spammers

Spam or Legit?

Fandango44 Comments

Usually the comments that show up in my spam folder are obviously spam. But recently it’s not that obvious at all. Take these two spam comments examples I received yesterday.

Here’s one.

It’s from Zoe Atherton and the source is outlookindia.com. The comment is in response to this post. It seems to be quite legitimate and responsive given the post she commented on. But I clicked on the link to the site that it came from and this is where it took me:

So did a human write a legitimate comment that Akismet mistakenly swept into my spam folder? Or is Zoe Atherton an AI chatbot who scanned my post, picked up key words, and created that comment in response?

Here’s another.

It’s from Dante Trimble and the source is the marketerscorner.com. The comment is in response to this post. Like Zoe’s comment, Dante’s seems to be quite legitimate and responsive given the post he commented on. But I clicked on the link to the site that it came from and this is where it took me:

So is Dante real? Did a human write this comment or was it generated by an AI chatbot? I decided to actually reply to Dante’s comment.

What do you think?

  • Are Zoe and Dante real people who read my posts and made legitimate comments?
  • Are Zoe and Danta chatbots using AI technology to generate legitimate sounding comments that are actually spam?
  • Will Dante respond to my reply?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, please.

Blogging Insights — Spammers are People, too

Fandango29 Comments

For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from Adrienne Smith.

“Successful people don’t spam.”

I don’t personally know any spammers, so I can’t say, one way or another, how successful they are. If the purpose of spammers is to lure people to their sites to buy whatever it is they’re selling, and if they actually do manage to get people to do that, then they may, indeed, be successful. After all, given the huge amount of spam being generated every day, whoever is behind it all must be achieving some level of success. Otherwise, why bother?

But my real question is this: are spammers even real people at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if most spam came from robots, or spambots, operating out spam farms in Russia or Belarus or China or New Jersey.

But maybe, just maybe, Adrienne was misquoted and what she actually said was, “Successful people don’t eat Spam.” And if that is, in fact, what she said, she’s 100% correct.

Sheesh!

Fandango22 Comments

Monday night at around 11 pm, right before I shut down my iPhone and went to bed, I permanently deleted the 253 spam comments plus the 75 comments in my trash folder.

I usually check my spam and trash folders first thing in the morning to clear out whatever came in overnight. And then again, before I go to bed, to get rid of what came in during the day.

But I forgot to do that cleanup on Tuesday morning, forgot on Tuesday night, and forgot again this morning. It’s 2:50 pm my time on Wednesday afternoon and, realizing that it had been a while since I last checked my spam and trash folders, I went to see what it looked like. Here’s what I found:

That is almost as many spam and trash comments in less than two days than the total number of legitimate comments so far this month. Sheesh!

Oh well. I suppose I can take some solace in the fact that Akismet is capturing a whole lot of spam on my behalf.

Weekend Writing Prompt — Spammers

Fandango27 Comments

No matter what I do, I can’t seem to thwart the spammers.

Each night, before I go to sleep, I “permanently delete” those bogus comments that wind up in my spam and trash folders.

But when I wake up in the morning and look at my comments page, there are two to three dozen new sham comments in each folder.

They are persistant.

(Exactly 63 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “thwart.”

My Biggest and Best Fans

Fandango24 Comments

4508C6F0-E37B-4A79-A539-6CC0BDC5F0F9Few people sing my praises as a blogger as do those whose comments somehow end up in my spam folder.

I thought, as a public service, I’d share with you, completely unedited, some of the great comments that inexplicably were marked as spam.

hello! I love your writing so much! percentage we keep up a correspondence more about your post on AOL? I need a specialist on this house to unravel my problem. May be that’st you! Looking ahead to peer you.

My post on AOL? Are we back in the 90s? And as to your looking ahead to peer me, that sounds kinda kinky to me.

Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I find It truly useful & it helped me out a lot. I am hoping to present something back and aid others like you helped me.

Heya yourself. You are for the first time here and found my post on a board? Like a bulletin board?

definitely know how to keep a reader amused. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!)

Thank you for you kind words. Please do start your own blog. I can’t wait to not read it.

Great job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!

Yeah, I’m too cool.

Wow! At last I got a blog from where I can truly take useful information regarding my study and knowledge.

I’m not sure that whatever your study or knowledge is, of that you will gain all that much from my blog, but thank you, I guess.

whoah this weblog is wonderful i love studying your articles. Stay up the good work! You realize, many persons are searching around for this information, you could aid them greatly.

I’m pleased that you love studying my articles because there will be a pop quiz in the morning. So study away. But first, learn how to spell “whoa.”

For people who choose sizzling drinks like myself, it’s mosting more likely to be a big bonus offer for you.

Sizzling drinks? WTF?

A motivating discussion is definitely worth comment. I think that you need to write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but usually people don’t speak about such topics. To the next! Many thanks!!

To the next. To infinity and beyond!

Hi there very nice blog!! Guy .. Excellent .. Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds also? I’m satisfied to search out numerous useful information here in the put up, we’d like develop more techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing. . .

“…here in the put up”? Hmm. Where, exactly, would that be?

Good way of describing, and nice article to obtain facts concerning my presentation subject matter, which i am going to present in academy.

Good luck at the academy. Glad I could be of assistance on whatever your presentation subject might be.

Right away I am going away to do my breakfast, after having my breakfast coming yet again to read additional news.

Enjoy doing your breakfast and coming yet again after breakfast. Must be quite a good breakfast!

So thank you to all of my spammers your kind words. I look forward to continue hearing from you and deleting your insightful comments from my spam folder.