Comment spam at new highs
Posted by multippt
Clearing spam in blogs have never been more easier thanks to Akismet. Click “delete all”, and all hundreds of spam comments will go poof. Why don’t spammers realize is that spamming no longer works the way it use to? Looks like they still don’t, and increasing the bulk of spam isn’t going to make things any better as well.
New comment spams are getting interesting month by month. New spam now point links to Google groups, which is a forum system in Google. However, since almost everyone of those advertisements looks almost identical, it’s incredibly easy for akismet to find it. Of course, Google has done its job of deleting the threads, making sure none of those advertisements see the light.
Bloggers know very well not to show spam comments, which is why almost 0% of spam comments make it at all. Akismet lays out comments in a way that it makes pin-pointing legitimate comments, which is why few bloggers actually check through the queue (and prefer to click on delete all). Of course, the good news is that Akismet is quite accurate, as accurate as the Google spam mechanism.
Of course, there are ways to combat spam, but it pose an inconvenience to actual commentators. Capcha systems are one way to prevent them, but not everyone can read capchas. Spammers are also able to crack poorly made capchas (that is, if the capchas are widely used). Of course, the mathematical capchas work as well, unlike image ones, most people can answer them even with visual disabilities. Though, it won’t be long before JavaScript obfuscated code becomes readible by spam bots.
Not all spam is made through spam bots or botnets. There is manual spam, which is made by cheap labour out looking for a penny off spam. The only “protection” against this is probably Akismet.
