Wordpress Spam

[driller41]

Hi, I added a Wordpress blog to my own site and set it to not auto post comments.

I am now getting bombarded with comments such as sslkj232232 or df3jklh434 - just random gibberish submitted as comments?

Out of interest what do these mean - is there an intent?

[eelixduppy]

From what I can see it appears that they mean nothing. Do you know where they are coming from? Might consider only allowing a certain group of people add comments.

[phranque]

you might consider requiring a login to post comments or using some sort of captcha plugin.
another possibility is requiring that comments pass through moderation before being published unless the visitor is known and trusted.

[driller41]

Hi, I could pby stop it easily enough, I was just wondering why someone is posting random gibberish - the IP used is the same by the look of it - based in Holland

[bill]

Often they will probe sites to see what works. For example, they comment on your site with what looks like gibberish, then they wait to see if that unique content will show up in the SEs.

If they were using real keywords it would be tough to find their handiwork in the SERPs. If they use 'sslkj232232' then that simplifies things for them. Once they find a vulnerable site then they add you to the spam list.

[driller41]

Many thanks - probing with unique text to leave comment spam - that makes sense to me.

[too much information]

They are just trying to test your comment setup, if they post a quick junk comment and it posts immediately then you can expect that they will hit every post on your site from every email address they can imagine.

Just delete them as they come in, and if you can find a common IP address block that as well.

[cabowabo]

The Spam Karma plugin has worked really well for me. It has caught more than a half million spam comments this year alone.