Spam in blogs (also called simply blog spam, comment spam, or social spam) is a form of spamdexing. (Note that blogspam also has another meaning, namely the post of a blogger who creates posts that have no added value to them in order to submit them to other sites.) It is done by posting (usually automatically) random comments, copying material from elsewhere that is not original, or promoting commercial services to blogs, wikis, guestbooks or other publicly accessible online discussion boards. Any web application that accepts and displays hyperlinks submitted by visitors may be a target.
This type of spam originally appeared in Internet guestbooks, where spammers repeatedly filled a guestbook with links to their own site and with no relevant comment, to increase search engine rankings. If an actual comment is given it is often just "cool page", "nice website", or keywords of the spammed link.
I have been getting spam comments from Prime Industries, Inc., to the point I decided I needed to call them out. I thought it best to start small and make a phone call. Everyone I talked to was very nice, they asked for my name and number so they could call to confirm the issue was resolved. Honestly I thought, ok, I'll play along and we'll see where this goes.
I got a call back in less than ten minutes with a person apologizing for leaving the comments on my blog. She had mentioned that she saw my blog listed on Blog Rank and I was listed in the top 25 for Aviation Blogs: The ultimate rank. I thanked the person who called and let them know I appreciated the quick and classy response.
So just to show there are no hard feelings and that I appreciate a company that 'takes care of its business' I am posting a one time link on this post.
I certainly hope they really do remove their comments. I used to get all kinds of spam but haven't had any forever, thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteSandie,
ReplyDeleteI was able to delete all the comments/advertising. At least they did step up and correct the problem.
It's still inappropriate. I've been in infosec a very long time. They are well aware of what they are doing, and they are doing it to lots of people. That you called them was very gentlepersonly, but it really doesn't fix the issue overall.
ReplyDeleteNormally, the procedure is to identify their web host (or their host, by IP address) and report it to them, usually by an email to abuse@spammersISP.com. An email to the DNS provider isn't a bad idea, if different than the host.
That's probably why these folks stopped spamming your blog: They realized you could (and probably would) escalate the issue, which would lead to a closed website, unless the ISP was a rogue or blackhat op (and there are lots of those.)
With that said, I'm certainly not knocking your kind approach, and I'm glad it worked.