Trackbacks and Pingbacks and Blog Spam, Oh My!

A.K.A. Let's see how difficult it is to write a script that programmatically solves one of the most popular WordPress Captcha plugins. [tl;dr: It's not very hard at all.]

So, I stepped away from this blog for a brief period of time and, upon return, noticed an aggregation of spam comments throughout many of my posts. Blog spam is an ongoing epidemic but one that I didn't put much consideration into when creating this blog. In fact, I did nothing more than install the #1 ranked plugin when searching "WordPress Captcha" on Google.   This plugin, developed by BestWebSoft, calls on users to complete rudimentary math problems before registering or submitting comments.  At first glance, I applauded its simplicity when compared to the much more infuriating image deciphering ploys common with captcha services. Read Full Article

Spammy Scam: Domain Expiration Notice

Over the years I have established a fair number of email accounts, the oldest of which have long been overtaken by spam to the point that checking them is a futile endeavor. Rather than just shift-deleting all of the messages, however, I thought it might prove fun to technically analyze some at random.

RE: Notification – Registration Registration

Today’s scam email is allegedly1 brought to you by “Customer Contact Manager – PO Box 4668 New York, NY 10163.” Read Full Article