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Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Spam-a-Lot or Not

Apologies for borrowing a word which, most often is associated with something that's entirely different and entertaining; however, my use of the word definitely is not. The other Spamalot is a musical retelling the legend of King Arthur. It's based on the 1975 film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Its title is a portmanteau (a word or part of a word made by combining the spellings and meanings of two or more other words or word parts) in this case, Spam and Camelot.

My use of spam-a-lot refers to the proliferation of spam comments that myself and other bloggers have to deal with, sometimes on a daily basis. This comment ↓ is an example. 
Often, an identical spam comment will be repeated for multiple blog posts. Most times, the comments are left overnight, an indication that spammers are in another country/time zone.
In recent weeks, I've been reporting many of these multiple spammers to Google. In the above example, clicking on the spammer's name, Mostbet, brings up this page where I click on Report Abuse.
Next, this screen to Report a community violation displays to identify the URL of the spammer you want to report and I click on Report.
This next screen presents a selection of violations and one can be selected by clicking on it.  I've been selecting spam, malware, or phishing. However, despite selecting this violation, in the past few days, the same spammer has been leaving spam. So, this week, I selected harassment or bullying and will see if that brings any results in halting this spammer.
After I've selected the reason for reporting the violation, this next screen displays and then I click on Submit Report.
The final step is to go back and delete the spam comment. 
This is the email that Google sends every time a violation is reported. Some days, I have received multiple thank you emails for reporting multiple violations.  

Does this process work?
Yes and no because some days I have had zero spam comments and then other days, there will be anywhere from a few to 6 or more. I've noticed that there has been a reduction from certain spammers with a few exceptions. That's why I plan to select a different violation to report in the future as spam actually is a form of harassment or bullying.

If any other bloggers have gone through this process, please share your experiences in a comment especially whether it's been successful or not in stopping some of the spam.

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Our thanks to everyone for your condolences on the recent passing of my friend and of Patrick's cousin. Also, thanks to those who commented on coincidences in your own lives.

21 comments:

Jeanie said...

That's interesting. I don't mind as much if I get spam from someone who actually comments as though they'd read the post. I'll post that one (I moderate comments). But if it's clearly a BOT, nope!

Tom said...

...spam is a minor problem for me.

Anvilcloud said...

I’ve not gone that far. Usually Blogger flags something as Spam and then I just trash it. Occasionally, I have to flag it and then trash it. And then there are the comments that it thinks are spam but aren’t, sometimes including even my own comments (replies) on my own blog.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

I get some spam but it’s not a huge problem and since I moderate comments before they are published they don’t make it to my blog. If ever I need a taxi in Dubai, however, or window cleaning in Mumbai……..

Boud said...

It's a minor problem on my blog. But there's a nursing school in India that's determined to enroll me!

Marie Smith said...

I have had a few over the last two months. Moderation of comments helps!

kathyinozarks said...

for me pam here on my blog comes and goes-that is why I moderate comments-so readers don't have to read those. I either get those every day for awhile or none at all not sure what triggers those

MadSnapper n Beau said...

I did not know this is there, so thanks, there are 2 that drive me crazy, I just do the mark as span and report and delete them. the two I am talking about leave multiple, one time it was 100 I had to delete, if I get more than one I will do this process

MadSnapper n Beau said...

PS I don't have time to moderate, can barely fit read/comment/posting

MARY G said...

I suspect that the first several layers of action on spam reporting is by AI; people only get involved when it gets serious as you have made it with the 'harassment' tag. I use the dotted corner in Facebook posts that allows you to pause or report. Luckily I get very little spam in the comments on my blog. The benefits of being in a very tiny and well-shaded crack. You have a wider audience and are therefore better worth hitting.

Bijoux said...

I sometimes get the gambling spam, but not too often. One commenter named Stacy will write a nice comment but include a link to her cabinet refacing company as part of the comment. It's very strange! LOL! She's done it a few times. You can see one of them in my post about things in my dining room.

Kathy G said...

Good ideas. I don't get a lot of spam but have never thought about reporting it before sending it to the trash.

Rita said...

I moderate and just mark as spam and delete. I've never had more than a random one or two if they do show up. I think my blog is too small--lol! Never thought of reporting it in a different way. If they increase I will know what to do now. Thanks! :)

Jenny Woolf said...

I get a lot of spam from one of my blogs which is on my own domain. I have had to deal with that by using a contact form that flags it up so I can delete it unread. Blogger doesn't bother me, I pre moderate comments and can quickly see the ones which are spam. What gets me is the rubbishy suggestions on Facebook!!!

Pamela M. Steiner said...

I do get occasional spammers in my comments, and I normally just identify them as spam and delete them. However, if they keep coming back, then I would do what you have done. That's why for a long time I used comment moderation so that I had to actually approve every comment before it was published, but some of our commenters thought their comments weren't going through and they would leave another comment, etc., so I quit doing the comment moderation thing and just try to check the comments daily to see what's there and deal with it accordingly. I really had the ones on Facebook, those "men" who really like my profile and want to be my friend. I report them all the time and block them, but eventually they keep coming back or they come back with a new name. Very annoying. I guess these are the prices we pay for being on social media, but it just seems like in this great age of technology that could be fixed! Thank you for your great informational post. I thought you were going to give us recipes for meals using Spam! LOL. Just kidding. I do like Spam however, the kind that comes in a can, not the kind that I find on my computer! LOL. Have a wonderful rest of your week.

My name is Erika. said...

I've been getting some spam comments, Like you, some days it's several and some days there's nothing. It's not as bad as the spam calls on my phone, and I wish there was as good a way to report them as there is for blogger. Hope you're not getting to wet today. hugs-Erika

Lowcarb team member said...

I too get some spam but since I moderate comments those unwanted ones can just be deleted.

You do have to be careful though because I have comments that go into spam folder when they are not spam but have come from a blogger known to me!

I always check my spam folder daily.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

All the best Jan

Michelle said...

I rarely get spam and I have been moderating my comments forever.

baili said...

You did quite a work to get rid of spams dear Dorothy, I appreciate your sincerity

Since I have blogging ,I didn’t get any for many years, they started with appear sometime ago last two to three months I guess, not in fixed amount but some time many like six to eight or sometimes one or two,I am using moderation option which I don’t like but no other option sadly
No I didn’t try that service until now,but thanks to bringing it into my notice.
Best wishes and hugs

nick said...

I hardly ever get spam on my blog, which is probably because BT seems to have an excellent firewall keeping out the unwanted. When I do get spam, I just delete it. I doubt if reporting it would have much effect.

Polly said...

Thank you for this advice Beatrice, I hadn't thought about reporting it, I just delete it. I don't get many, but will follow your advice next time.