Do you get dozens of spam comments regularly? Are you tired of deleting them one at a time? I’ll show you a way to filter out spam the easy way!
Table of contents:
- What is spam?
- Who sends out spam?
- What is a spambot?
- Warning! Who is not responsible?
- What happens if you reply to a spammer?
- Are there any adverse effects because of spam?
- How do you deal with spam?
- Let’s face it!
- How does auto-blocking work?
- That’s it! You’re done!
- Can spam be dangerous?
- How do you protect yourself from spam?
- Conclusion
- My closing remarks
What is spam?
In the context of digital communication, spam refers to any kind of unwanted, irrelevant, inappropriate, or unsolicited digital communication that gets sent out in bulk. If you open your email inbox and see dozens (if not hundreds) of emails you didn’t ask for, you’re looking at spam.
While the term is most associated with email, it can also be used to refer to spam comments on blogs, websites, text, phone, social media, physical junk mail, robocalls, and more. In other words, it could be the same message sent to you many times, or the same message sent to many other users of digital communications at the same time.
Who sends out spam?
I know what you’re thinking, who would send spam? But it’s not as simple as you think, let me explain. Spammers come in three different categories:
#1: Unintentional spammers:
Every day people think everyone will welcome their message, product, or website link, and therefore send junk spam rather than use legitimate advertising methods. These are people who just trying to save a buck and do not mean to harm anyone or con them out of anything. They usually do this themselves manually, so you’ll see the same names and websites a lot with this type of spammer. Honesty, I don’t know if they understand what they’re doing is wrong or not. But it’s not a good idea to answer them or complain about their actions. I’ll explain below.
Or,
#2: Intentional Spammers:
People who do understand what they’re doing, and don’t care about anything except selling their products. Their only objective is to sell their items as cheaply as possible for them, and they don’t care if their actions are inconvenient for you. They’re sneakier than you think though. They usually use something called spambots to do their dirty work for them. What’s a spambot, you ask? Well, I’ll cover that in a minute.
And,
#3: Hackers & Criminals:
Sophisticated rings of criminals who are simply out to steal your money. We’ve all heard about the online hackers who send out what look like advertisements for products that sound great and have prices way too good to be true. They have made it so hard to truly know which products are real and which ones are false. We now live in a buyer-beware society, so each of us needs to police our messages for these crocks. If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
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What is a spambot?
It’s worth noting that the source of a very large amount of internet spam comes from spambots and intentional spammers. These are programs that automatically send messages or post comments. They automatically fill out forms and pose as humans to spread their messages as far as possible. These are sent out by people who know exactly what they are doing and don’t care about anyone else but themselves.
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Warning! Who is not responsible?
The person listed on the “From line” of those emails is not responsible for the junk message. As far as spam comments go, nowadays people use spambots to create fake accounts and send spam using them automatically, so there is not much work on their part.
What happens if you reply to a spammer?
Typically, if you reply to the mail or message to complain, it will bounce back because the return address has been forged and doesn’t exist.
Spammers also use the addresses of real people in the “From line”. Because of this, the innocent person gets bounces and complaints. Thus, do not reply to complain, your message will not go to whoever sent it and may go to a completely innocent third party.
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Are there any adverse effects because of spam?
Yes, in addition to the annoying trouble they cause you and the innocent people who get their addresses forged, they’ve caused companies to start using Are You Human popups such as the one below.
I’m sure you’ve seen many quizzes where you must pick the correct pictures to move forward in whatever you are looking at, like the one pictured here. These are now a necessary measure, even though they are a pain in the neck, and it’s all because of spammers.
How do you deal with spam?
This is one of the questions my readers ask me a lot. So, I decided to write an article answering this very question. Not only that but, I’ll show you how to filter out spam the easy way.
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Let’s face it!
Everyone who runs a website of any kind must deal with spam daily. Don’t you love seeing dozens of spam comments on your website daily? NOT! I don’t think so!
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of constantly having to delete them one at a time. This is way too time-consuming, and I have more important things to do than deal with this annoying daily task.
Well, now there is a much simpler way to filter out spam the easy way. It’s called auto-blocking. I know what you’re thinking, “Oh no, not something else I have to buy!” Well, I have great news for you, you don’t need to buy anything, because you most likely already have it! I can see your eyes rolling from here, but it’s true and I can prove it.
There’s a simple way to place unwanted spammers and annoying website dealers into a blocking system that is already on most hosting platforms. There’s no need to buy anything new to solve this problem. And the best part of it all is it only takes a minute to do, and is super simple, even for beginners.
I will give you two step-by-step processes to follow. One in a simple numbered chart, and one in a tutorial form with pictures to follow, for those readers who need a more detailed description. Both processes work the same way, so either way, you choose, you’ll get the same results of filtering out spam the easy way.
here’s how it works.
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Most hosting systems have a built-in process for dealing with spam comments, it’s called an auto-blocker filter. This is a section within the settings area under the discussion topic that allows you to filter out any user, IP address, or keywords that you don’t want to give access to your site,
It’s quite simple, and only takes a minute to complete. Let’s take it step by step. First, I’ll cover the numbered chart. Simply follow each numbered step to achieve the desired results of filtering out spam the easy way.
Filter out spam the easy way!
method Number 1: The numbered chart method
- Open your comments area from your dashboard.
- Find a spam message.
- Copy the IP address and e-mail address of the spammer.
- Hover over the settings button.
- Click on discussion from the popup menu.
- Scroll down to the comment moderation area.
- Paste the copied information into that box.
- Scroll down to the disallowed comment keys box.
- Paste the copied information into that box too.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save Changes.
- Go back to your comments dashboard & mark this comment as spam.
If you follow the easy eleven-step process above, you’ll start seeing a lot less spam in your comments section. You may have to do this with each large spammer you’re having trouble with, but it’s worth the extra minute it takes to stop these spammers in their tracks.
If the above didn’t make any sense to you, I’ll explain it below in a step-by-step tutorial.
Filter out spam the easy way!
method Number 2: The tutorial method
#1:
First, you must open your comments area from your website dashboard. Here you’ll see I have 4 comments to attend to. Click on the comments button.
This brings up as many comments as you have. I’m showing one kind of comment I get now and then. This comment is from a website dealer, I believe he is an unintentional spammer because he doesn’t send very many of these messages. He doesn’t know any better and just wants you to click on his website or products.
These kinds of dealers have nothing in common with your website and have no intention of sharing your link or passing on your information. These are spam comments!
#2:
Find a spam comment.
Here is a spam comment that I got a lot of from the same person. This is another dealer, but unlike the one above it who only leaves a few messages occasionally, this dealer leaves several of the same comments on several of my articles each day. So, I end up with between 8 to 75 of the same messages to deal with each day from this person. This is an intentional spammer who is using spambots to send out his junk.
Talk about a hassle and a half! Well, from now on this dealer will be put on my blocked list and will be filtered out from my comments area BEFORE I EVEN SEE IT, that’s where the auto blocker comes into play. Here’s how to filter out spam the easy way!
#3:
Copy the IP address and e-mail address of the spammer. The IP address is a series of numbers that appear after the email address.
Here you can see the information highlighted in blue that I copied.
#4:
Hover over the settings button.
You’ll see a popup menu appear that will look like this.
#5:
Click on discussion from the popup menu.
The discussion button is highlighted in white. Click on that.
#6:
Scroll down to the comment moderation area.
This area explains what a spam message is. For example, a common characteristic of comment spam is a large number of hyperlinks (website addresses). When a comment contains any of these words. author name, URL, email, IP address, or browser’s user agent, will be held in the moderation queue filter.
#7:
Now, you paste the copied information from the spammer into the top of this box.
#8:
Scroll down to the disallowed comment keys box.
Here you’ll see the next item on the page, this is the next place the system looks for information. If the author’s name, IP address, URL, email, or browser’s user agent are listed here they are placed in the trash.
#9:
Paste the copied information into the Disallowed Comment Keys box too.
By pasting the same information from the spammer into this box too it is placed in the trash automatically.
#10:
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save Changes.
#11:
Mark this comment as spam.
Next, you must go back to the comments area and mark the spammer you just placed on your filter list as spam.
That’s it! You’re done!
See, I told you it was easy. Now that you’ve completed this task those people will not be able to comment on your site again. However, if they use another name, or use a different computer with a different IP address they can comment, but this is very unusual.
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Can spam be dangerous?
Spam messages often come in the form of harmless (though annoying) promotions, but sometimes spam is a fraudulent or malicious scam, so be on your guard to protect yourself and your digital system.
Never, never buy anything from an unsolicited email, even if it’s something you want. If that is the case, I would suggest you do some research on the company first and read a bunch of reviews before buying anything. It’s far better to be safe than sorry.
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How do you protect yourself from spam?
There are several ways to protect yourself from unwanted spam. First, you can filter out spam the easy way just as I have shown you above. Then, several companies supply antivirus and spam filter software programs for a low cost, such as,
Norton – https://us.norton.com
or,
McAfee – https://www.mcafee.com/
I not only use the free filter I described above, but I also use McAfee’s system. I like theirs because I can choose between a one-year or a two-year program for a one-time low price. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand getting slapped with a monthly fee for such things that could be paid yearly.
The links above are for your I am not affiliated with these companies and will not get any credit or commission from their use. I only give these to you as a courtesy because I like helping my readers get quality products for low prices. I hope you enjoy these companies and their services.
Now that you know what a spam comment consists of and how to get rid of them you should have a lot less spam to deal with and a lot less stress in your life,
I’ve shown you a way to place any spammer’s name and IP address onto your spam filter list and given you two companies who deal in antivirus and spam software. Now that you have this information in your arsenal, you should get fewer spam comments on your website.
Now that you understand how to get rid of spam comments, it should be a lot easier to keep going with your blog or website with a lot less stress. I hope I’ve taken the mystery out of filtering out spam the easy way. I also hope I’ve alleviated some of, if not all your fears about the process too.
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I hope you enjoyed this article and feel it has met all your needs. If I haven’t met your needs for some reason, please let me know how to better serve you in the comments area or by contacting me privately. I want to make it right.
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