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MT 3.3 offers a built-in spam protection plugin called SpamLookup. In addition to this plugin, there are several other options you can implement to help stem the tide of spam. Note that the spammers are constantly improving their methods to game the system, requiring constant vigilance on the part of the MT community to keep coming up with new ways to block them.

* SpamLookup
SpamLookup is a Movable Type plugin, developed by Brad Choate, that uses several techniques to identify spam, and then uses user-supplied choices to either moderate or block it. SpamLookup is an integrated part of MT 3.3, so if you have installed the latest version of MT, there is nothing more you need to install. SpamLookup utilizes several blacklist services to check incoming comments and trackbacks against known spammers. It allows you to either “junk” or moderate comments and trackbacks based on different settings for links and keywords. You can even “white list” domains or IP addresses. To adjust the settings on SpamLookup, simply open up your Plugins menu from the System Overview of your Movable Type editing window. Scroll to the bottom and select “Show Settings” from any of the SpamLookup modules. See Neil Turner’s suggestions on Making the Most of SpamLookup and David Philip’s SpamLookup’s Keyword Filter Explained for more information on how to best use this plugin.

* Akismet
Akismet is a distributed spam filtering service developed by the Wordpress community. According to the Akismet FAQ, the way it works is “When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to your blog it is submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down.” MT developer Tim Appnel has created an MT plugin for Akismet (MT-Akismet) which can be downloaded from the Akismet website. Many have found Akismet to be more effective at catching spam than SpamLookup.

* Comment Challenge
Jay Allen’s Comment Challenge plugin requires a commenter to type a keyword into a separate field from the comment field in order for the comment cgi script to run. This plugin effectively halts automatic computer generated spam comments.

* Use a “Captcha”
A captcha is a security code that a commenter must enter in order for her comment to load. The benefit is that it screens out automated comment spam bots. The downside is that it keeps visually disabled people from easily contributing a comment. Arvind has released an SCode plugin to work with MT 3.2 - MT-SCode 1.0.

* Require approval before a comment posts
One way to ensure that your readers never have to see a spam message is that you personally approve comments before they are posted. MT3 has the comment moderation features built-in. (See Settings > Feedback > check “Immediate publish comments from No one”.)

Close old comments.
One way to cut down on blog spam is to reduce the opportunities by closing the ability to comment on blog posts older than X number of days. Mark Carey’s BlogJanitor plugin lets you do just that, and all automatically.

1. Basic comment spam. The spammer leaves a short uneventful message in a comment field in one of your entries. The spam comes from the URL placed in the comments URL field. These URLs link back to every conceivable scam.
2. Comment spam flooding. The spammer uses an automated computer bot to flood your blog with comment spam messages, up to hundreds in an hour. The spammer doesn’t necessarily leave a URL, but can leave garbage messages, almost like a graffiti artist. The comment spam can put a severe load on the server hosting your blog software to the point that it crashes.
3. Trackback Spam. Spammers have discovered how to take advantage of Trackback. TrackBack spam is very similar to comment spam. The spammer sends TrackBack pings to your site that direct viewers to a totally unrelated URL.
4. Referral spam. The spammer links to your site from their site, and then pings your site through their link, thus creating a reference and link to their site on the statistics referral log of your website. When you are reviewing your stats and see the reference to an odd site (ex. Paris Hilton), clicking on the link takes you to their site. Many people list “referrals” on their site publicly, so by spamming referral logs, not only does the spammer get a link on your referral log (which is picked up by Google) but may even get a link on your main page.

Spam is the term used to describe junk mail messages sent to your e-mail account.

You may receive an e-mail and not recognise the address of the sender. Alternatively, spam mails can come from people you know, but who are not aware their account is being used by a malicious program to automatically send out junk mail to contacts in their address book.

Someone may forward a spam e-mail to you thinking it is a genuine message - perhaps appearing to be from a charity asking for your help to spread their message to everyone you know.

Like junk mail that comes through your door, spam e-mails often try to encourage you to buy a product or sign up for a service. Often there will be an attached file or a link to a web site, but these may actually be trying to install malicious software on your PC or attempting to get your personal information.

Spam mails will usually try to entice you to open them by having titles that promise things like financial rewards, health products, the latest news or gossip, cheap deals or celebrity pictures. Often their titles will contain odd mis-spellings; these are attempts to fool anti-spam programs.

The safest course of action is not to open any e-mail you’re not expecting, especially if it has an attached file, or if you do not recognise the name or address of the sender.

If you have opened an e-mail and are trying to determine if it is genuine, you could try copying the subject line or some of the message into a search engine. If other people have mentioned it on any web sites you should be able to find out if it is spam. You should always do a search on any company before you buy from them or send them any money.

Phishing is the process of sending out lots of fraudulent spam e-mails with the hope of tricking a few people into giving out their passwords or personal information.

Phishing messages may appear to be from a bank or other financial institution, asking you to confirm your account details by replying to their e-mail or by following a link to a web site.

When you arrive at the fake site, which can often look professional and genuine, you will be asked to type your details into a form and this is where your information will be captured by the criminals behind the phishing.

You may be able to tell if you are not actually on your bank’s real web site by looking at the address of the site in your browser.

Remember, your bank will never ask for your passwords or personal information in this way, and if you are in any doubt you should always contact your bank before giving out your details.

It may be that the spammer has just made a lucky guess using software which automatically generates possible e-mail addresses.

If your e-mail address is fairly obvious it can be guessed easily. Try to use combinations of numbers and letters, and the longer or more obscure the address the harder it will be to guess.

When you register on a web site or sign up for things like newsletters and membership accounts you may actually be opening the door to receive e-mail marketing spam from these sites and their partners. Most trustworthy sites should give you the option of not receiving advertising mails when you sign up.

Because it takes so many different forms, it’s virtually impossible to block all spam from appearing in your e-mail account, but there are ways to avoid receiving a lot of it and even help in the fight against the spammers.

Your e-mail provider may have its own system which attempts to filter out a lot of the spam you might otherwise receive. They do this by automatically checking your e-mails for common spam messages, keywords or known spammers’ addresses, then place any they find in a separate Spam/Junk/Bulk folder rather than your Inbox.

It is worth having a quick look through your Spam folder occasionally in case some legitimate e-mails have been falsely identified as spam by the system. There is usually an option to move the mail back to your Inbox, or even mark it as Not Spam to help the system identify e-mails that are safe to receive.

Some providers allow you to mark any junk mail you do receive in your Inbox as Spam, to help prevent you getting it again and to stop others receiving it too.

Do you know what Adware Deluxe is?

DESCRIPTION

Adware Deluxe or AdwareDeluxe 1.0.8, is known to many computer users as a fake anti-spyware/adware program that does nothing but take your money in return for a useless program. If you have ever made the mistake of downloading and installing Adware Deluxe then you would know that it does not live up to its claim of removing harmful adware from your computer.

When we had an experience with Adware Deluxe it was proven that it did not remove an ounce of adware from our infected PC. We continually received popups from adware that was downloaded through a malicious website such as AdwareDeluxe.com which distributes the Adware Deluxe program. The AdwareDeluxe.com website may redirect you to AdwareXterminator.com and then to Alertspy.com which are all malicious websites that may further infect your computer.

With today’s slumping economy and extremely high gas prices, spammers are using this time for self gain by exploiting computer users through messages using inherent economic terms. The current economic terms that people will pay more attention too are ones such as “free gas”, “gas cards”, “get more miles per gallon out of your car” and “lower your mortgage now”. During America’s hard economic times we all give a second look at something that would save us money so we can afford to fill our gas tank. Simply put, spammers are getting a lot of response and victims falling in the trap that they have set out for common computer users.

Spammers at one time tried to capitalize on economic stimulus payments by offering people the ability to “do more” with their stimulus check. Many times the title of an email from a spammer may prompt your attention if you believe you can possibly make your money mysteriously grow. This is when your judgment comes into play where you cannot allow yourself to resort to clicking on links in email messages in thinking it will make you rich by investing your stimulus money. This is a common case where if it sounds too good to be true then it is. Don’t fall for it.
Gas prices are on most people’s minds these days and we are looking for an alternative even if it is making some extra money somehow. Spammers are offering other means of paying for a tank of gas by the title of some of the recent spam messages. Some of the messages may read on how you can get a free gas card or how to pay for a service to improve your gas mileage. These messages are only to get your spend even more of your money on a lost cause. You will be in worst shape if you fall for the spam message because you may actually lose your money instead of gain.

During our economic down-turn we must all use our common sense. We must realize there are many criminals trying to earn money the wrong way and they will do it at any expense such as through spam messages. We recommend you utilizing spam filtering tools and anti-spyware software to ward off attacks from spammers and hackers.

It seems that Trojan infections are starting to perform new actions when installing a fake anti-spyware application. From our many articles and removal guides[,] we have explained that rogue anti-spyware programs are sometimes installed or downloaded through a Trojan infection. Now with Internet users wizing up to the Trojan tricks, Trojan makers have tighten the lease on Users’ computers by running files that prevent users from opening other programs or hiding the C: drive.

If Trojan infections continue performing these actions it will be very difficult for any spyware removal program or tool to identify the issue let alone remove the infection. This is big news and a very serious threat to all computers on the Internet. If this type of infection becomes widespread it will force many spyware and security vendors to revamp detection and removal procedures. Below is a list of the identified symptoms of this Trojans behavior.

Identified Symptoms of Trojan behavior:

* You are not able to open any programs on your computer including spyware removal tools and your C: drive is hidden or not accessible.
* You have more than one user logged on your computer where the second user performs unknown actions in the background without your permission.

What can you do if you encounter this type of Trojan infection?

Continual updates of your spyware or security software is always recommended. If you feel the need to download a new spyware removal program you may do so after you perform proper research.

You may utilize removal guides for current Trojan infections to ward off any other malicious files that may aide to the infection of new actions performed by this Trojan. Once we get more information we should be in position to provide additional assistance in removal of Trojans of this type.