Comments in dashboard but I don’t have any blogposts

Hi @vytaulla51! Are these legitimate comments or are they spam/bot created?

For the latter, we have a few recommendations at https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Combating_Comment_Spam

Consider a plugin like:
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/akismet/
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/stop-spammer-registrations-plugin/ https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/antispam-bee/

Also, harden WP: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Hardening_WordPress

Hi Madison:

It was one of those “I can do SEO for you” pitches.

I just learned that the person/bot was “commenting on an image” – how would that be? An image on a page that you have to be logged in to see.

Does that make sense to you?

It does, I believe there are some types of WordPress assets (like attachments) which aren’t entirely private. An example of this on your own site is: https://www.wulffenterprises.com/?attachment_id=30.

It is possible for bots to crawl through your website and identify places where leaving comments is possible where it wouldn’t normally be available for regular users of your site. You can potentially use a plugin like the Disable Comments plugin to remove this feature entirely.

It is possible for bots to crawl through your website and identify places where leaving comments is possible where it wouldn’t normally be available for regular users of your site.

I didn’t know that was possible.

Thanks for the info!

Unfortunately yes! To quote the first link I shared:

Comment spam is a fact of life if you have a blog…There is no “one size fits all” method that will protect your comments; spammers use many tactics. Consider using multiple defenses. Remember spammers change the way they attack so you must keep your choices updated.

Just as a reminder that, as much as we work to prevent these things from happening, malicious forces can and will find their way in!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Madison Swain-Bowden.

If your question has been answered, we would love if you would mark this topic as resolved in the sidebar. This helps our volunteers find the topics that still need attention and more people will get helped, possibly like you did. Thank you!

Question: If I removed the “enable comments” in functions – would that prevent them altogether?

Are you referring to your functions.php file? It’s possible that removing it there will remove the functionality entirely. It’s also possible that removing it may break certain parts of WordPress. You could try it by commenting out the sections you think might be affecting comments (e.g. wrap them with /* <code to comment out> */, this works over multiple lines too).

Thanks Madison.