Yesterday I left comments on a blogger-friend’s WP site and received back some spam ‘likes’ on my comments overnight – which really annoyed me because this problem also occurred in April this year (from a different WP blog-site).
For all I know, this may be happening to my followers too but no-one has alerted me to it. Its a real hassle trying to get definitive information about what’s going on but I persevered and thought I’d share what I found out – so that if you have the problem you don’t have to go through the search-process I did.
I ended up contacting Akismet directly (they handle the spam-management for WP) and got a reply from a staff member of Automattic:
Hi Liz, you’re not alone. We’ve seen an uptick in reports of “spam likes” today. It’s not possible to prevent all spam, but we are diligent about always improving. In fact we made a few changes today to combat this recent wave of spammers.
Please give it a day or two and let us know if the amount of spam like does not decrease.
I just thought that if you’ve encountered this issue you can at least take some comfort from the fact that they are currently working it.
Kind regards
Liz
PS. If you haven’t encountered this then lucky you! A spam ‘like’ has a dodgy looking site name when it shows up in your notifications and often includes words you don’t particularly want to see. At its most innocent it might be gibberish like this: id532999.zfvdgk.xyz
Here’s a photo from our winter hoar frost trip earlier this month – a frozen letterbox in a frozen landscape. Just including it to pretty up my post π
Text and Photo by Liz; Exploring Colour (2018)
Thanks for that Liz, I haven’t had any issues but then I’m a pretty small fish in the blogosphere. Love the photo, but it just makes me more grateful to be living where I am. π
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That was just part of a day trip for us so it was an adventure. I wouldn’t want to live there in the winter though. Gore recently has been really still and fog/low cloud so rather chilly with no sun and a bit depressing. I want some sun again! Useless for drying washing (I depend on outside drying). But Nigel and I love these southern regions all the same, Southland and Otago. Last night we were in Dunedin and saw a movie about Piet Oudolph and his style of landscape planting. It was wonderful. Actually I’m still in Dunedin, typing this from the public library π
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I have enjoyed visiting the region and hope to get down there again early next year. Summer, you’ll notice. I think I’m solar powered. Can’t cope with too many cloudy days so I live on the doorstep of the sunshine capital of NZ.
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Spring is beautiful down here Wendy and worth considering, before it gets too hot and before there’s crowds of other visitors and tourists.
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Another great image, love the frozen mailbox in the scene! We’ve had some waves of this also, nothing today so far!
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I hope they’ve got it sorted Ellen!
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I don’t think Ted or I have gotten a new one in the last 24 hours. Hopefully the spammers won’t find a new way.
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Hooray, I’ve had no further problems either!
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Double Like!
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The same thing happened to me recently. They liked two different comments I made on the same WP site.
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Very frustrating as you can’t just delete them, WP doesn’t have a function for that. People have been complaining about this in the forum. I’m glad to have the opportunity to thank you for visiting so regularly and ‘liking’. I only have a handful of NZ followers and really appreciate the support!
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I had a few of these this morning, so this post came at the right time. Glad to hear they’re working on it!
(also great photo π )
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Great the timing worked well for you and I’m glad you enjoyed the photo thank you π
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I been getting a lot too in the last few days.
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Thanks for letting me know. I hope its stopped by now but if the problem persists you can contact akismet who have a contact page at https://akismet.com/contact/
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Yup, I got them too.
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I do hope they’ve got it sorted now!
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Thank you for posting this, Liz! I had the same problem too and I hope, they will solve it! I was also thinking about posting it. Your picture looks pretty cold – hard to imagine!
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Wish we could mix the temperatures up a bit to create the perfect temperature that we want! Lots of people are telling me they’ve had the same spam problem, very frustrating for everyone. At least WP gave me the link to contact akismet – there are people who’ve told me they’ve tried to contact WP but got no reply!
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Thanks for the alert. I had the same problem yesterday and itβs good to know Iβm not alone or that it isnβt something Iβve done. I contacted WordPress and heard nothing back. Obviously akismet were the people to contact: Iβll know that if thereβs a next time. The spam likes seem to have stopped now.
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You’re welcome Jane. Here is the link to the akismet contact page for you to keep for handy reference – https://akismet.com/contact/
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Thank you, Liz.
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Thanks to Natalie at Sacred Touches. I came across your blog. I’ve been dealing with this all day, they even attach themselves to reblogs I did from back in 2017! I contacted WordPress, but I never heard back.
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Hi Nancy, thanks for getting in touch. To some extent I can help you by giving you the link to the contact form for Akismet who manage spam for WP. I got a response from them to my email address surprisingly quickly. Go to this link and then scroll down the page to the contact form: https://akismet.com/contact/
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Thanks Liz, I’ll remember that in the future, I still have not heard back from WP.
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Cheers, Nancy. I’m glad I did the post because it seems you’re not the only one who’s contacted WP and not heard back!
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Hi Liz, WP just contacted me they spoke with their spam folks and he said that they have rolled out some new code that should stop these spam comments and likes from coming in and if I can send you the see them to let them know
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Great Nancy! I haven’t had any more pesky false ‘likes’ so I think they’ve got it sorted for now!
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It’s quiet on my end too,I guess the storm is over!!! Yayπ€
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Sorry Liz, I went to correct my spell checker πand accidentally hit send.π
What I wanted to say….that if we continue to see them please let them know.
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We will indeed!
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Thanks a lot Liz! I had the same problem yesterday! Today we get 28 degrees in Germany. Frost is only in the fridge! :O
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You’re welcome Simone! I’m finding a lot of other people are very frustrated with this problem. Very cool here, especially with fog and no sun yesterday, and tiny bits of sunshine that haven’t lasted today. Longing for more sunshine!
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Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
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Thanks for the reblog!
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I got them, too! Thank you for letting us know. Hopefully, they’ll make the right changes and not screw up something else!! π
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Here’s hoping! π
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Reblogged this on Sacred Touches.
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I got a bunch of those today too. So annoying! π¦
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Thanks for telling me Natalie. It is indeed very annoying and I sure sympathize!
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Liz is on the case ! π. I was having the issue again and with my heavy traffic the last few days it was a problem. Thanks Liz πππππ
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It helps to share these things that challenge us and try our patience – grrrgh!!!
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Thanks for the information. I’ve had the occasional spam “like” but nothing lately. Yes they are sometimes rubbish, sometimes pretty seedy-looking. Thanks for the great photo!
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You’re very welcome and thanks for your response!
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Same happened to me yesterday, 9 likes on comments I made in other blogs left by the described fake-identities. These spammers are a bit crazy. Have a nice day!
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Thanks transmutation, its good to know of other peoples experiences and I hope you have a nice day also!
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