Geezer with a Grudge: I'm Just A Spam Magnet

Feb 10, 2013

I'm Just A Spam Magnet

Every few days, I check my "waiting approval" comments folder to see what kind of brilliant commentary you guys have left for me. Mostly, it's a fun diversion, but emptying the spam folder is something else again. It's amazing the kind of crap people are trying to sell through the comments of a blog. I guess it's some sort of compliment that goofballs selling everything from Viagra and Russian penis enhancements (Russia must be one seriously insecure place for guys.) to women's knock-off purses think my readers are a likely market. On one hand, the traffic is slightly encouraging. On the other (the realistic one) hand, it's obvious that these characters just troll blogs and websites automatically and they could care less who the audience is as long as there is one.

Does anyone ever click on one of those links, maybe just to test their virus filters? All it takes is a single Cyrillic or Chinese character to scare me away from a link. Between the viruses and the identity thieves, it's hard to imagine who actually falls for this shit.

"5yZtk UGG Bailey Button Triplet Boots Black 1873 - BOOTSSale UkUGG 1875 Sheepskin Cuff Boots Brown - BOOTS Sale UkUGG Bailey Button Triplet Boots Red 1873 - BOOTSSale UkUGG Sunburst Tall Boots Chocolate 5325 - BOOTS Sale UkUGG 5803 Bailey Button Boots Black - BOOTS Sale Uk vKou Cheap UGG Fashion Limited Styles Handbag-Chestnut - BOOTS . . . " 'Cause nothin' says you're clinically lame like a pair of UGG boots.

or

"To believe with certainty,we must begin with doubting. ï»¿http://www.christian[deleted weirdness].com/ . . . " I wouldn't want to actually advertise one of these freaks.

or

"Ηurrah! Αfteг all І got a web sіte from where I be capablе оf really take valuable informatіon regarding my study anԁ κnowledge. Stoρ by my site; eyebrow tint Here is my web blog . . . " Do people still say "Hurrah?"

2 comments:

Trobairitz said...: For the most part you can tell right away they are spam so I avoid clicking. If it comes in from a name and not just anonymous I might click on their name to see if they are on the up and up.

For the ones I can't tell if they have a link I'll publish them, then check comments to see if there is a link (which there usually is) and then delete it.

If it is moto-related I might click on it to see. I had one of those this weekend.; 2/11/13, 8:01 AM
T.W. Day said...: For the most part, Google's spam filter is right on. However, some of these scamsters have found a way past the filter, so I set all comments on "moderate" so I can trash the crap that slips through the filter. I'd say about 80% of the comments my blog gets is from spammers. Depressing, but true.; 2/13/13, 8:33 AM

The Geezer Story

I stumbled upon this column name (Geezer with a Grudge) almost 20 years ago, in 1999. The first Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly editor I worked with, in late 1999, complained that the magazine was getting no mail and the editors wanted to know if any readers were still out there. I fired off a sarcastic note, as a joke, intended to provide a little humor and some feedback. He published it as an article and later called me to say he'd received more mail on that letter than he'd received in the past year! I followed that with an offer to write a monthly column attempting to piss off a particular section of the magazine's readership to see if that tactic would generate some mail.

It did, probably more regularly than the magazine wanted at times, and I wrote a monthly column for MMM until the magazine died in 2018.

I plan to post an occasional old Geezer article into the blog, followed by short comments about the current status of my perspective on our activity/sport/vehicle of choice.