Life in progress

Bots and Pingbacks – Beware

by 35 Comments

Here we go again. The bots and spammers have found a new trick. I had a spammer ping back to one of my older prompts this morning. Fortunately I get a little preview in my notifications of what’s in the body of the post where the link to my blog is situated. UNfortunately, you can’t see the preview in the link in my comments.

The one I caught this morning was trying to advertise steroids. All this to say if you see a pingback that’s suspect on one of my prompts, don’t click on it. I’ll do my best to zap them before they cause any trouble. And if you get one of these bots pinging back on your own blog, be sure to hit the spam button rather than delete, so maybe Akismet’s algorithms will catch them. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Please spread the word either by reblogging this or writing your own post. Don’t let the bots get the upper hand! Thanks!

Author: Linda G. Hill

There's a writer in here, clawing her way out.

35 thoughts on “Bots and Pingbacks – Beware”

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  1. kamakshikaurmodel
    February 19, 2018 at 11:08 am

    Thanx

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. joey
    February 10, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    Yes, I’ve seen that a time or two. Pinging back is so nice. Piggybacking on prompts is NOT. Tsk.

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  4. Hugh's Views and News
    February 10, 2018 at 5:43 am

    As I moderate all my comments and any pingbacks to my posts, they don’t appear on any of my posts unless I’ve approved them first. I do this from the comments section on the dashboard of my blog rather than from the notifications icon in the top righthand corner. On the dashboard, I can hover my mouse over the link and see a preview. If no preview comes up (or I can clearly see from the preview that it’s a link to spam)then I mark the pingback as spam and send it to my WordPress spam folder. This also helps WordPress identify any further spam links that may come through.

    I’ve also recently been getting some spam links from WordPress blogs set up by people who are obviously blogging to get unsuspecting people over to their blog where they can “cough, cough* sell themselves in-person or via webcam. I report any sites like these to WordPress so they can remove the blog.

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    • LindaGHill
      February 10, 2018 at 4:30 pm

      Unfortunately I can’t moderate my comments, what with the prompts. I’d have to be here 24/7 to keep people from getting frustrated. But checking comments from the dashboard is an excellent idea for those tricky comments we’re not sure of.
      I appreciate that you report the blogs to WP, Hugh! ❤ I shall endeavor to do the same. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  6. prior..
    February 9, 2018 at 6:12 pm

    very helpful to know//// thanks

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  7. manyofus1980
    February 9, 2018 at 5:03 pm

    Reblogged this on Therapy Bits and commented:
    Spread the word! The spammers are at it again!

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  8. wendyj59
    February 9, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    Pingbacks not a problem on blogger but neither this post or the SoCS prompt appeared in my reading list today. Weird!

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  9. willowdot21
    February 9, 2018 at 4:42 pm

    Reblogged this on willowdot21 and commented:
    Watch out for bots and spammers! Thanks for the heads up Linda!

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  10. Pingback: Bots and Pingbacks – Beware | Success Inspirers World

  11. Timeless Classics -- Poetry by Ana Daksina
    February 9, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    Reblogged this to my sister site, Success Inspirers World

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  12. trishafaye
    February 9, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    Good to be aware of. Thank you!!

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  13. Dan Antion
    February 9, 2018 at 2:00 pm

    Thanks for the head’s up, Linda!

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  14. IreneDesign2011
    February 9, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    Thank you for the warning, Linda.
    I have had a new visitor at my blog, as just like everything and think, that I got a comment too, which use to make me visit their blog too. The name for this blog had with Jewelry to do, but the site was all about sexy underwear for women and no jewelry…..

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  15. Deborah Drucker
    February 9, 2018 at 1:29 pm

    I usually check out who wants to ping back to my posts. And if it looks fishy I don’t approve it. Not sure if I have caught all the bots or illegitimate blogs this way. Sometimes I have allowed the ping back if they look harmless but maybe I should be more discerning. I like the idea of identifying them as spam. 🙂

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    • LindaGHill
      February 9, 2018 at 1:40 pm

      I get so many pingbacks that I don’t always pay attention to them right away. I just don’t want any of my followers to get caught clicking on the wrong ones. :/

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Deborah Drucker
        February 9, 2018 at 8:30 pm

        Well on my comment section it does show ping back differently than links to URLs If you are talking about URLs I can see where you would not want someone clicking on a spam one thinking it was a post. Then it would be time consuming to go through and identify them as spam. Geez.

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  17. JoAnna
    February 9, 2018 at 1:06 pm

    Reblogged this on Anything is Possible! and commented:
    Thanks to Linda Hill for the heads up!

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  18. Micki Allen
    February 9, 2018 at 12:36 pm

    Thanks much for the heads up, Linda. You’re the best!

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