Have you had it with SPAM?
I have. While spam has been around for a while, and internet providers are doing their bit to control it (sometime a bit overzealously), I’d like to introduce you to BLAM.
It’s the same as Spam, ie unsolicited stuff, except this time it appears on websites designed to be interactive, blogs etc. We don’t want it because it takes time to ‘trash’ it, and it poses a risk should it ever get approved by accident, such that our site may get blacklisted, or masses of SPAM starts to be sent.
So, how do you eradicate it? Well, the easiest way is to turn off the ‘comment’ feature if you have it on your website. But you might not want to do this.
Next best is to install some ‘captcha’ systems which ensure any contributions through the site are written by humans. You know the funny letters you are often asked to type in.
Third is to block IP addresses. Most good websites will aloow you to block IP addresses. You can either block individual ones as they BLAM you, or you can install country blockers. Most websites are only after UK readers, or perhaps European ones. So close it down to Eastern Europe, Russia, and China. If you clients dont come from there, then this is probably the number one tool to stop BLAM, and the threats to your site. This is a half an hour job to install on most systems.
Whatever you do, never approve one of these comments! You will be sure to get much, much more.