I have chosen to have all comments with more then 2 links to be deemed as spam in the discussion options tab. Having done this I have had a huge increase in spam over the past 2 days, all with multiple links ( 7-8 links per comment) however these are not being marked as spam...
I am also running akismet and this is not picking them up either...
My way of banning these spamming scum(bad bots) is to chop them off at the .htaccess file. Robot files are ok, as robot files go, but there is no absolute for a spider to obey them, although, and many bad bots do, adhere to them. But a sure-fire way put up a "DO NO ENTER" is to use your .htaccess file.
You can have all the latest and greatest in catching spam, but at the end of the day, some or a lot are still going to get through. Here is what I put in my .htaccess file, this is not all of them, but they are the main offenders:
#These lines block bots that use your bandwidth for their own commercial reasons. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^abot.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^aipbot.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Linkwalker$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*nameprotect.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*TurnitinBot.*$ [NC,OR]
Will that also work for contact form spam? I am waiting for instructions on how to use the new 5.5 Contact Form. Until I get them perhaps, I can use your method.
If you add this to your .htaccess file, you will eliminate the most common bottom-feeding scum from entering your site. There are some bot-traps, like mouse traps, that send these low-life's into a trap they cannot get out of, I will post it as soon as I find it on my laptop!
#This one used to be the user agent for anonymizer---which was fine with me---but #recently it has been left as the user agent for what appear to be malicious bots #based on their behavior, so I've decided to block it for now. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*TuringOS.*$ [NC,OR]
#These lines block bots that use your bandwidth for their own commercial reasons. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^abot.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^aipbot.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Linkwalker$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*nameprotect.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*TurnitinBot.*$ [NC,OR]
#These rewrite conditions might be more conservative than some people want to be. RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^(http://)?(www\.)?[a-z]+\-[a-z]+\-.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^(http://)?(www\.)?[a-z]+\-[a-z]\.[a-z].*$ [NC,OR]
#For serious offenders or spammers who send referral spam directed to several different #domains, I block access by IP address. Listed here are the worst offenders. This method #may be more conservative than some people want to be; if so, just leave this part out of #your .htaccess file. <Files 403.shtml> order allow,deny allow from all </Files> deny from 12.22.85.3 deny from 147.230.50.100 deny from 148.244.150.58 deny from 165.138.213.230 deny from 193.159.244.70 deny from 193.170.65.247 deny from 194.102.61.162 deny from 195.239.211.235 deny from 200.167.245.13 deny from 200.168.105.137 deny from 200.212.114.3 deny from 200.56.224.5 deny from 201.199.61.182 deny from 203.162.27. deny from 206.212.187.26 deny from 207.195.241.4 deny from 207.245.84.70 deny from 207.44.154.35 deny from 207.72.66.5 deny from 208.18.125.231 deny from 208.53.138.8 deny from 208.66.195.0/22 deny from 209.213.127.46 deny from 209.71.222.11 deny from 211.157. deny from 211.249.118. deny from 212.179.154.242 deny from 212.199.163.143 deny from 212.199.169.153 deny from 212.235.18.85 deny from 212.235.66.240 deny from 212.91.171.252 deny from 213.130.118.121 deny from 213.56.68.29 deny from 213.56.73.3 deny from 213.91.217.116 deny from 216.128.69.140 deny from 216.139.176.60 deny from 216.190.203.162 deny from 216.204.237.10 deny from 217.120.32.183 deny from 217.121.100.124 deny from 217.132.202.119 deny from 217.160.75.202 deny from 218.20.116.80 deny from 218.5.27.115 deny from 218.85.82.95 deny from 218.85.83.168 deny from 220.160.2.167 deny from 220.160.4.75 deny from 220.181.26.108 deny from 220.226.245.148 deny from 221.3.235. deny from 24.69.156.45 deny from 61.144.185.75 deny from 61.172.65.176 deny from 61.30.47.21 deny from 61.30.47.22 deny from 62.148.230. deny from 62.168.39.178 deny from 62.193.231.242 deny from 62.194.10.194 deny from 62.219.59.122 deny from 63.145.202.2 deny from 63.148.99.234 deny from 63.252.226.68 deny from 64.141.68.16 deny from 64.34.166.88 deny from 64.34.168.29 deny from 64.34.200.200 deny from 64.92.171.106 #layeredtech deny from 65.75.139.90 deny from 65.75.146.170 deny from 65.75.166.110 deny from 65.75.175.30 deny from 65.77.131.66 deny from 65.94.44.50 deny from 65.94.45.31 deny from 66.150.40.221 deny from 66.199.247.74 deny from 66.246.252.87 deny from 66.246.252.88 deny from 66.254.99.174 deny from 66.33.197.209 deny from 66.93.178.158 deny from 66.98.152.93 deny from 66.98.162.34 deny from 67.15.130.23 deny from 67.15.202.35 deny from 68.208.4.19 deny from 69.0.197.227 deny from 69.156.204.43 deny from 69.163.158.82 deny from 69.50.170.122 deny from 69.50.170.162 deny from 72.232. #layeredtech deny from 72.36.199.154 deny from 80.132.64.103 deny from 80.237.140.233 deny from 80.58.11.107 deny from 80.58.22.107 deny from 80.58.4.107 deny from 80.95. deny from 81.169.169.201 deny from 81.4.89.10 deny from 82.103.65. deny from 82.81.204.164 deny from 82.81.228.82 deny from 84.189. deny from 84.244.5.173 deny from 87.228.59.40 deny from 89.169.244.169 deny from 89.169.247.175