When I first set up my Wordpress Blog I had not set up any form security to block SPAM BOTS and was inundated with spammers that really are the scourge of the internet. I really do not understand the mentallity of those people at all. Obviously they put forth a substantial amount of time trying to spam sites with their links. But, for most content management systems someone is going to review and decide to approve or delete or spam the post. So, it seems as though it will generally be an exercise in futility. I cannot imagine they actually get more traffic that will result in higher conversions for whatever it is they are trying to promote. It seems to be a monumental waste of time for them and for everyone involved.

Fortunately, there are systems like CAPTCHA and others that will help eliminate these bots and bulk spammers. However, not all forms are on web content management sites, using robust packages with plug-ings to help stop the problem. Additionally, there is a cost associated with implementing some of these solutions. Another option for websites that have contact forms, is to write a script that will require the person submitting the form, to answer a simple question, such as “Ten minus three equals?” The person submitting the form will need to type in “seven” in the form field in order for the form to be processed. This is one way to combat this internet scourge. However, this is not something that a substantial portion of website owners will have the knowledge and abilitiy to do. However, there is another way that website owners can block these bots and spammers from even being allowed to open their pages. You can use .htaccess to allow or block IP addresses from your entire site, or from certain pages or directories on your site. This is probably a little easier than writing the server side script aforementioned. If you have the ability to do a little script writing and have the time, you could also set up “alerts” (those pop up warnings where you have to click on them to get them to go away). You could set those up so that they only pop up for certain IP addresses; and you could make the alerts say anything you want. In fact, you can set up a sequence of alerts, requiring them to have to manually close each one (time consuming and irritating for the spammer). Or you could write the script to redirect them to any particular site, or non-existent site of your choice.

However you choose to deal with these losers, I imagine will depend in part on your programming ability and the time or money you have to invest. In the event you would like to get a jump start on blocking IP addresses of known spammers, I have put together a small list I imported from an Excel file where these IP addresses end up on sites I have personal knowledge of. If you also have a list of SPAMMER IP Addresses to block, feel free to post them here.