Human Generated Spam

Spam

I am looking at some spam I received at LinDesk. These are not your average spam – they are real good. I even let one through before I understood they were spam.

  • spartan300 | tcssey@aol.com | dolcemp3.com | IP: 64.12.116.138
    Hhmmm,, this sounds good. but I not yet into upgrading my Fedora7 to 8. i’m not that afraid of changes, but I might incur another error with my linux. I still have lot of work to do, maybe i’ll try this later next week. Thanks though for this blog. 🙂
    In article Sound Issue in Fedora 8
  • 2cool2sexy | tcssey@aol.com | dolcemp3.com | IP: 64.12.116.138
    Have you checked on its system requirements? You should try checking of their site. http://banshee-project.org/
    I believe there are helpdesk there that can support you.
    In article Banshee – Music Management and Playback for GNOME
  • audio-fanatic | tcssey@aol.com | dolcemp3.com | IP: 64.12.116.138
    another nice review here Lin. You really adore using Linux-based software? I think this mp3 software is the one fit for my notebook.
    In article Audacious Media Player

First of all, do you agree with me? Are these spam?

The reason why I think they are spam are the following…

  • Same URL and Email – but different names.
  • Zero content comments – they add no value to the post.
  • My previous experience has taught me that comments with @aol.com email addresses are often spam.
  • This guy has only commented on MP3 related posts – his URL leads to an MP3 site.

The reason why they may not be spam are just as valid.

  • These comments are written by humans – not bots.
  • The writer of the second comment(about banshee) has obviously read the post.
  • The commenter has at least a passing knowledge of Linux and Linux softwares.

So, have you received any spam like this – comments that you are unsure about? These three comments are still in my moderation queue. I need advice on how to deal with them.

I could let them through – if no one looks closely, they will think these are actual comments. That will give the articles an appearance of popularity. It is a good thing for me. But I have a zero tolerance policy towards spam. If the comment is a spam, I will not allow it on my site. Its a matter of principle.

3 Comments

  1. i dont think they are spams~~~they are all written by the same person~~~but i think he has read the article~~so you cant call it spam~~if they were done by bots~~then thats spammin(i think) he might be on a promotion spree~~~so its upto for you to decide

  2. I have been receiving similar posts on my blog. They seem like legitimate comments, but the person’s name is randomized, and the website is some shady vendor who’s wares are related to the post or the blog. For instance my blog is called “bespoke blog” so I get some of these spam comments linking to “bespoke tailors” or something of the sort. Or I did one post about probiotic cultures so I got a comment linking to a vendor of nutritional supplements. These may seem legitimate but they are spam: They are likely posted by someone working in an outsourcing facility and the goal is to create lots of links to the given website which will boost the page’s Google rank. I delete them.

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