Fighting Spam - Spammers are Going to Spam

 

I actually like Spam. A long time ago, I used to fry it up, put some cheese on it and have a Spam sandwich. It’s been years since I’ve had it. I’ve since learned that most people don’t like Spam. Which seems weird to me, but whatever.

Sadly, this is not the sort of spam I’m talking about today.

While I haven’t posted much in the past few months, I check my blog to see if, by the slightest chance, someone has left a comment. Sadly, the only people leaving comments these days are the spammers.

Like why? Do people really read these spam comments and click on the link that’s in them? I sure hope not.

These comments are easy to spot. They rarely make much sense, or they are blatantly advertising a product. Who knows if the product is real or not. Or it’s just a place that somehow collects your info.

I’d like to think that when I look at my blog stats that all those visitors it registers are my adoring fans. Hey, I can dream. Sadly, most of those visits are from spammers. Or maybe all of them in my case.

Over the past few months, I cannot estimate how many spam blog comments I’ve deleted. I always report the comments as spam and then delete them. A week later, they’re back. It is frustrating.

Then it makes me wonder, who are they trying to spam, the other spammers? 

Recently I found out that if I just report the comments as spam and don’t delete the comments, they don’t come back. Reporting them as spam removes the comments from my posts, so no one sees them.

Since I’ve done it this way, I haven't had any new spam comments. At least not yet. Sadly, I also noticed that my blog traffic is way down. Oh well. I will now dream that these smaller stats are in fact my adoring fans.

If it's AI, I question its intelligence

I doubt real people are leaving these comments. If they are, then I can’t imagine what it’s like to be them. But I digress.

The comments are more than likely bots of some sort. Or in this day AI.

But. . . If these comments are in fact done by AI these days, it really makes me question the intelligence of AI. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, for those who may not know that, but I’m sure you already did. If it’s AI, they should remove the ‘I’ for Intelligence, as it’s clearly not intelligent.

I mean, really? You’re going to spam a blog in which the owner hasn’t posted in several months? What are the odds of my site having regular visitors if I don’t post? Yeah, not too great.

But who knows? Maybe AI itself wants to click on these dubious links and buy whatever they’re selling? I suppose stranger things could happen.

Or maybe it’s secret code between the AI bots? 

The point is, if you come to my site to post spam comments, I will report it as spam to Google. I’m sure after they create another new account, they will return only for me to report them yet again.

There are safeguards I could put in place, but all that does is make it harder for actual living people to leave a comment. I don’t want to make things harder on all my adoring fans. Plus, reporting these comments isn’t a big deal and only takes a few seconds.

In the meantime, I’ve a sudden hankering for a Spam sandwich. Of course, these days I could look online and find some creative ways to fix it, instead of just frying it with some cheese.

Seems I need to make a trip to the store now.😉