Spam problem with WordPress

Misa Buckley · Nov 30, 2009

I have a self-hosted blog using WordPress (www.misaditas.me.uk) but over the past couple of days it's been hit hard by spam. Today it's taken my almost an hour to mark the comments as spam and delete them.

I have upped the security again, but now genuine commenters are going to need a WP account to post, which is something I didn't want to do.

So can anyone reccomend a good app to help out?

Thanks in advance

BigWords · Nov 30, 2009

I'm using Askimet. Not perfect, but it gets most of the crap. There is, unfortunately, no way of stopping people who merely post annoying and offensive comments for the sake of it... Or trackbacks with reasons why a post is stupid, the poster retarded, etc.

squibnocket · Nov 30, 2009

I second Askimet and highly recommend it to anyone with a WP blog.

Misa Buckley · Dec 1, 2009

Thanks guys.

I'll give Askimet a go, and add spam deleting into my daily activities.

I'm really surprised at WordPress on this issue - I've had a Blogger for much longer and had very little spam. I was considering a different blog program, but not found one to compare to WP.

Hittman · Dec 1, 2009

Forcing people to have an account to respond will cut down your comments by a factor of ten.

Just checked my Askimet stats:

15,652 spams caught, 2,046 legitimate comments, and an overall accuracy rate of 99.780%.

I loves me some askimet.

About the only thing that gets through now are the "I like your website" spams, with no links except the user's name, which links to a spam site. They're more interested in increasing page rank than generating traffic directly.

Askimet doesn’t delete spam, but moves it into the spam folder for you to deal with. You'll need to scan it from time to time to see if any legit comments were flagged as spam. This happens most often with legitimate comments that contain links.

When cleaning out spam don't click on any of their links, ever. Some sophisticated spammers keep track of the response rate, and if they see any traffic coming from your site, even just one visit, they'll keep harassing you.

Over time, three or four months, you'll see the amount of spam diminish. I used to get 10-20 a day, now I get six or seven a week. I think this has to do with spammers abandoning sites that don't get them results (which is why you never, ever, click their links.)

GabrielNovo · Dec 2, 2009

Askimet alone won't stem back the tide. I had the same issue until I started using WP-Ban. I did a couple of posts about all the plugins I use for my Wordpress blog (http://gabrielnovo.com/category/wordpress/), but here's the excerpt for WP-Ban.

------------------------------
WP-Ban – As good as Askimet is at blocking SPAM (and it’s fantastic), you still have to wade through the comments in order to delete them. I always hoped for something that would prevent the SPAM-bots from making the comments in the first place. Thanks to Terry Atkison’s great post I found that answer. This dead simple plugin lets you pop in IP addresses and bans them from accessing your site altogether. It’s easy to harvest the offending IP’s from Askimet’s interface. As of writing this post, WP-Ban has prevented 114 access attempts from blocked IP’s. That alone is worth it’s weight in gold.
------------------------------

My stats were from back in August. As of today I've blocked 1,547 SPAM attempts. Hope this helps.

Hittman · Dec 2, 2009

I forgot about WP ban. I haven't "used" it in quite a while, but it's been there blocking spammers from my site on its own.

I just checked it, and it's kept out 24,700+ attempts. Most made one or two attempts. Some are in the double digits, and one has tried over 15k times.

I've only got three IP addresses in there, (just added another one) but I've also blocked "*.ru," which kills an enormous amount of spam by blocking Russian spambots.

Naz · Jan 23, 2010

Try Akismet. It should be installed in your WordPress installation already. Good luck!

thothguard51 · Jan 23, 2010

I have only had my Wordpress account for a few months, but I have had no problems with spam. It seems to be blocking things ok. I think only three of them got through that I had to block and delete in the beginning. I will have to keep an eye on this...

Matera the Mad · Jan 23, 2010

Yep. Akismet.

Spam comes in bunches, doesn't it? I had a sudden upsurge a while back, but it's been very quiet for the last few weeks.

If you do want to investigate a link, right-click on it and copy the address. Then paste it into a new browser tab or window. That way you avoid sending the referrer message.

scribien · Jan 25, 2010

I've had really good luck with the Bad Behavior plugin. You can find it listed in the WordPress plugin directory http://bit.ly/6sOp5C

LeloPaul · Jan 26, 2010

Another vote for akismet.

There are also some captcha plugins that you can look into. Another good way to stop spam.

Matera the Mad · Jan 29, 2010

Akismet just gulped down my latest spam surge. Whole bunch of nearly identical crud (like dirty snowflakes), random-letter domain name links. No spam for days, then poo from a shotgun.

Lyra Jean · Jan 29, 2010

I have Akismet and I moderate comments. But once your approved they automatically go through the next time you comment. Although my blog is not self-hosted so I don't know if that makes a difference.

mnboater · Feb 2, 2010

You can also add a reCaptcha plugin.

I can sympathize. I've have had the same issues. Another thing I do is block the IP address of spammers which I can view in WP. You can use the RoboMeta plugin to do this or through your hosting management interface. I've also reported spammers to their hosting sites. Good luck!

E. S. Lark · Feb 3, 2010

I've not really had issues with spam just yet as far as blog comments go. However, I do get quite a few folks who hit my contact page and just send me lines of letters. They promptly get removed and tossed in my trash bin.

AyJay · Jul 8, 2010

Is it spam? (probably is if I have to ask)

Pretty much a blogger neophyte here. I have Akismet, and it's filtered out a lot of obvious spam - hypertext messages from jumbled accounts/websites. It's also filtered out 2 or 3 legitimate comments so I'm wondering about a recent comment it quarantined.

Really generic somewhat poorly written comment (in the vein of "I like your site") from a livejournal.com account and an e-mail address from myownmails.com. Red flag?

Deleted member 42 · Jul 8, 2010

AyJay said:
Pretty much a blogger neophyte here. I have Akismet, and it's filtered out a lot of obvious spam - hypertext messages from jumbled accounts/websites. It's also filtered out 2 or 3 legitimate comments so I'm wondering about a recent comment it quarantined.

Really generic somewhat poorly written comment (in the vein of "I like your site") from a livejournal.com account and an e-mail address from myownmails.com. Red flag?

Are there any URLs in the comment, is their a link to an LJ that might be a problem?

Askimet works in two ways: A "black list" of known bad URLs/domains, and a list of terms.

I do suggest checking the Setting to hold comments for moderation that have more than two URLs, and moderate all first comments.

spamwarrior · Jul 8, 2010

Definitely Akismet!

AyJay · Jul 8, 2010

Medievalist said:
Are there any URLs in the comment, is their a link to an LJ that might be a problem?

Askimet works in two ways: A "black list" of known bad URLs/domains, and a list of terms.

I do suggest checking the Setting to hold comments for moderation that have more than two URLs, and moderate all first comments.

Thanks for the response. No URLs in the comment. I was just referring to the website and e-mail address listed next to it.

Yes, I have the settings so that all first comments need approval.

I don't know that there's any point approving this particular comment anyway, but out of curiosity - what's the danger if I did let it go through? Inviting future url embedded comments?

Deleted member 42 · Jul 8, 2010

AyJay said:
I don't know that there's any point approving this particular comment anyway, but out of curiosity - what's the danger if I did let it go through? Inviting future url embedded comments?

Yeah, and honestly, that's not the end of the world.

Spam problem with WordPress

Misa Buckley

Extraordinary Romance

BigWords

Geekzilla

squibnocket

All-Around Swell Gal

Misa Buckley

Extraordinary Romance

Hittman

GabrielNovo

Cuban Nomad

Hittman

Naz

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

scribien

LeloPaul

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

Lyra Jean

Two years old now.

mnboater

E. S. Lark

Editing all the time

AyJay

Luv's Conscript

Deleted member 42

spamwarrior

rewriting.

AyJay

Luv's Conscript

Deleted member 42