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Wordpress SPAM Attack! Where are the firehoses?

by winebuddy
17 replies
For the last week, every morning I get up and I am bombarded with SPAM posts on every wordpress blog I have.

I WANT people to comment so I have comments enabled WITH moderation.

I have them set to send me notifications of new comments so I can approve the good ones.

I have Askimet installed.

This morning I have about 50 junk comments across several blogs. For the last couple of weeks, I spend about 30 minutes on each blog deleting all these junk comments.

Of course, I also have to go thru my email inboxes and delete all of the junk email notifications about the junk posts. And now they come in about every minute or so...

Is there an easier way to handle this? It's getting repetitively BORING

All help is appreciated!
#attack #firehoses #spam #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author drew3806
    Do you have you Askimet API key installed?

    I never have any spam comments go through and occasionally Askimet will capture a valid comment for me. I am set like you to accept comments with moderation.
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    • Profile picture of the author winebuddy
      Originally Posted by drew3806 View Post

      Do you have you Askimet API key installed?

      I never have any spam comments go through and occasionally Askimet will capture a valid comment for me. I am set like you to accept comments with moderation.
      yep - got it installed and running 3.0.1

      I have it set for 2 urls...hmmm maybe that's it. I should just ban everyone that tries to post a link?
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandgrown
      Sounds like someone has been busy with Scrapebox!

      If you add captcha to your wordpress blog then it will stop the automated bots unless they have a decaptcha service subscription enabled.

      This is the plugin I use but there are others..

      SI Captcha For Wordpress

      (Sorry can't add link as I haven't enough posts at present)
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      • Profile picture of the author EdgeStorm
        Originally Posted by Sandgrown View Post

        Sounds like someone has been busy with Scrapebox!

        If you add captcha to your wordpress blog then it will stop the automated bots unless they have a decaptcha service subscription enabled.

        This is the plugin I use but there are others..

        SI Captcha For Wordpress

        (Sorry can't add link as I haven't enough posts at present)
        I second SI Captcha... have been using it myself for the past few months.. so far no problems with spam but of course I can't say for sure if you have a blog with very high traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Allen
    Agree with Drew. You may have Askimet installed and active but have you entered a valid API key it will not work.

    I find Askimet very good, even though you still have to manually delete the spam posts it has highlighted.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
    I have "intense debate" installed on a couple of my sites. It filters through some stuff for you first.

    It may keep the comments separate from your site though - they upgraded last year at some point and I'm behind on the details, but it may be worth looking into.

    IntenseDebate comments enhance and encourage conversation on your blog or website
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    Try dealing with 80,000 comment spams! I had a couple different anti-spam blockers enabled and still some how comment spam got through.

    Finely just wrote our own blog platform that no spam tool can use. Scrape Box users tend to be the worst offenders! They cause additional resources to be used on your hosting account and slow your blogs down like crazy!

    All you comment spammers using Scrape Box, get a life!

    Rant over! hehe
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  • Profile picture of the author Smokefun
    give a try to wpspamfree plugin and forget about wasting your time deleting bot posts and boring your visitors with captcha code
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    You could try the Opt-in comments plugin for Wordpress. It's not free, but users are required to opt-in to make comments.
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  • Profile picture of the author Karen Blundell
    Originally Posted by winebuddy View Post

    For the last week, every morning I get up and I am bombarded with SPAM posts on every wordpress blog I have.

    I WANT people to comment so I have comments enabled WITH moderation.

    I have them set to send me notifications of new comments so I can approve the good ones.

    I have Askimet installed.

    This morning I have about 50 junk comments across several blogs. For the last couple of weeks, I spend about 30 minutes on each blog deleting all these junk comments.

    Of course, I also have to go thru my email inboxes and delete all of the junk email notifications about the junk posts. And now they come in about every minute or so...

    Is there an easier way to handle this? It's getting repetitively BORING

    All help is appreciated!

    use this plugin that works hand in hand with Akismet:
    WordPress › Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress « WordPress Plugins

    as per the plugin developers description:
    This plugin provides a CAPTCHA complement to these spam detection plugins:
    • If a spam detection plugin identifies a comment as spam, it will ask the commenter to complete a simple CAPTCHA.
    • If they fail, then the comment will be automatically discarded or trashed (and won't clutter up your spam queue).
    • If they pass, it will be allowed into the spam queue (or approved, if you so choose).
    • Meanwhile, genuine commenters (i.e., those not flagged by Akismet) will be able to comment on your site hassle-free.
    once I installed this plugin on all my blogs, my spam queues were significantly reduced!


    good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandgrown
      Originally Posted by Karen Blundell View Post

      This plugin provides a CAPTCHA complement to these spam detection plugins:
      • If a spam detection plugin identifies a comment as spam, it will ask the commenter to complete a simple CAPTCHA.
      • If they fail, then the comment will be automatically discarded or trashed (and won't clutter up your spam queue).
      • If they pass, it will be allowed into the spam queue (or approved, if you so choose).
      • Meanwhile, genuine commenters (i.e., those not flagged by Akismet) will be able to comment on your site hassle-free.
      Karen - That plugin would not help the OP because Akismet is not detecting the SPAM in the first place and would therefore let everything through as it is doing now.

      The plugin is useful for false positive verification though.
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    • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
      Any of the CAPTCHA or related anti-spam plugins will help. I've tried several on badly hit blogs and all have worked OK. The problem has been finding ones that integrated well with specific themes.

      Another trick I've used is to edit the theme so that links cannot be left at all. More free content for me, nothing for spammers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Selena85
    I use wpspamfree, but I still have to manually clean up a lot of junk.

    I have never tried Askimet because I thought you had to pay a fee to use it on commercial blogs... So our typical affiliate/adsense blogs are not a problem for them? Anyone had a problem with Askimet suspending a free key or demanding that you switch to the commercial key?
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    • Profile picture of the author jasonboom
      Originally Posted by Selena85 View Post

      I use wpspamfree, but I still have to manually clean up a lot of junk.

      I have never tried Askimet because I thought you had to pay a fee to use it on commercial blogs... So our typical affiliate/adsense blogs are not a problem for them? Anyone had a problem with Askimet suspending a free key or demanding that you switch to the commercial key?
      I've never had a problem. They "suggest" you pay $5 a month if your blog makes more than $500 a month. I would if my blog made that much.
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  • Profile picture of the author BargainBookMole.org
    lots of good info; I'm new to blogging and also frustrated by fake comments. Is there much of learning curve to set these up?
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  • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
    The easiest way is to disable comments altogether.
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