A heads-up for all those subscribed to my blog(s). Several days ago I had numerous new followers all with silly names and ending in outlook.com. Since then, I’ve had over 70 spam comments, all from spam bots with addresses from outlook.com. Akismet is WordPress’ own spam blocker and it does a very good job in filtering ‘real’ comments from fake. Yes, it occasionally blocks authentic comments and allows spam through, but that is where we as bloggers come in.
If you don’t check your comment feeds regularly, please consider doing so. In the ‘My Sites’ tab of your blog, on the left sidebar, the seventh menu item down is “Comments”. When you press the tab, you get a screen with these choices.
All
Pending
Approved
Spam
Trash
Read the comments and report all spam by marking and then deleting. You can also block each user/address. Help your fellow bloggers by monitoring and moderating your comments for content. Spam bots work by mining links, lists and emails. The more you are connected, the more likely you are to get waves of spam comments.
Spank Me Hard! ... Please? 
Good post. I’ve never had any spam comments (yet) but I will do as you suggest.
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You’re lucky. 🙂 Back btwn 2007 and 2010 on my original personal blog, I had 200,000 spam comments. At the end, I was getting as many as 500 spam comments daily. The bots are getting better, but the “prose” still can’t pass the Turing Test.
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What’s the point?? Some people have way too much time in their hands. I think all of us in the blogging community really enjoy our comments! It’s just very mean and pointless to go to all this effort to hurt unknown faceless people.
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The point is unfortunately, that spammers make money by traffic counts and clicks. The tech companies don’t really want to be bothered to deal with the sources. That’s why they cloak it in a “free speech” guise.
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Thank you so much for, not just mentioning this, but telling people what they can do about it and where to find the info they need. It reminded me to check – again.
It’s interesting – when I looked the other day, I’d had about ten ‘Outlook followers’ within about 72 hours, all evidently spam bots. I just checked again, with the intention of manually removing the so-called followers from my list, and it appears WordPress has done it for me, which is rather nice of them! Much better than my experience with the spam bots last year (like a total plank, I didn’t realise I was having a chat to a spam bot or twelve! Stop laughing – I can hear you!).
I did just fall down a small rabbit hole, though, reading some of the ludicrous and hilarious comments from them which Askimet has picked up.
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You’re so welcome, since my blog likely sent you the bots in the first place. I do enjoy reading the comments though.
“I find your blog fascinating. The template is splendid and really grabs the attention. I suggest the topics you choose could be more compelling. Good luck in future endeavors.”
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Funnily enough, I’ve had quite a bit of traffic from your blog to mine in the last couple of weeks. What a pest you are! 😉
“could be more compelling”? Now I know they haven’t read your work!
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Pester, pester, pester.
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You know I’ll just pester you back…! 😜
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Btw, I made that spam comment up myself. 🙂
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You could make a career out of it! It looked like loads of the ones I received! 😂
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I’ve been getting them as well. It helps to have the option to approve first time comments selected.
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Very true. I have always preferred to pre-approve all comments, and let the spam blocker do its thing.
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Thanks for this. I’ve gotten them as well.
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You’re welcome. A tiny issues in the grand scheme, but the more people are aware, the better the system works.
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Reblogged this on mistresschrisablog.
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Happened to us also.
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Looks like WordPress has purged the bots.
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