If you respond to SPAM, you have only yourself to blame when it goes wrong.
Today I receive another SPAM comment. I get a lot of these. The comments are keyed to keywords in the text of my posting. Some of them are so generic as to make it obvious. This one was pretty good, but again, a generic block of text that could be posted to any posting with the phrase "pay off your mortgage".
The kicker, is that it has an embedded HTML link to GMAC Mortgage (removed here, but shown in pink):
jackie100 said...
Behind the argument for not paying off your mortgage is the reasoning that you could invest the extra money and earn a higher return, while keeping your money more liquid. That may have been a good reason in the past but the rate of return on investing now is more questionable, compared to the fact that every dollar paid to reduce a mortgage balance provides a guaranteed return equal to the interest rate on the mortgage.
Home Loans
October 31, 2011 7:43 PM
A search on "jackie100" shows that he/she doesn't have a profile, a blog, favorite blogs, or any information whatsoever. Just a blank profile page with the name and an indication of 49 hits on it since 2009.
Most of these SPAM comments work the same way. Embedded htmls to commercial websites, and a profile that is either blank, or is just more SPAM for some product or service - usually something marginal.
It is not hard to program a SPAMBOT to surf Blogger, look for posts with certain keywords in them, and then generate a generic "comment" with inserted SPAM.
Since many blogs do not moderate comments, it is an effective technique - the SPAM gets posted.
SPAM, like any con or fraud, can only work when people fall for it. As a general rule of thumb, never, ever, ever, click on a SPAM link, and for God's sake, never do business with a company that SPAMs people.
They have telegraphed, up front, how deceitful and dishonest they are, by pretending to post a comment when they are in fact, advertising. Who do you blame, later on, when the business relationship goes horribly wrong?
Yourself. They told you up front they are scumbags. You have only yourself to blame when they fuck you badly.
It would be like responding to one of those signs you see tacked up by the side of the road.
"But Bob!" you say, "their cardboard sign on the lamp post was really well done, with only one or two spelling errors! How was I to know that the WealthMaster system was a fraud?"
Same deal.
UPDATE: For this and other reasons, comments are DISABLED on this blog.
