Help! My site is once again beset my spam

I’ve updated the plugin to 1.4.1 and I’m still getting spam. This plugin worked like a dream for years, so even if Andy doesn’t manage to find a fix, I’m grateful for that.

thanks Harouni, I didn’t spot that

if you’re getting targetted by human spam or you’re on a server that is getting targeted then there’s isn’t much that a plugin can do DaveMcK

or perhaps there is a vulnerability in wp3.6 ?

My update to version 1.4.1 also has my blog spam inundated. Thankfully I’m using Cooments Evolved, https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/gplus-comments/, so its easy to turn the default comments on or off. Since comments on my site from other bloggers looking for a dofollow backlink via comluv wasn’t a major hit with them, I’m happy to just have the G+ and Facebook for now.

Perhaps it is a WP 3.6 issue, is there any way of finding out from the developers?

Anyway, good luck everyone. Hope it sorts out soon…

I think if many people are getting spam again after upgrading to wp3.6 you should report it to trac

https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/

ok people, I have added one more function to GASP to check the referring page

I am currently testing it on comluv.com and it has caught 77 bot comments so far

I’ll zip the file up and provide a url here after a few hours of it behaving nicely on my site

the beta file is here

https://ql2.me/gaspbeta

please report any problems here or with a support ticket at https://commentluv.zendesk.com

deactivate and delete the old plugin first
(don’t forget to clear your cache if you’re using a cache plugin!)

Thanks to Andy for staying on top of this.

I’m subscribing and awaiting the next official release here before rolling it out to all blogs.

This plugin has been great and I’m sure you’ll get caught up soon!

Latest version still seems to be letting spam in. Spam origins seems to coming from a USA/EU based servers.

It also seems to be getting through Akismet

Hope that helps.

I was noticing it too and it appears there is a new module for scrape box which is able to learn what fields need to be sent with the comment form so anything I add to send with the comment for more security can be spoofed by the module

So I have set up my main site to use the new anti back linker plugin which removes all links from comments until the user has had 3 approved comments

And because scrape box is able to check if their spam comments went through and contained their links, it sees that leaving comments on my site doesn’t get them any back links at all! Not even the name link

..and all legitimate commenters see their comments go through

I’ll be releasing it soon to CommentLuv premium members

And possibly releasing a “lite” version for everyone else..

Stay tuned!…

this latest version is certainly better for me so far, not stopping everything but better than 2 weeks ago.

Happy to provide information to assist if needed.

thanks @snowballfighters!

I have just done another edit and I think this will smash the spammers this time..

turns out that scrapebox (a spamming tool) has a new learning module and it’s that which learns your field names

so if you change the name of the field, they can learn it again

..so I have made it so the secret key field name changes for every post

.. and made it impossible to comment if they already have x comments in moderation.

that means, the default setting of maximum moderated comments of 3 would mean scrapebox could only make a maximum of 3 spam comments over your whole site (using the same email address and if you haven’t approved any of their comments)

I’ll release it soon, just tidying up the code and seeing how it performs on my fiddyp.co.uk site

the new version has just been released (v1.5)

Thanks for all your hard work on this plugin! Hopefully the mod fix helps a bit…

What happened with the styling? I have a handful of blogs using this plugin and the checkbox/label fields have strange alignment issues.

Please advise.

@zadro – have a look at this thread as it might help solve your alignment issues:
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/why-is-tick-box-width-styled-by-php-not-css?replies=5

I noticed the increase when I went to 3.6, but the upgrade came timely. It has created a new issue. The spam is still piling in (secret changing did not help) and now my regular commenters are all listed as spam bots. My email box has exploded with people who have been leaving comments for years who think I have unplugged them.

I deleted, cleared cache and reinstalled. All my old settings (and changed text were there). Any ideas on how to purge it more completely? Should I ftp it out and try again?

It may not help to tell you the errors are not consistent. I have one commenter who could not; I told her refresh; she could. Tonight, I got a friend to test it. She managed to leave one, but her second one was blocked. She used a new email address and was admitted to moderation with no issues.

https://mommasmoneymatters.com