typically spam and very off topic to the website. Luckily, since they are small sites and blogs, I am pretty easily able to moderate all the comments myself and 99% of them are spam. I have even gone as far as even posting comment policies (as I see you have here as well) which strictly states that spammers will be blocked/deleted, so don’t even try. Of course they still try! I understand they are trying to build links, but think of all the time and money wasted having someone sit there (or worse yet, paying money for some sort of program to do it for you) and spam blogs, when they are not helping the spammer in any manner at all.
Some commentators are in the habit of recycling comments and I’m getting pretty good @ detecting them. They post one comment on several blogs making sure that the comment has some sort of relevance to the subject of the posts.
Here’s an example which I left but delinked: http://www.strictlyonlinebiz.com/blog/adsense-secrets-kontera-secrets-chitika-secrets-free-downloads/992/#comment-2419
Simply Google that comment and you’d find it @ Problogger.com too
Thanks for the great article on how to identify spam in blog comments. My WordPress blog is also running Askimet, but my biggest problem has been identifing which comments thrown into spam are real, or not. What do you mean by don’t be fooled by the lack of a link to click? Not sure if I followed your answer. Your help is really appreciated. Thanks.
I use Akismet too, and sometimes I think that checking up the holding area with spam is an indication of how popular your site is… When you see an increase in both traffic and spam it sure is a sign that someone is visiting your blog – although I fully understand it won’t do much for your Adsense earnings if and when spam bots come by and pay your site a visit.
But Akismet has never made any false positives here. Only time I saw a problem was a tweet that wasn’t seen as a backlink but as though it were spam. This is now a few months back, and I think the Twitter team have fixed this so you can see Backtraces to tweets again.
Thanks, Ari, for writing so well. It’s always valuable to read your content, and I appreciate the effort made.
You are continuously an Akismet false positive. I don’t understand why, considering you continue to be approved as a non-spammer.
I get so much spam on my philosophy blog Ari, I know how you feel!
Thanks for explaining those bland anonymous comments on old posts -’great help for my assignment’. No link, and I wondered WHY do they do it?! Quoted your reply on today’s post.
Any idea why my blog is attracting more porn spam since I activated Adsense?
Ari, thanks for this blog post. The information still holds true 2.5 years later! I use Akismet for my WordPress blog and it does a great job detecting spam comments. I look through the spam folder weekly to make sure there aren’t any real comments in there, and I have to say, that is definitely the most taxing part of blog maintenance! Best.