October 8, 2012

They Must be Kidding


Anyone who has been blogging for a while is well acquainted with spammers or people trying to leave comments that really is designed to serve one purpose: to promote a web site or get a link on the Internet. That is why some blogs use those irritating and sometimes hard-to-decipher words before someone is allowed to post a comment: To keep machines and automated comments from making their way onto the blog. Those things drive me crazy and sometimes mean I don't comment when I want to because it is such a hassle to figure out the words.

I understand the problem, however. As Satisfying Retirement has grown in readership the number of these automated comments has reached close to two dozen a day. Instead of the word/number system I prefer to simply delay posting whatever is typed until I can manually review the comment. In that way you don't have to do any extra work and the spammers don't get onto the blog.

But, that doesn't stop them from trying. As soon as I see Anonymous as the commenter I assume another spammer. Even so I check each one because I never want to deny someone the chance to add his or her thoughts without having to use a name. As you can imagine the amount of time required to check every comment before it sees the light of day is not unsubstantial but has become the "cost of doing business." 

Today I thought it might be fun to take some of the dumbest attempts at spamming and show you what most bloggers deal with every day. Frankly, I can't tell if many of these are generated by a machine that simply strings nonsense together, or someone with a less-than-effective understanding of English thinks what he or she is writing makes sense. Whatever the case, chuckle along with me as you read a sampling of what has hit my mailbox in the last week or so. Obviously, I have deleted any links or something that would accomplish the spammer's purpose.



Pretty part of content. I simply stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to say that I get actually loved account your weblog posts.



Anyway I'll be subscribing for your augment and even I achievement you get entry to consistently rapidly


Mostly a simple around the application form is truly to be rich out. You should certainly prefer a lender 
who is best-known for fair corporations practice


І'm hoping car insurance quotes the same high-grade website post from you in the upcoming also. In fact your creative writing skills has encouraged me to get my own website now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings fast. Your write up is a great example of it.


I'm not a teen, but I still find this confusing. The best way to find out is to talk to your girlfriend and figure out together what stage you're at. Otherwise, you might decide on your own that you're in one place, only to find out that she's decided something else on her own. Also visit my homepage http://www...... on Relationships between Parents and Adult Children


Asking questions are in fact fastidious thing if you are not understanding something totally, but this paragraph gives fastidious understanding even


Τhis рагagгaρh ρreѕents сlear idea in favor of the neω visitors of blogging, that in fact hοω tο do running a blog.


 like the vаluablе information уοu proѵide on your articles. Ι'll bookmark your blog and test once more right here regularly. I'm somewhat suгe I'll be told lots of new stuff right right here! Best of luck for the following!


Hello! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to check it out. I'm definitely loving the information. I'm book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Superb blog and amazing style and design.Feel free to visit my page


Howdy!  simрlу wаnt to give you a hugе thumbs up fοr your great informаtion you havе got rіght here on thіs рost. I am cοming bаck to your web site fоr morе sοon

We're a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your site provided us with useful info to work on. You've performed an impressive task and our whole community will probably be thankful to you.

like the helpful info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your weblog and check again here frequently. I am quite sure I will learn plenty of new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!


thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! However, how can we communicate?

Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to assert that I get actually enjoyed account your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your augment and even I achievement you access consistently quickly


Here is someone who tried to charm his way into my blog:

Next time I read a blog, Hopefully it doesn't fail me as much as this one. After all, I know it was my choice to read through, however I truly believed you'd have something interesting to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of 
moaning about something you could possibly fix if you were not too busy seeking attention.
My homepage



And, my all time favorite:


alictasia at as incongruous hump never dependable any of it: hero reveals how covetous educational institution bullies spurred her on to triumph va voom! Shows off her jittery region as she shows off his busking gave his fans an inner nutriment by performing arts a neighborhood gig in beauty: prima celebrates formation with a assemblage to discuss this quantity filters and on the position, get through Hera accounts are now verisimilar to be injured. staleness hold enabled in your inbox. And to upbeat experts and past products. Is a clinically proved, highly rough-and-ready vocation rate ingredients, is same related to humanlike sebum, it can participate the bag furnish salient emulsification and offer overnight stable insurance coverage contains whitening ingredients to mold a guardian impedimenta in wet and dry conditions, without movement pedagog on therapeutic. Less sweetheart centralized awards enclosed both men's and women's perfumes. Winner of the experimentation they were doing! Get all the signs of organic process. peel to foreclose biological process don't accept these myths! Next fourth dimension you inspect you won't have intercourse to pay for her date time enjoys romanticistic flight with save and girl ' shows off her curves in all red getup as she accepts res publica euphony apportion her knows how to baffle perfectly for pictures every period you number on arrangement. Cosmeticsless to shipping to the part of it because of the strip, leaving it streamlined and dries speedily. Apply every day of the gifts by whatsnew raise senescent assumption ageing eye cream yet replenishes antioxidants for a cheaper alternate, the taking styling cartesian product ' disclosed there is only no issue on the criminal reasons ' was so puffy could just afford my thought. Won't approximate them go gone, but it's misleading and calls the testimonials from the work spell we depend for your content. By healthdoctor supplements lists for fibrosis,vessel,. Are provided by stellar organizations, doctors, and experts. Up to take in s awarding successful calm delivered to your accomplishment printed circuit. Company grape juice have the possibility not scarcely help the well-being and woman enate ageing peel compassionate put on, subordinate eye topic. Of the best anti aging creams de la inside information someone person ripening creams to control you judge aright. do it represented the diverse types of someone ageing ointment. score already believed in time loveth not corroborated am almost best-selling creams containing mineralized oils want state of matter wax, jelly, or paraffin wax wax remain on your order of magnitude. Orders are delivered by the organisation. Or remarks on 'm a triathlete and my smooth lines and cut of meat every aurora earlier teaching and inside a slim flash for improve computer program more. See products for flawless pare on or electronic communication to your assets cardboard intention be fashioning a big improvement in this kit give utmost defence against biological process.


I want whatever this person is drinking!  Seriously, does something like that ever see the light of day in the comments section?   Thank goodness I have so many of the BRITW who make the task of screening comments so enjoyable (and in this case, so funny).

24 comments:

  1. Although I do not have a blog site like yourself, Bob, I get a high amount of spam email through my personal email accounts. What kills me are the obvious ones:

    -tremendous amounts of misspellings (although I sometimes wonder if that is a good barometer to use, judging by many folks today and their writing/grammar skills)

    -using symbols on characters that are prominent in foreign languages but not our own

    -the never-ending emails that want to give me huge amounts of money for a small fee

    -the obvious concern for the size of my manhood, or

    -for charitable organizations that want to help some obscure group of people that probably hasn't existed in 3000 years.

    Those are the easy spammers to spot, and the spam filters on most sites are good at catching them. The ones that replicate legitimate web sites, logos for financial organizations, and so on are far scarier. Looks like we'll never be rid of these types of criminals, as long as it appears to be more lucrative than actually working for a living.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good morning, Chuck,

    I woke up to six more spamming comments just like above. I gather these folks never sleep, or are coming from somewhere else on the planet.

    I used to receive a dozen manhood enhancing offers a day, but now very rarely. Maybe that should worry me!

    Google catches about 50% of the garbage. The rest I have to uncover.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LOL, great read! Apparently spammers only worry about male body parts and their function. I get those as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So does my wife. To her eternal credit she doesn't forward them to me.

      Delete
  4. Lol..........I feel your pain. I also do not have that little thing where you have to type something. I just take the time to moderate them quickly myself as I get time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Someone should conduct a poll about those number/letter things. I would imagine most folks dislike them intensely.

      Delete
    2. I don't mind them if you can read the letters, but if it takes more than two attempts to correctly decipher I generally just give up.

      Delete
  5. I've been pretty lucky so far with the blog but I had an invasive malware issue last week that pretty much shut me down for 5 days. Now I'm starting to see spam on The Blogstress Network site. I'm in the process of moving it to WordPress so hopefully that will end it.

    I would just like to know what kind of satisfaction these horrible trolls get from anonymously screwing up someone else's work. Seems beyond evil.
    b

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have received 3 spammer comments this morning attempting to get on this post...about stupid spammers!

      I would guess most are motivated by money...they get paid if they can trick someone into adding a link. For pure malware people, they are the same people who grew up pulling wings off flies for the fun of it, or cheating in school and feeling superior. They have a pathological need for attention and power.

      It is all pretty sad.

      Delete
  6. I tried going off the spam blocker and started having the same problem -- many items containing messages starting off like: "oacpku vhsnd ftuihfp rskcue . . . " so I felt forced to reinstate the spam blocker. Hope it doesn't dissuade you from commenting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bloggers really only have 2 choices: don't post anything until you have read it, or use the captcha system. The only problem with captcha is when the characters are too difficult to read. I have the system generate new choices until I hit one that I can decipher, or as Tamara notes above, I give up.

      Usually, the ones on your site are not a problem, Tom.

      Delete
  7. Hmm--not to take away from making you feel special, but I've gotten a number of these exact spams--Mr. Fastidious tried to post today. What I don't get are the foreign language ones or the ones that just string nonsense syllables together--does ANYONE actually go to their websites? And if they do, then what? At least those that promise to make my non-existent male organs bigger or want to show me a web-cam of Suzy and her sextoys have something to offer, if not what I or my readers particularly want to buy.

    But I DO HATE those sideways squiggly words that I cannot read and cannot duplicate--better that we bloggers sift through our comments than foist those codes upon our readers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I understand why bloggers choose the words, but agree with you: delay posting the comment until it can be reviewed.

      Another dozen or so today....and yes, Mr. Fastidious who has an interesting interpretation of the English language, is a regular.

      I don't feel special. I feel harassed.

      Delete
  8. I'm wondering why those folks don't find another way to spend their time.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Maybe I should do a post about the number/letter system and whether it drives people away. The problem is one of control and safety for the blogger vs. convenience for the reader.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Because this post on spamming with stupid comments has received a dozen of the same type of garbage, I have to think these are all computer generated after doing a search for key words.

    Why do people develop malware or virus software? I wish I had an answer!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow, I had no idea all this was involved! No wonder when I began commenting, you preferred I use my name. My apologies for complicating things. The internet is such a wonderful source for information and connecting with people. But conversely, like most things in life, a few people have to use-and-abuse it. I enjoy stopping by several blogs from time to time to learn and I believe you are the only blogger that responds to comments regularly. That has to be very time consuming for you....but very edifying for your readers. But I am sure there may be others like me who was unaware of all the other "goodies" that you had to deal with. Thank you, Bob!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are very welcome, Linda. Responding to comments seems like common courtesy and helps me crystallize my thoughts. It is much less valuable for everyone if there isn't an acknowledgment and a response. There is nothing more gratifying to me than to wake up to several new comments waiting to be approved and responded to.

      I love comments...I hate the time I have to spend to delete the spam. But, it comes with the territory.

      Delete
  12. Oh my goodness...all I could think when I read these was the people are just practicing their english or just got a computer but don't quite know what to do with it yet! I got one today (email) wanting me to allow a guest post on gambling. When I went to the website it was in Cech (I think). At least it keep life interesting. I don't dislike the spanners nearly as much as I do the "trolls". Those guy are just evil!

    Be well.

    b

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure I know what a troll is. Can you tell me without shocking me?

      Delete
  13. I get some of the same type of comments on my blog, even though I use a plugin to catch the worst of it. I did my blog as a self-hosted wordpress blog and there are many plugins you can get to protect you from spammy comments for the most part.

    They do get amusing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blogger gives you a few choices to keep the junk off, but all take some effort. Since I passed 1,000 views a day the problem has gotten worse.

      Delete
  14. You are psychic! I don't have your number of hits or your number of spam comments, but I'm getting enough for it to be annoying. I have been thinking about exactly this issue lately. In fact I went to Blogger settings today to see what I could do. If you don't allow anonymous comments, do you think that will solve it? I allow anonymous comments to make sure everyone gets a chance, but it has been a very long time since I got a legitimate comment from an anonymous person. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not allowing anonymous comments would certainly cut down on the wasted time deleting this garbage. But, I worry about a reader who wants to leave a legitimate comment who either doesn't want to use his or her name, or doesn't realize the URL portion of the "Reply as" can be left blank.

      Unless the number of spam comments reaches a much higher level, I will allow anonymous comments. But, at some point, I will make the change you note and simply ban all comments that don't come with a name, real or made-up.

      Of course, then the smart spammers will simply pick a name, like Pete or Doris and the problem resurfaces. It reminds me of wack-a-mole!

      Delete