Posted on by Cathy

Here’s hoping…..

WordPress has a special filter that picks up spam comments and places them into a seperate ‘folder’.  Sometimes it gets confused and comments from real live blog readers end up there –  which hadn’t happened for a little while until the other day when unfortunately  Linda from Poros got dumped in there 😦  It leaves me with a guilty feeling  – as though I personally was ignoring their comments.

As well as the ‘business opportunities not to be missed’ and ‘I love your blog, come and see what I can do for it ‘ plus those offering weird and wonderful pills and potions to enhance you know what, there are  those ones written in strange languages that we’ve all experienced.  In amongst all of them there has been a recent revival of the ‘hate baby boomers’ comments (updated to COVID-19 times) and also what I’ll just describe as ‘porn offers for people of all sorts of persuasions’……not nice at all.

Nobody else gets to see them and seemingly the folder will empty itself after 30 days but because of those previously misplaced comments I check …..just to be on the safe side.

Now apart  from those obnoxious ones I’ve had another strange seemingly harmless one always targeting the same post……day after day, multiple times a day.  Same message from different usernames using different addresses.

This is what it says:-   Muchas gracias. ?Como puedo iniciar sesion?  – which seemingly is Spanish for ……Thanks a lot. how can i log in?    Strange indeed!

So I thought “if it stops it maybe I’ll just delete the post and have done with it”……but was loathe to do so because I actually liked what I’d written that day.  The other option was to see what happened if I just move it to the trash folder…..which takes the post away from the blog but doesn’t actually delete it.

The post went Into the trash  with the result that none of it was in the spam folder for several days.  OK, so I thought maybe the bot or whatever it was had been removed, except when I reinstated the post there it was again.

Nobody saw it so why was I bothered about something so perfectly harmless ?  It was so repetitive it got to the stage of being annoying –  there it was, taunting me, same thing over and over again (up to 30 times a day) ……spam spam spam!!!

Yesterday I did what I should have done earlier and checked online support.  One answer that turned up seemed obvious once you thought about it  – stop comments on that particular post!

It’s not going to stop all the other stuff but hopefully it will stop that one!

Just wondering on this Monday morning – How everyone else cope with this problem?

31 Replies to “Here’s hoping…..”

  1. Cathy, I don’t see spam, and I never check it, so if there are hateful things in there I don’t see them. I don’t use the company that provides wordpress for free, as most bloggers do, so I have a bit more control, and a lot more work when things go south. I don’t block comments, but I have blocked IP addresses, a technique that has its own sets of problems and limitations.
    I hope that anyone who has issues posting will let me know, and people have kindly offered lots of feedback when things are not working well.

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    1. Hello Maggie. My blog isn’t a free one, I have my own domain name. It still doesn’t stop the spammers though😥
      I’m hoping this new measure stops this particular issue. Fingers crossed eh??

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  3. I have long time ago experienced the same thing. One and only one of my post got a zillion hits and lots of comments every day for weeks from somewhere in Russia. I got tired of deleting comments after some time – up to 50 comments a day – and took down said post. After a week or so I put it back up, and unlike you nothing further happened. I can still see it in my stats, as the relevant post has 131130 hits!
    Normally I just manually delete obnoxious comments, of which I never get many, maybe six or seven a year. I get an e-mail each time somebody comments, that way I can quickly discover and delete those ones – which my blog’s spam filter strangely never catches.
    Stopping comments on just this one post is a good solution. I’ll remember this trick.

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  4. I am now approving any comment on a post older than two days and while I don’t like doing that, it seems to have stopped a lot of spam. Blogger catches some spam but has also in the past stopped legitimate comments. What about republishing the post with a different time or perhaps date? Or even copy it and make it a new post but backdated.

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    1. I’m going to see if this suggestion works Andrew before I try anything else. It’s not until someone raises the issue we hear of how many have been affected- or actually admit to it.

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  5. The spam bots seem to be out in force at the moment.
    In the last week I have had to clear upwards of 100, most offering me viagra at presumably cheap prices.
    Blogger picks up some of them, but misses a lot too.
    I suspect that having to approve comments on older posts would probably do the trick. For some reason they rarely seem to target the current post.

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    1. Ooh now that would really annoy me EC. I’d be really ropeable if I received that many.
      And no it’s never current posts that get attacked – although having said that the boomer hater seems to like recent ones

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  6. Heavens to Betsy, I got put in the spam pile? What did I have the audacity to suggest ??
    Now and again I have to send some comment in there but I’ve actually never checked to see what else is in there. Better go and see what’s what.
    Hope I’m not turning into one of your repetitive spammers and this doesn’t go in there automatically.

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    1. I have no idea what your ‘crime’ was Linda – I’m so glad I found you though. Hopefully you won’t fall through the cracks again😊

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    1. After years of not being able to do the same on Blogger blogs With no name/url facility I now use an old blog id and put a link on the profile page to my WordPress blog. At least I’m able to comment and hopefully others – who don’t mind doing an extra click – can find me.

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  9. I get the occasional spam comment which doesn’t bother me, I delete them the next time I want to take the time. It’s interesting that EC suspects comment moderation on older posts would help. I have set my blog to accept any comment for the first week and after that it’s moderated, simply because I can start to miss them.

    The spam which attacks baby boomers seems to really get up peoples noses, i’m not sure why it’s so offensive

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    1. Hello Kylie. That baby boomer spam has been going for years and as you say it’s strange topic. I’m not sure what it’s trying to achieve either.
      You’re correct in that it’s a check and delete game. Wondering what you’ll find next is part of the game as well 😊

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  10. I think but I am not sure it might have something to do with using wordpress or do you have your ad blocker off. I am not literate with computers but I know a lot of people mention spam mail but usually I only answer a few people and I love reading your posts. Some days I don’t answer is usually I am not feeling well.

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  11. I check my spam folder most days, to make sure that genuine comments haven’t dropped in there by mistake. Otherwise, I just delete the comments unless they make me laugh, in which case I take a screen shot and may later feature them in a post to make fun of them. The bots won’t notice or be offended 😉

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    1. I had one the other day I laughed at Clive, then felt annoyed at myself when I came back for a reread and realised I’d deleted it.
      How is it real comments land up there – do you know?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Always take that screen shot first! Sometimes it seems it is just random how real comments end up there, but if you delve into WordPress they say that comments exhibiting spam behaviour can be sent there, such as those which contain more than one web link. But mostly I think it is just unfathomable!

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  12. I check my WordPress folder at least twice a day, Cathy. Why? I’m one of those bloggers who (over the last couple of years) was a victim of what I call the spam monster. It happens when any comments you leave go straight to spam regardless of which blogs you leave them on. And unless somebody tells you that your comment has ended up in their WordPress spam folder, you’ve no idea it’s happening.

    Fortunately, if you become a victim of the spam monster, there is a solution which involves contacting the WordPress happiness engineers. I’ve also written a post on what they did to get me out of spam prison.

    I also empty my spam folder every time I check it. That way, I don’t have to scroll through hundreds of pages looking for any genuine comments that have ended up in there by mistake.

    Glad you found the solution of turning off comments. It does work.

    Oh, and I’m getting the same ‘Muchas gracias’ spam comments, although most of them seem to be in replies to comments I’ve left on my blog posts.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for your comment Hugh.
      It’s reassuring to know even ‘the big blokes’ have to cope with this problem.
      Spam seems to come in waves doesn’t it….sometimes there’s a little of it….other times a lot. I don’t seem to recall having so much turn up for quite a while though. Wonder if the virus has something to do with it?
      Anyway you seem confident the advice I found (turning off comments) will cure the problem with the Spanish bot so I’m pleased about that.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I think most bloggers suffer with spam comments, and it does come in waves, Cathy. Somedays I get a few, other days it can be in the hundreds (that’s why I check and empty my spam folder daily). Spambots are on the go 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (366 in a leap year). They’ll do all they can to get on display on blogs. Sadly, I come across many blogs where they’ve actually appeared in the comments. It’s one of the reasons why we should all be vigilant in what we’re approving to appear in the comments sections of our blog posts.

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  14. Why there has to be so many annoying, brainless twits around that gain pleasure from doing such things as what you describe here, beats me I don’t understand the pleasure they gain from doing so. Their lives must be incredibly dull and boring. They’d find life far more interesting and fun, if they did good instead of trying to upset the lives of others!!!

    Good post, Cathy…thanks for bringing this issue to our notice. We all have to be so careful…when, really, we shouldn’t have to be. It is so frustrating.

    Take care.

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    1. The post started out to be a ‘why me, it’s not fair whinge’ Lee but then grew and had a life of its own.
      I’m still confused about the merits of spam Lee. The whys and wherefores seem to have passed me by.
      I understand touting for business but some of the businesses are definitely not my type of businesses.
      And yes it’s true- we have to be really careful these days.

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      1. I believe spam has no merit, Cathy. It has an evil underbelly out to defraud others, in my opinion…Spam has evil intentions to cause harm and loss to others..

        These days, more than ever, we have to remain alert online… and take nothing for granted….or at first glimpse.

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  15. I have a Blogger blog and have set it up so that any comments on posts that are older than 7 days must go into the ‘awaiting moderation’ folder first. Fortunately I don’t get any spam but that might also be as I have set my blog to not be searchable (or something like that).
    I have seen the baby boomer spam on a few other blogs I read and wonder what sort of kicks someone is getting from spreading such crap. Nothing better to do with their lives perhaps.

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