Last week we took a look at the logic behind why people (and robots) leave spam comments on blog posts. This week we take a look at some common red flags that will tip you off to a spam comment, even if it looks legitimate on the surface.

Why take the time to do this? After all, there are very good anti-spam programs available, such as Akismet, which virtually eliminate spam on your blog comments. Before you think, “I would never fall for that,” we’d point out that several intelligent clients of ours have been taken in by spammers, and have in fact taken the time to reply to spam comments thinking them legitimate comments. If others are struggling with this, we thought it appropriate to visit for the benefit of all our readers.

That said, let’s dive in!

Some spam comments are quite obvious.
Here we have several brand name drugs, and a laundry list of links. Easy enough, right?

So too is this next example:

More links to junk sites, and some nonsensical strings of letters thrown in for good measure.

So much for the obvious spammers, what about the more subtle entries?

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At first glance, this comment looks like a keeper. After all, it’s a nice ego boost to see that someone really values what you wrote, and found it useful. And there are no links in the comment, unlike the two we just looked at. Why wouldn’t you approve this comment and proudly put it out for all the world to see?

In fact, that’s exactly what the spammer is counting on. By coming at you in the guise of a compliment, they hope your critical thinking will get trumped by your sense of vanity. There are several variations on this theme as well (“Superb writeup! Added you to Feedburner,” and so on).

Let’s look at what’s going on here that’s common to many spam comments:

1. The comment is very generic, and doesn’t reference anything specific that’s covered in the post
2. Grammatical and punctuation errors (Youre, dont, Ive, realy, beginning this up, helpful job)
3. Though there are no links in the comment itself, the commenter’s URL and email address both look highly suspect, as shown below.

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This spam comment takes the opposite approach of the previous comment. Instead of buttering you up, they attempt to provoke a response from you. To reply to their comment in your own defense, first you would approve it for display on your site, thus playing into their hands.

The funny thing about this particular comment was that it then went on to use the butter-you-up ploy on the very next line. Also, the links at the end sort of give it away as a spam post. Here is the full comment:

Notice again the poor grammar (I definitely enjoying, I’ve you bookmarked, new stuff you weblog post).

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These examples highlight some of the more common tactics spammers use. Next week we’ll look at a few more biggies, and by the end you’ll be zapping spam like a seasoned pro.

Photo Credit: Carly & Art via Compfight cc