A new kind of comment spam: One blog at a time

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 04, 2005

My colleague Rob Hof has been complaining about a new kind of comment spam at Tech Beat that appears to be personalized. It focuses on the content of the post. I have trouble understanding how spammers, working one blog at a time, can generate a return on such detailed work.

Now looks like it has something to do with viral marketing. In any case, it’s clear the trend is on the rise. See the incredible story of the brand called Cillet Bang. (from David Weinberger) Congrats to Tom Coates for enterprising reporting. He links to an apparent apology from the Cillit Bang team.

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Reader Comments

Zoli Erdos

October 4, 2005 01:17 PM

Stephen, like you, I have no clue how writing individual and relevant comments can be a scalable method of spam. But the other shocking part in the story is who is behind: Young & Rubicam is not a shady little outfits, but for all I know one of the very respected traditional firms in the Advertising Market. (like the Big 6 .. 5.. 4.. Accounting firms were in their profession, before their scandals surfaced ... haha)

Tim Kitchin

October 7, 2005 12:37 PM

What seems even worse to me is the attempt to clean up the mess by wiping the site of all the comments.

A very few strains are still visible at www.blogpulse.com.

They should have the decency to take the whole site down.

From one ethical and technical ineptitude to the next.

linux cds

November 19, 2005 09:41 PM

However, that would take an extremely long time. And you could be legally responsible for the comments entered. It just seems like a bad practice.

Thank you for your interest. This blog is no longer active.

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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