While email spam is battled with relentless focus, web spam becomes more powerful while we aren't watching. By "web spam" I am referring to the type of spam that is posted on blogs, comment sections or forums. Because we have been so barraged with unwanted messages from bots, many sophisticated plugins and scripts have been developed. The Akismet web service blocks nearly all of the common bot-posted spam (online casinos, pharmacy links) and does its job so well, you may be lucky enough to only receive one bogus comment or trackback every few months. Akismet can be implemented into many applications which receive submitted content such as forums, wikis, contact forms and blogs.
So we finally have adequate protection available for these kinds of annoyances. The new arising problem is the spammers are realizing their success rates are dropping. If the bots can't get into our forums and blogs, then who can? Only real human eyes. In the past few months I have witnessed a definite increase in the amount of spam being posted by real people behind their smeared monitors. Unless these posters are directly benefiting from the spam they spew, they must be "employed" by the head spammers. The good part of this is that spammers' pockets are now being emptied. While their bot-operation failure rate climbs as we build more walls, they are reluctantly spending their own money to recoup losses.
The new breed of web spammers aren't just posting about their regular reduced-price selection of watches and illegal software. Now they are even targeting web hosting. It's a bit scary to think that some seedy host start-ups out there are recruiting this underground advertising. Luckily most of the big forums or high traffic blogs are quick to catch their posts and remove them fast. Now that we're back to fighting the old fashioned way, hopefully we'll show them what we've got.
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