spam

Spammers and Hackers, and Bots oh my! It’s like the land of Oz.

~ Ron Walker ~ 12 Comments

I picture some millennial in a basement 

It took long enough, for a bit I was starting to worry. Since I moved from my other hosting account to here, the spammers ceased for a while. I imagined bits and bytes of spammer data, reaching the old address and coming up empty. Of course its human master has no idea I’m gone, unless the mindless machine reaches a predetermined failure point, and alerts him that he can use the CPU cycles better harassing someone else. I picture some millennial in a basement of his parents home, computers humming, raking in some spending money for the weekend, by making others miserable spamming their sites or inboxes.

 

Strangely, I’ve never studied the actual business model of spam. It must pay something, or there are just some twisted individuals behind the keyboards. They get paid by click. They send something stupid, many times just gibberish, then someone somewhere clicks on a link in it, and they get paid for that click. Anyway, I’m no longer lonely, I have a couple every 3-4 days drop in past the Askimet filter. Such is life.

Frustrated Spammer

I’ve watched for months, as some automated bot tries tons of different names in an attempt to login as a current member on my forum site. Every couple hours, it submits a login 4 times, then has to wait as it was auto locked out for 15 minutes. Then it returns later for another round. It always appeared to come from random countries, making it impossible to block by IP. The crazy thing? It’s a really stupid bot. Of course, it was set up by some human of equal intelligence. It tries to login with Jnosedkl or tnir*com#f!. It appears to be trying random passwords (probably from a list), in the name box. Now that, is some backwards logic.  Mindlessly, for the last 5 months, every few hours. Anyway, I’m getting too deep into all that. Very boring to most people. 

How much spam are you suffering from, these days.

Comments always welcome,

Spammers on your Blog.

~ Ron Walker ~ 14 Comments

Spammers, the bane of the Internet. Spam helps spread malware and viruses. It is said that the first spam mail was sent in 1978. Gary Thuerk, an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation, figured out a way to send mass emails, and fired off a mass email to 398 others, to notify them of a product demonstration. From there it mutated into the monster of today.

I thought I would share a few tips that I have used or learned for those of you that are not sure what Spam mail really is. Spam mail is, in a word, unstoppable. You can slow it down, you can stop the majority, some will still make it through. The filters that our ISP’s and even WordPress use just serves to slow it down some. Sometimes the filters even catch our subscribers to our blogs.

Most Spammers are automated, and just firing off an ugly response to one just goes back to a robot/computer that lists you as “alive” and then they share your email address among every spammer in the world. Most of the spammers get paid for every time they post a link for someone. That is why you get a nonsensical email or blog post in your spam folder. Among all the gibberish will be one or more links to a product. There are times that spammers just grab a chunk of test out of an e-book for filler.

There are two golden rules you should follow regarding Spam.

  • Never EVER click a link contained in spam email.
  • Never respond to spam in any way.

Spammers come from everywhere. Sometimes they hide behind faked IP addresses, to make them appear legit. Should you ever get curious, and not already know how to look up information on spammers etc. Here are a couple of sites that I use.

  • Stop Forum Spam: A free service that allows you to search by name, email, or IP.
  • CIPB (or Country IP Blocks): Free service to look up an IP and see what country it originates from.

Since this past March when I reset my spam counter, I have blocked 4,859 spam posts. I still get a few every couple of days.

This is how I feel, about spammers…

Comments welcome,

Are your comments being marked as Spam?

~ Ron Walker ~ 10 Comments

I know I have seen this mentioned on another blog. Your followers comments going to the spam folder instead of your post. Or, your comments not showing up on other blogs.  I found 4 legitimate comments in my spam folder this evening.

More than likely their comments or yours have been marked by Askimet as spam. I was unaware of this and I am guilty of some practices that might get me marked as spam. This is an excellent post on the problem. It contains other links with very useful information. Check this article for possible solution if you are marked as spam.

As I said, I am guilty of some bad methods mentioned. I thought it was being friendly but apparently short comments, and certain words in your comment, can cause you to be marked by Askimet as spam.

I suggest checking your Spam folder from time to time for legitimate comments. It’s a little more work, but it prevents us from missing friends, that might have been dumped in there. If you have comments you make not showing up on your friends blogs, contact them (perhaps by email) and ask them if you might have been sent to the spam folder.

Comments welcome,

Spamcation? They’ve just disappeared.

~ Ron Walker ~ 4 Comments

I recently read on another Blog about Spam being a problem. I wish I could remember the Blog and I apologize for the lapse in memory.

I hate Spam, I was getting several Spam comments a day sometimes, of course they never made it past the spam box since I set it to spam any comment with over 2 links in it. There was a huge spike last Summer and I figured I had gotten on someones spam list.

I recently played around with the Jetpack plugin and set it also. I’m not sure if Jetpack bolstered something or I’m just Spam free for a while. I have had no spam in over 2 weeks. Either my url has dropped from a list, or the Spam Filter Gods love me. Either way I’m happy not having to check through the spam every time I login to make sure a valid comment isn’t dumped. Below are the stats for Askimet since 2013.

Askimet Stats

How are you dealing with your Spam, do you have a problem with heavy Spam in your Blog?

Comments always welcome,