Comments on: Social engineering in comment spam

By: CrystalsQuest

CrystalsQuest — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:58:15 +0000

I got a lot of those inane comments on my guestbook – and that was my first thought too. Even the ones that don’t have a direct link payload except for the one (and I check them) are usually left unmoderated for a while to think it over.

Interestingly, though, I’ve also got a reverse issue – anyone who comments in russian gets picked up by the spam filter automatically. I’ve had a fair few russian commenters on one of my posts about wordpress 2.7 and the admin interface, and with a bit of google translate assistance, found they were legit – checking back to some of their sites I found they had comments that also bemoaned the fact that anything they commented with an .ru email or site got blocked automatically from any non ru domain. I have to say so far I’ve found they’re right, although now I’ve approved a few (I tend to paste the translation into the comment, except on that post which seems to be mostly getting traffic from those speakers anyway) I’m now getting a lot more interest from the russian speaking community.

Thank heavens for Google Translate, is all I can say.

By: goldpreise.biz

goldpreise.biz — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:39:48 +0000

Hello I like your post �� so well that I like to ask you whether I should translate and linking back. Please give me an answer. Your Goldpreis

By: Nice read at Kesämaan päiväkirja

Nice read at Kesämaan päiväkirja — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 09:39:54 +0000

[...] ja päädyin lopulta Notes, links and conversation -nimiseen blogiin. Merkinnässään “Social engineering in comment spam” kirjoittaja analysoi tismalleen samanlaista kommenttia. Ja nähtävästi miljoonat muutkin [...]

By: Adam Pierce

Adam Pierce — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:04:37 +0000

I got a few of these lately on my blog. I’d approved two of them before I realised what was going on. I like your theory of whitelist manipulation, I put a link to this article on my blog I hope you don’t mind.

By: Adam Pierce » Adam Brody - dirty spammer ?

Adam Pierce » Adam Brody - dirty spammer ? — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 02:57:15 +0000

[...] While reading up on this a little, I found another theory from Pascal van Hecke that these spams are to try and manipulate my blog’s whitelist so future spams can evade detection. [...]

By: Pascal

Pascal — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 07:39:15 +0000

Very funny Mr Lowerdown, but not really original :-)

By: D00d

D00d — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 07:24:52 +0000

I googled for something completely different, but found your page… and have to say thanks. nice read.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 21:53:28 +0000

“The blogger’s ego… the weakest spot in comment spam protection.”

Wow, you said a mouthful.

By: Vit Brunner

Vit Brunner — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:49:37 +0000

Oh… what a nice idea… can I try it here? ;-)

By: Ed Kohler

Ed Kohler — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:28:25 +0000

Clearly, spammers don’t have to be too sophisticated with their spamming tactics because the average blog owner will easily approve such comments. They obviously put some thought into getting inside the mind of a blog owner, which probably has increased their approval rate, but taking the time to build credibility with blog owners simply isn’t necessarily for achieving the results they’re after.