Thursday 18 March 2010

SPURIOUS COMMENTS FROM DUBIOUS PROVENANCES

Hullo!
This is not a proper post, but an enquiry. I've been getting some highly suspicious comments on my posts, recently. Some are from India, others from the Cradle of Civilisation on the western side of the Atlantic.

They seem vaguely connected with spamming and hint at such things as acne treatment. I don't like them and don't want them.

Have any of you experienced bloggers had problems like this? And if you have, is there anything you can do about them? I'm loath to click on their links, incase of computer pollution.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks,
Nigel

7 comments:

  1. Ah, good, a comment box. I've been having trouble leaving a comment at all here recently. Was planning to wish you a speedy recovery to full mobility and to say how much I recoil when people say "The thing is, is . . ," . . . but there has been nothing to comment in.

    I've been having such trouble with spam recently (never used to have any) I moved to comment moderation. Then I had trouble with anonymous spam which I too was reluctant to open in case it did something nasty to my computer. So I'm barring anonymous comments as well - which creates an extra hurdle for Wordpress users but seems to be the only solution.

    Because I subscribe to further comments if I leave one, I sometimes see the route of a spammer, leaping from one blog to another, either by using the links or clicking to other people who have left comments.

    It's so obscure what many of these comments are about I assume they are a way of leaving cookies or gathering information from our computers so . . . apologies to everyone who reads LOOSE AND LEAFY that I've moved to moderation. Bother!

    Lucy

    P.S. Even this is a second attempt to comment on this post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't click on them, ever! Just delete them, forever I think is the term blogger uses. On wordpress, these are culled before being published by something called Akismet, for us to review and decided if it is spam or not. So far it has found 4,293 unwanteds that have been deleted permanently. The word verification helps but some crafty spammers can sneak by. Vigilence is needed.

    Hope you feel better soon.

    Frances

    ReplyDelete
  3. You'll need to switch to comment moderation - I ended up doing it after receiving too much attention from China!

    If you log into your Blogger account, go to settings, comments, and select comment moderation you then get the option of being alerted to delete them before they appear in public. After a while the frequency drops off!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes and yes, the spamming is beyond bothersome with my new dot com web site/blog, far more than blogger. As Frances mentions, the Askimet system shows a good bit of detail to expose the spam.
    I have thought these comments were coming by way via Twitter, because I'm very active there. But now I wonder if it has anything at all to do with 'tweeting' links to my posts.
    Take care, Nigel!
    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes I have been having problems with spam too. Endless ones about shoes at the moment (last month it was Japanese porn), I really wish there was a way to block them. I've also been having spiteful comments on and off. I'd have thought people would have had better things to do with their life than to pester me. I use comment moderation so it never gets beyond my dashboard.

    The trouble Lucy mentions above about being able to leave comments is I believe caused for some reason by having "embedded comments" you can change this in your comment settings. Since doing this my comments have nearly doubled, I had not realised it was such a problem for people until a friend pointed it out.

    Good luck with the spam,

    RO

    ReplyDelete
  6. good advice above- just set it so that you have to approve comments-they'll stop soon after.
    Good gardening to you!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. incredibly irritating. I have these too: fortunately not many (though I don't twitter - maybe this does have a connection?)

    I just delete them as soon as I'm notified via email that they've arrived. I've so far managed to avoid comment moderation though I do block anonymous comments.

    Doncha love the freedom of the internet sometimes.... not?!

    ReplyDelete