My Fake Commenters and IP Addresses post generated some questions from you guys. Several of you wanted to know other ways to spot sneaky vendors who try to pose as brides in effort to promote their company/product. This happens quite a bit and it’s maddening, really. For those of us who work very hard on our sites and spend quite a bit of money in operating costs, having someone try to abuse our good will and our money for their own personal gain is such a dirtbag move on their part. If you want advertising and promotion, pay for it, or allow me to discover you through legitimate means myself. Anything else will gain you nothing but my ire.

Here are some ways to catch thieving dirtbags that I employ:

1. I personally read each of my comments. Learn what legit comments to your site look like. You’ll get a handle on what the majority of your commenters talk about and the language they use. Spammers tend to use promotional language even when they’re trying to be sneaky. If you’re a newbie blogger, check out the comments at your favorite bloggers’ sites to get a feel for the natural rhythm of commenting conversations.

2. Google and Yahoo are my friends. Whenever I get a comment that triggers that “uh oh” feeling, I hop on my favorite search engines and do 3 different searches:

• one for the exact wording used in my comment
• one for the company/url posted in the comment
• and one on the email account used by the commenter

I’ve had a recent commenter post about what favors she’s using and she just happened to drop the URL of her custom designer (ending in …..ffle.com for those of you getting similar spam this week) even though she didn’t have any idea what her favors would be. Did a quick search and found that someone was posting comments on other blogs with similar wording about that same company. Several, in fact, were posted on the same date under different user names all over the wedding blogosphere. It’s pretty obvious this is the same person who is spamming wedding sites. FAIL. Delete. Name on The Blacklist. The sad thing is that if she had personally introduced her company to me with a simple hello and an email, she had a pretty good chance of a mention and possible recommendation. Her chances of ever being promoted on my site or me recommending her to my clients is now exactly “when Hell freezes over”.

3. Keep a blacklist. I have an Excel spreadsheet where I list the email address, IP address, and spammy message for anyone suspected of spam. I’ve found a lot of similarities in approach and language of spammers this way. Because of the blacklist there are certain words and phrases that trigger a spam review on my site.

4. Beware of any comments that are all praise and that have the URL field fill in on the form. While we all love to show the love we’re getting in our comments, some spammy folk simply say something nice so they can get a linkback from your site. Be sure to check those links, too! Check out Drive-By Comments for some great examples of what I’m referring to.