SPAM with comments and pings disabled??

  • I’ve got Captcha installed and was still getting piles of Spam comments. Of course they were all going to my “moderation” list not to my site. But I was getting tired of the spam so I did the UPDATE SQL query to disable comments for all posts and for all pings, but I’m still getting SPAM. How can that be?????!!!!

    Is this is a known issue with a known fix in a recent release – beyond 2.0.4? Upgrade is enough of a pain that I don’t want to upgrade unless I”m getting a fix to this problem.

    I can’t even imagine how they are getting comments into my blog, that require moderation, with comments turned off on all pages and posts. Earlier I suspected that they had broken the admin password, and changed it. But if the admin password were compromised, the comments would not end up in “moderation” but would go straight to the posts. I have stopped all the spam in moderation for several months and still they persist. Of course if it is automatic robots pushing an exploit, they don’t care if they make it or not.

    blog is at https://www.windyweather.net/wp/

    Also, the emails from wordpress indicate that all the domains are coming from one hosting service navicosoft.com. I have sent them an email with wordpress email attachments and ask them to stop the spammers. Is that the best recourse that we have?

    Thanks,
    windy

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • How about trackbacks? This sounds like trackback behavior. What plugins do you have installed that fight spam?

    Thread Starter windyweather

    (@windyweather)

    I have Captcha installed. I would rather stop spam at this point by disabling comments… Then turn them back on when I know what is going on… How can I stop trackbacks?

    Captcha does nothing whatsoever for trackbacks.

    My standard advice follows:

    Install and activate Akismet or Spam Karma 2.
    Then install and activate Bad Behavior.

    https://akismet.com/
    https://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/
    https://homelandstupidity.us/software/bad-behavior/

    For those who struggle with the Akismet
    directions: https://wordpress.com/api-keys/

    Thread Starter windyweather

    (@windyweather)

    I have read the “Standard Post” a dozen times. Thank you. Can someone please answer my question? To stop trackbacks, can I simply remove wp-trackback.php? Does that have any bad side effects that anyone is aware of?

    Thank you so much for answering my question,
    -windy

    I have read the “Standard Post” a dozen times. Thank you.

    You’re welcome. Out of curiosity, why ignore it?

    Can someone please answer my question?

    You’ve asked many in this thread. The responses have attempted to generalize and reply.

    To stop trackbacks, can I simply remove wp-trackback.php?

    Sure. That’d ensure you’d never get one again. You’d want to make sure your 404 page catches ’em to save error logs from getting big, I suppose.

    Many bloggers consider valid trackbacks useful.

    Does that have any bad side effects that anyone is aware of?

    See above.

    Thread Starter windyweather

    (@windyweather)

    I have read the “Standard Post” a dozen times. Thank you.

    You’re welcome. Out of curiosity, why ignore it?

    I’m not ignoring your fine advice, but like the fellow with his thumb in the dike, I’d like to make sure that I can stem the tide before adopting a solution that suits my needs.

    Thanks for the help with the confirmation for trackbacks. Now if the spam is completely quiet for a couple of days, then I can make appropriate changes for my solution.

    Thanks so much,
    -windy

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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