I’vebeen inundated with comment spam lately. The spam is a bunch of links tovarious .info domains, mostly relating to poker and pharmies. Judging by thedomains mentioned in the spam, I’m assuming that it’s all comingfrom the same source. I’m also guessing that these are probably beingentered manually, given that I’ve turned off access to DasBlog’sComment API.
I looked up WHOIS records for several domains mentioned in the last spam I got andnoticed an interesting correlation. The domains are registered to differentpeople (mostly located in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio), but all of themhave Moniker Online Services, LLC listed as the sponsoring registrar. Thesepeople run Moniker.com, an online domain registration company.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the “web site promotion” servicesoffered by Moniker.com are really spam sweatshops – cheap offshore laborersemployed to write comment spam. I cannot prove this, but I have my suspicions.
Whoever they are, they’re a real pain in my butt.
Moniker.com and comment spam
Monday, November 08 2004 - blog
- #1 Jeff Julian on 11.08.2004 at 4:31 AM
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Are you suggesting a blogger-wide DOS attack? :D
- #2 Tim Shakarian on 11.08.2004 at 9:36 AM
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I'm having similar problems, but I haven't taken the time to trace the source. The next version of .Text will have optional image verification to make sure a human is typing in a comment, but that doesn't stop the spam sweatshops. I like Jeff's idea: a blogger-wide DDOS sounds perfect!
- #3 Scott Hanselman on 11.10.2004 at 5:42 PM
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I don't believe in Spam Sweatshops. :)That said, here's image verification for dasBlog, implemented by moi.http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=99b2e3e9-5597-4883-a015-d77c3246a2a8
- #4 cindy on 2.08.2005 at 12:48 PM
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I agree with you 100%.Have you noticed the each of the entries have numbers that are included in the middle of the address (fake) of the registered domains?I think it's a helpful number so they can tell how many spam domains they have set up.Here is an example of one of them:Brycen, London (NIC-17655) contact70@team-support-24x7.net London Brycen Fairfax Ct 57 Fort Madison Indiana,US 94951 Phone: 9036210051I'd say thats #57 of 50 bejillion that they have already set up.Argh!
