How do you guys deal with comment spam? I have been using Akismet and Spam Karma, both of which have deal wonderfully well with most types of comment spam. Unfortunately, though, there is a type of comment spam that is manually submitted and can pass even the most strict SK tests, including captcha.

I was browsing one of my other blogs when I noted that there had been three or four spam comments similar to the one below, all directing me to one ESL website in an English-speaking country and posted on one of my ESL websites. The spam was attached to different posts, but the format was very similar each time, with the same URL.

Anyway, I wrote a short but polite email asking the webmaster to desist from spamming my blog(s), but within five minutes of sending the email, I found another spam comment exactly similar to the one above. The email was worded thus:

Dear Website Owner,

In the last few days, your website has been linked via comment spam in
three of my posts. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use comments on my
blogs as a way to spam links to your website.

You can of course buy them, I’d be happy to provide real links to your
blogs. I have a number of blogs and websites that would be appropriate
for real text links, either in posts or in the sidebar.

Best Wishes
etc.

Well, after my appeal fell on deaf ears, I decided to contact their webhost, I had to do a tracert command to find the hosting company and the IP address. It wasn’t particularly difficult, and I forwarded a polite but detailed email complaining about the spamming, with pretty much all the details I included here.

> I’m receiving a lot of comment spam from one client that I have traced
> to you through the IP address: 72 . 52 . *** .**
> This user is using a form of comment spam on one of my blogs where he or she
> is repeatedly placing comments in my posts.
>
> I have asked him to desist, but all I go t was more comments of the type:
>
> It’s quite clear to me that comments of the type are spam comments as
> they are all very similar and come from the same person.
>
> Author : ****. (IP: *** , host.***.net) E-mail :
> ***@yahoo.com URL : http://www.***.***

Comment: Hello
> webmaster, Nice writeup about <enter postname>?. I would
> have to agree with you on this one. I am going to look more into ***l.
> This Friday I have time.
>
> This is a sample. I’m sure that this is a violation of a TOS on your
> server hosting. I’d appreciate some action.

They promised to send it to their Abuse department to look at it. I regret having to do this, but if a spammer doesn’t stop, as a website owner, what alternatives do I have?…

What did you do to combat spam on your blog(s)? I’d love to know. Names, IPs and Web URLs have been changed to spare the blushes of the spammer, …