The Deluge of Spam and Scams

I have noticed a rather large influx of spam comments at both my blogs. Many of the comments are more polished/targeted than before… they they’re still full of off topic links.

I’ve also noticed more scam emails and messages, particularly coming via friends on Facebook and Twitter.  At this point, I’ve probably been offered the chance to win 30 iPads (beta testing, simply signing up, or passing info along). Tempting… but no.

I suspect that this will get worse before it gets better – it comes with the territory of being active online. For the most part, it’s harmless… until, that is, you click on a link in one of these creatures.

If you’re lucky, you just go to a website that tries to sell a product. Often, though, you get your account hacked and/or other information stolen… often finding your own account sending out the same link that just fooled you. You wanna try to avoid that. Really.

There’s no litmus test to know for sure if a message and link is spam, but here’s how I approach the links/emails where I’m not instantly sure:

I look at the person who sent me this and ask “would my friend normally communicate this info to me this way?” I mean, if you knew a real way I could win an iPad, wouldn’t you call me or email me directly? (Please do, by the way!) Or if you really did just see me “in that video” wouldn’t you be more specific? Of course you would.

If that doesn’t give me a clear answer, I ask myself if I would ever intentionally send out a message like the one I just got… particularly to the person I’m seeing it from. If I wouldn’t, I’ll err on the side of caution and assume they wouldn’t do it intentionally either.

Those two questions really tend to identify every piece of spam email or message. I also know that if it sounds too good to be true… it isn’t true. And I never hesitate to write back (or Tweet back or FB message back) and simply ask if the message is legit.

On my blog, I’m fast with the delete key if a spam comment gets through my filters. No worries. No guilt. If your screenname is Dining Room Tables with a link to your sales site, your comment is going down (unless it’s brilliant, of course ).

The way I figure it, if a my commenter’s cousin really did tell them to read my blog and they really did find it “very useful,” they’ll come back even if I delete their comment telling me that news.

Keeping safe is key for the peace of mind, of course, but it’s also a huge time and energy saver – clean-up can be annoying and frustrating.

And hey… if you do click on a bad link or send out a spam message by mistake, don’t waste time being embarrassed. It happens. Just take care of whatever issues you might have created… then buy yourself a $250 Neiman Marcus cookie and move on.

Do you have favorite tips on avoiding spam and scams? We all could use extra tools in our arsenal, so please share whatcha know!