Happy with the SPAM Bots Today!

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One of my sites has constant problems with SPAM bots, but I've managed to put one over them this week.

The site in question uses a popular CMS, and for the type of submission these bots are making, there is a standard URL path for the CMS.

What I've done is change the path for these submissions, and put the instructions in an image which is presented to logged in users, but I've left the old path leading to a sandbox.

The spam bots do create accounts and log in of course, but they don't read the instructions in the image.

The bots are happily working away fruitlessly using the old path, identifying themselves as bots, and I'm collecting data.

It's a win-win situation!

It won't work forever - but it's lasted a week now and it's a good stop-gap measure.
#search engine optimization #bots #happy #spam #today
  • You should setup the old URL to send them into a never-ending 301 redirect - that can mess up a lot of spam softwares and cause them to stall out.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for the tip - might give it a go at some point.

      Just for now, I'm happy with their owners thinking their bots are working.

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    One of my sites has constant problems with SPAM bots, but I've managed to put one over them this week. The site in question uses a popular CMS, and for the type of submission these bots are making, there is a standard URL path for the CMS.