Spammers Attack Post Scripts – We Fight Back!

by Jack

A year ago we were receiving hundreds of spam comments every week, it was overwhelming as we tediously removed them one at a time.  Oh sure, we appealed to the ER for help, but there wasn’t much they could offer.

So, I began by eliminating the ability to post a comment in the first few days of each month, and I went pretty much all the way back to 2006.  I figured if they found they couldn’t post their spam immediately they wouldn’t waste their time and they would go away.  And it worked, spamming fell to almost nothing.

I’m pretty sure just one guy was behind at least 80% of the spam we were receiving and that really bugged me!  So, I did some snooping on who this spammer was and found other sites he was victimizing.  I actually uncovered his fake internet name and eventually that led me to more info.  Soon I had some pretty good evidence and this was sent to the FBI internet crime department that is suppose to be taking out the most prolific spammers, but I never heard another word.   I was surprised , not a thank you, not a “we’re following up”, nothing.   Your tax dollars at work I guess, well, maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on them they were probably reassigned to work on snooping around in your personal emails or something, who knows?

I thought it was over until recently we started getting unusual amounts of spam posts again, only this time they were replying to older articles dated in the middle of the month.  They realized my blocks were only set up in the first few days of each month.  It started out with 10-15 a day and it quickly grew to 30, 40, 50 a day!  And finally I had enough, this was war!

I discovered a way that I could block whole pages of old articles from any further comment and that ended the spamming, more or less.

It’s a shame it came to that because Tina and I would gladly respond to old comments too.   For the last 4 days I have used my free time to block literally thousands of older articles from receiving any comments and put this spamming out of commission.   There’s probably a few months I’ve missed somewhere, but if we get spam in our “comment” section I can look at the date of the original article and then I go back and block the entire month!   Yesterday I blocked 7 months worth of articles from 2009 thru 2013 and I feel like I’ve finally slammed the door shut on the spammers.    We’ll see.

 

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22 Responses to Spammers Attack Post Scripts – We Fight Back!

  1. Peggy says:

    Jack, is this why I have to enter my name and email address for each comment I submit? If it is and it’s helps you get rid of this/these idiot/s I’ll gladly do it.

    Thanks for all of your efforts to keep this forum open.

  2. Harold says:

    I also agree with Peggy, by the way were any of the spams in “Liberal Spanish” ?

    oh yea, I got some Spam yesterday as well, mostly pork and little salt and fat, and once it was opened, it was great with eggs in the morning.:)

  3. Tina says:

    Jack your cop skills definitely come into play on this one…good job!

    The strategy is working; I only had a few this morning.

  4. Pie Guevara says:

    Now, seriously, this site is fairly obscure as far as the internet goes. I propose that it is friends of the Chris and Dewey Show.

    • Post Scripts says:

      Pie, we still collect about 25,000 hits a months, or at least we did the last time we checked which has been months ago. Spam bombing has been a problem for years off and on and they tend to be just a half dozen product lines, mostly cheap ray ban sunglasses from China, etc.

  5. Pie Guevara says:

    Re #2 Harold :

    Spam Tip

    Place the entire contents of a can of low sodium Spam (including all the jelly) into a food processor. Process it until it has the consistency of a paste. Form it on a fancy plate in a tight mound or use a fancy form (like a Jello mold).

    Serve it to your friends at the next dinner party as your special pâté.

    Alternate —

    Do the same as the above but add additional ingredients from any pâté recipe.

  6. Pie Guevara says:

    Addenda to above :

    Harold, I forgot to mention you might have to add a little fat to get a smooth paste. Canola oil would be neutral in flavor but you could use olive oil or butter. Add in in small amounts until a paste forms.

    I just happened to come across these two Spam recipes on a couple searches —

    http://offshorewifeslife.com/2007/07/05/southern-pate-recipe/

    http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Hart-Family-Smoked-Spam-Pate/56381/

    • Post Scripts says:

      Spam musubi is extremely easy to figure out: it’s just cooked rice and Spam wrapped with dried seaweed (also known as nori). Some people also marinate the SPAM in teriyaki sauce (basically soy sauce + sugar) or add a block of scrambled egg under the SPAM slice. Some people also sprinkle furikake (salty mixture of ground & dried fish, seaweed and sesame seeds) on the rice. Some people also use rice vinegar for the rice, which is a traditional sushi technique. SPAM musubi recipe at SeriousEats.com You might also want to pick up a Musubi Maker if you want to make this at home. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to make a rice block.

  7. Soaps says:

    Jack:
    Do the spammers also get our comment addresses from your site? I ask because I have noticed that after I post in Leave a Comment, the personal info remains, even after I have signed off the internet and then returned to the site. I would expect that info to be lost as soon as it is sent to you, but not so. I see it again and again until I clear my cache and run several anti-spam and anti-virus scans. Sometimes I have to re-start the computer to get rid of it. It is clearly a defect at your end.

  8. J. Soden says:

    Had problems with spam while working on son’s website (www.tankchair.net). Interesting that many came from Russia and the Philippines, and most dealt with Viagra . . . .
    Installed ReCaptcha for those posting and spam dropped to barely a trickle.

  9. Chris says:

    Soaps, it’s normal for that information to stay when you return to the site unless you clear your cache. As I understand it it’s your computer remembering, not the website. That shouldn’t put you in danger of spammers, but I’m no computer expert so I could be wrong.

  10. Dewey says:

    Now, seriously, this site is fairly obscure as far as the internet goes. I propose that it is friends of the Chris and Dewey Show. –

    Really Pie? OMG BTW the site comes up in google all the time.

    Spam is usually robotic

    Also Most Trolls are on the conservative side they get paid 25 cents a post. Twitter has a place one can go and hire tweets

    Yahoo has the fake Paul Grass which I believe is staff

    I work for a living and am in DC area Lobbying currently ……………so sorry to disappoint

    Here is a troll training video. Watch it and learn some tips on how vast they go.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGB8Uuffi4M

    They are organized. Liberals do not have time to bother. The fight is in Congress and until we get the money out we the people will have no say.

  11. Dewey says:

    PS those robotic spammers for viagra ect are always there. You need to set up a spam assassin of some type.

    We all use them on our sites as jack said, they work.

  12. Pie Guevara says:

    Re #9 Post Scripts

    “Try this Hawaiian SPAMBURGER® Hamburger on the grill for a luau in your mouth!”

    http://www.spam.com/recipes/Hawaiian-SPAMBURGER-Hamburger

    OK, I think we covered SPAM, it is time to move on to bacon.

    Ted Cruz just went up 20 points in my book —

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaZGaJrd3x8

  13. Pie Guevara says:

    Re #15 Dewey : “I work for a living and am in DC area Lobbying currently ……………so sorry to disappoint”

    LMAO! And pigs fly.

  14. RHT447 says:

    Back to security for a moment—

    “According to research from Barnaby Jack of security vendor IOActive, several vendors’ pacemakers can be remotely controlled and commanded to deliver a 830-volt shock via a laptop, thanks to software programming flaws on the part of medical device companies. That is, of course, enough to kill someone, and Jack noted that the vulnerabilities open the door to “mass murder.”

    Link—

    http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/pacemaker-virus-could-lead-to-mass-murder/

  15. RHT447 says:

    One more thought—

    Given the recent O.P.M. records hack (to name just one) anyone care to speculate on what it would take to search out and target specific pacemakers?

  16. Tina says:

    I can think of one person that would make a tasty target for a nut bag lefty.

  17. More Common Sense says:

    RHT447, I can speak directly to your comment #19.

    Some years ago I was a consultant on a software project that used pen based computers created by Samsung running the PenPoint operating system to remotely program pacemakers. The client was Siemens Pacesetter, Inc. I was very hesitant to take on this project because I was concerned that a programming error on my part would harm or even kill a patient. I was assured that this was not possible. It was possible to make someone somewhat uncomfortable but the pacemaker did not have any mode or operation range that could harm a patient. The system was remote but only because the pacemaker was implanted and there was no direct connection to the system. The system consisted of a pen based iPad like unit (iPad did not exist at this time) with an attachment that consisted of a 4 inch coil antenna. The antenna was taped to the patient’s skin over the area occupied by the pacemaker. The range that it could operate was very limited.

    I do realize that it has been many years since that project was completed and pacemaker programming might be very different. However, I seriously doubt any company would create such a dangerous system because of the potential for legal trouble. I suspect this is coming from the same people that swear we never went to the moon and contrails are some secret government plot to control us.

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