Comment Spam is Killing My Blog Enthusiasm

I'm considering shutting off comments on my blog.

[Gasps of horror! Cries of disbelief!]

Alright, it probably won't happen. After all, I enjoy when people respond to something I've written. However, the spam to real comment ratio is getting worse and worse. Even though I've turned on moderation on my blog, it still takes time every day to ferret out the diamonds in the rough.

Yes, comments about Viagra and online pharmacies are often dropped into the junk folder without bothering me via email. However, there were probably 2 real comments out of the last 20 that made it through TypePad's sieve like filter.

Now, one bloger's comment spam is another blogger's feedback, so let me just say that if you're doing nothing but promoting your product and adding nothing to the conversation you won't find your comment posted here.

For example, if you're signing your name as "melbourne seo company", "SEO", or "seo Los Angeles" you're almost definitely getting the axe.

If your comment reads something like, "Hi, Very nice informative post.Thanks for sharing such a useful information with us..." or other bastardization of the English language with no benefit to the readers here, you're going to get the axe. Either keep the conversation moving along or just...move along.

Oh, and Jeff Paul and anyone related to Jeff Paul? This is not your blog. Your thinly veiled advertisements won't play here.

For anyone else who has real questions, real comments or real disagreements with anything I post here, please, let it fly! And I'll do my best to respond and keep the spammers at bay.

Rich Brooks
Thanks for Letting Me Vent

Move Over Viagra; Bad SEO "Experts" Generate the Most Comment Spam

It's been a while since I've gotten Viagra or Texas Hold 'Em comment spam on my blog. However, this reduction has been replaced with a deluge of spam from SEO "experts" who feel it necessary to comment on a bunch of my blog posts in a row with generic messages.

A long time ago, leaving comments on blogs had two big benefits. First, if you said something intelligent, other readers of the blog might read you comment and click on your name, which would lead them to your blog. Presto! Additional traffic.

Secondly, that link carried link juice that would increase your own blog's search engine visibility. However, those days are long gone thanks to "comment spam;" pointless or off-topic comments that spammers left at the bottom of every post they could find. In fact, they created "bots": insidious programs that would do their dirty work for them in 1/10,000 the time.

Unfortunately, a number of SEO professionals didn't get the message. A few recent comments that otherwise wouldn't make it to my blog:

Comment:

I am new to seo.I am planning to start new blog.But I am getting confused to choosing blog platform.Please give me a suggestion...

Commenter name: seo company
Commenter email: hkcs.link@gmail.com
Commenter URL: http://www.not-the-actual-domain.com/SEO/index.htm
IP address: 58.68.29.162
Authentication: None

And, by the same intrepid spammer a few minutes later at another post:

Comment:

Very good post.Look forward to reading more on you blog.Thanks.

Commenter name: seo services
Commenter email: hkcs.link@gmail.com
Commenter URL: http://www.not-the-actual-domain.com/SEO/index.htm
IP address: 122.167.21.138
Authentication: None

I fear for the small business owner that chooses this firm to handle their search engine optimization.

Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.

Rich Brooks
Confused to Choosing Blog Platform

Beware This Scam: UPS Paket N3754519698

Sorry I have been quiet for a while, just got back from vacation. Here's something I found in my inbox:

From: United Parcel Service <admkgtxokpqc@bodiesbymahmood.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:00:05 -0600
To: flyte new media <contact@flyte.biz>
Subject: UPS Paket N3754519698

Unfortunately we were not able to deliver postal package you sent on July the 1st in time
because the recipient's address is not correct.
Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our office

Your UPS

First tip-off that this wasn't legitimate? Misspelling the word "packet." Second tip-off was the poor grammar of the first letter. Third was the missing period at the end of the last sentence.

Final tip-off was the return email address. I don't believe UPS owns the bodiesbymahmood.com domain. Just saying.

Rich Brooks
Scam Artiste

Busted Tees? Busted Customer Service!

I'm a t-shirt kind of guy. In fact, Threadless is one of my favorite Web sites and controls much of my wardrobe. Recently, however, I found a couple of Ts I liked over at Busted Tees and purchased them.

What a mistake.

When the package arrived the packing slip was correct--two shirts, both large--but one of the shirts was a small. No big deal, right? I called customer support and a nice guy told me he was really sorry and someone would call back the next day to help me out.

Nearly a week passed, but no call. So I called back.

Someone else, who was very nice, apologized again. She had no record of my call, but promised that she would have someone call me back. I asked why she couldn't help me out, but it turns out that she doesn't actually work for Busted Tees. All she can do is report my problem to the company and they'll take care of it. (Or not.)

Two more days passed. I called a third time. Again, a very nice person answered who apologized for nothing happening. Again, he said he would tell the company and someone would get back to me. I explained that I didn't quite believe them anymore, so if I didn't hear back from them I would just talk to my credit card company and have the charge removed. He told me he would pass along the message.

On the following Monday I sent an email. Finally a response. They told me to ship the t-shirt to them and they'd replace it. I told them that I no longer had the packaging because it had been ripped when I opened it, and couldn't they just do the right thing and send me the right shirt and I'd send back the wrong shirt when I got it...after all, I certainly had been patient w/their non-existent customer service. She agreed.

Two weeks passed and I didn't receive the shirt. So I emailed again. Someone else told me the shirt had shipped. Unfortunately, they were talking about the original shipment and had no record of a new shirt being shipped out, despite me having a written promise that it would be.

I asked if they would please send out the shirt right away so we could put this to bed. They told me that they would forward my message to the company.

Arrgh!

Admittedly, in the universe of real problems, this is a very small planet. Perhaps even a moon. But if this was your company, would you treat your customers this way? I mean, everyone--every business, every person and every organization--makes mistakes. It's how we handle these mistakes that creates either customers for life...or angry blog posts.

Rich Brooks
Threadless Customer...for Life

Follow Up: Shortly after reading this post someone from Busted T's left a comment with an email. I followed up, and two days later I had received not only the t-shirt I ordered (right), but another cool one as an apology. I also got to keep the original t-shirt which I gave to my wife. Perfect fit.

The moral of this story? If you're a business, take care of your customers. Also, have a Google Alert or a Technorati RSS feed on your company name, so you know when people are talking smack about you.

If you're a customer, it helps to have a healthy blog. What you can't accomplish through phone or email may have legs in the blogosphere.

PayPal Phishing Scam: Your Account Has Been Flagged !

Today I received a fairly sophisticated PayPal phishing scam that made me take a second look.

It was in no small part due to the fact that I had received some PayPal payments recently for our How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog workshop and just moved them to our bank account.

The subject line: "Your Account Has Been Flagged ! " was good; it's probably fairly accurate to what PayPal might say, except for the floating exclamation point.

Almost all the links within the email go to a real PayPal page, further confusing the average recipient. It's only the "Click here to verify your Information" with it's odd capitalization that links to the faux site.

At this bogus site the scammer will ask you to login with your PayPal username and password. Then he (or she) has all they need to access your PayPal account and more.

How can you protect yourself as the scam artists get more savvy? Easy: never click on a link in an email. Instead, visit Paypal.com (or whatever site is appropriate) and log in there.

No legitimate banking related site will include links to their Web site from an email. They've all had to deal with angry, deceived customers. They will tell you to visit their site by typing it in to your Web browser and go there.

Rich Brooks
Putting the Pal in PayPal

Debbie's RC World PayPal Scam

If you've received a receipt for your Payment to Debbie's RC World through your PayPal account you can delete it; it's a scam.

The goal of this phishing scam is to get you to click on the Dispute Transaction and give up your username/password at a fake PayPal site.

Item Name: Sportwerks Raven ST RTR Electric Truck
Cost: $175.00
Email: eric@debbiesrcworld.com

Remember: Never click on a link in an email. If you're unsure, go to the Web site directly and log into your account.

Rich Brooks
Making the Internet Safer for You Since 1997

eBay / PayPal Scam: Digimax 130

If you received an email about your recent eBay purchase of a Digimax 130, you don't need to bother clicking the Dispute Transaction link.

This is an all-too-common scam to get you to give up your PayPal login information, so don't fall for it.

In the version I received, the Payment Details included:

Amount: $47.85 USD

Transaction ID: 2LC956793J776333Y

Subject: Digimax 130

The seller was named as Edward Harrell, eBay user ID: scratchandgnaw2, although if there really is an Edward Harrell of Springtown, Texas, you can be sure he had nothing to do with this.

Rich Brooks
You Watch My Back, I'll Watch Yours

Microsoft is an Evil Spammer

So, despite never signing up for it--and being a life-long Mac user--I continue to get Microsoft Office Live Advisor, an email newsletter targeting small business owners who use Microsoft products.

Today I tried to unsubscribe again. The message was different this time, so apparently they realized their previous message was completely frustrating and obtuse. Unfortunately, the messaging has changed, but not their unintuitive, bass ackwards, completely assinine method (not) allowing people to unsubscribe.

After clicking on the Unsubscribe link in the email, I'm taken to a page with the following information:

You've reached this page because you want to subscribe/unsubscribe to e-mail newsletters, or want us to stop sending you e-mail messages altogether. You can set your preferences at the Profile Center.

To reach the Profile Center, you will need to give us your Passport and password, so we can be certain someone isn't impersonating you. If you haven't registered with us before, we will ask you to create a Passport. Why? So we can be certain we never send mail unless you say so.

Who wrote this, George Orwell? To unsubscribe to an email I never subscribed to I need to take the time to create a Microsoft profile. And why? "So we can be certain we never send mail unless you say so."

Ummm...too late!

And Microsoft wants us to buy into their anti-spam technology? First they should get their own house in order.

Rich Brooks
Take Me Off Your Damn List!

Email Phishing Scam: TD Banknorth

I received an email from TD Banknorth (not) today that was an obvious phishing scam. Just in case you happened to receive a similar email today, you can safely delete it.

The telltale signs?

• Addressed to "TD Banknorth Customers." Doesn't seem very specific. Even if the bank doesn't include your name, they're likely to realize that you're just one person, not all of their customers.
• "We Kindly as you to confirm and update your details". Unnecessary capitalization of Kindly, and no period at the end of this sentence.
• "We offer you a new convenient and safe high-quality level of service to handle you ATM card." I think they meant "your."

We're all in trouble if phishing scammers ever learn to use good grammar.

But most importantly? They ask you to click through the email to their "site." Any legitimate bank will not include a link to their site and instead ask you to visit them by typing in the bank's URL. When I looked at the source code, I could see that the link is actually going to http://www.upshotokai.com/modules/Forums/language/north/index.htm which is obviously not a TD Banknorth URL.

Rich Brooks
Helping Keep You Money Safe

Tire Sales: New PayPal Scam

We're not getting much work done here today at flyte. Everyone keeps running into my office and the conference room to watch the effects of the storm. The road/pier to the left of our office is fully submerged. There's actually lobster buoys floating aimlessly down Portland Pier.

Good tires are a requirement for a day like today, which is an interesting coincidence, given the email below.

A client (OK, my dad), recently forwarded me this email from "PayPal" to confirm his concerns that this was a scam:

This e mail confirms that you have paid V***** Tire Sales
(sales@v*****tire.com) $379.00 USD using PayPal.
This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as "PAYPAL *V*****
TIRE".
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Payment Details
Transaction ID:    0EW23032ET502103Y
Total:    $379.00 USD
Item/Product Name:    Pirelli PZero Nero (M+S) P255/35ZR20 97W
Item/Product Number:    2528
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Business Information
Business:    V***** Tire Sales
Contact E-Mail:    sales@v*****tire.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shipping Address
Shipping Info:    D*************s
4310 T***** ST
Dallas TX 75423
United States
Address Status:    Unconfirmed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wit h PayPal, you.re protected against unauthorized payments sent from your
account.This payment will not appear in your PayPal account until we verify
this transaction.If you would like to escalate this dispute to a PayPal
claim, you must do so or it will automatically close. A closed dispute
cannot be reopened or escalated to a claim.If this is transaction is not
authorized, click on the link below to fill a claim and cancel the payment.
                                 Dispute Transaction
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team   

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response.
PayPal Email ID PP120

Although I couldn't look at the original email and see where the link went (it certainly didn't go to PayPal), I was able to confirm this was a PayPal scam similar to when Santa wanted my PayPal login info.

In other words: Ignore it!

Update: You may wonder why there are so many * in this post. I recently received a very nice email from the good people at V***** Tires. You can imagine how tough this has been on them, since they are in no way involved with this scam.

For whatever reason this post has risen in the search engine rankings and is hurting their brand. Since this scam seems to be past, I removed all of the references I could find.

I also want to thank them for writing me such a polite email rather than serving me with a cease and desist letter, or taking an aggressive stance. Other companies could learn from their behavior.

Thanks to Jonathan Braden for the cell phone photo of Portland Pier. It's tough to make out in the photo, but that car is up to its headlights in water.

Rich Brooks
Waterproof Web Design