The only surprise is that it took so long: I’ve just received my first “comment spam,” which Wikipedia says is “done by automatically posting random comments” in the hopes of increasing a site’s search engine ranking. Of course, that only works if the comment gets posted and readers actually click through to the highlighted site.
In a way, you have to give spammers a tiny bit of credit for ingenuity. Although surely fewer people every day are falling for “enhancement” offers and invitations to receive large sums of money in return for delivering a bank account number, spammers keep coming up with new ways to trick us. Lately I’ve received a few breathless messages telling me “someone” has sent me an e-card (sorry, I don’t follow those links unless a friend’s name appears somewhere) or sternly advising me that I must update my online banking information — with an institution I don’t even use. Spiders and bots sweep the Web trolling for e-mail addresses. Bloggers get comment spam.
Ah, the evolution of the Web. Isn’t it grand?
One Comment
I get more spam comments to my novel blog than real ones. Very annoying. I don’t know why spammers think this works! Who buys from spam?