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Bots and Pingbacks – Beware

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!

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Author: Linda G. Hill

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

35 thoughts on “Bots and Pingbacks – Beware

  1. kamakshikaurmodel's avatar

    Thanx

    Liked by 1 person

  2. joey's avatar

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

    Like

  3. Hugh W. Roberts's avatar

    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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    • Linda G. Hill's avatar

      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

  4. Prior...'s avatar

    very helpful to know//// thanks

    Like

  5. Carol anne's avatar

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

    Like

  6. Wendy J's avatar

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

    Like

  7. willowdot21's avatar

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

    Like

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

  9. Ana Daksina's avatar

    Reblogged this to my sister site, Success Inspirers World

    Like

  10. trishafaye's avatar

    Good to be aware of. Thank you!!

    Like

  11. Dan Antion's avatar

    Thanks for the head’s up, Linda!

    Like

  12. IreneDesign2011's avatar

    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…..

    Like

  13. Deborah Drucker's avatar

    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. 🙂

    Like

    • Linda G. Hill's avatar

      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

      • Deborah Drucker's avatar

        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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  14. JoAnna's avatar

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

    Like

  15. Micki Allen's avatar

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

    Like

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