| LED Digest 1517: Spam Bot Beasts |
|
|
|
================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest ................................................. February 13, 2003 Issue #1517 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ===== NEW ====================== --== Unrecognized Links ==-- ~ Ben Rohleder "This is not classed as a link...even though...the page has been indexed and cached by Google!" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Competing with SEO Spammers ==-- ~ Mick Force "Can anyone recommend a good site analyzer?" --== Techniques for Publishing Contact Info ==-- ~ Trevor Johnson "...tactics for avoiding spam bots...have recently been researched...by Bestprac.Org..." ~ Joe Halbrook "I found and use a neat little trick...called AntiSpambotMailto." ===== GEEK TIPS ================== --== Spam with Forged Headers ==-- ~ Dudley Dix ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Domain Registration Encore ==-- ~ Peter D'Aprix ~ Vincent Tan ~ Donald Nelson ======= NEW ===================================== From: Ben Rohleder Subject: Unrecognised Links Hi, I'm not exactly new to SEO, having been interested in it since the back end of 1998, and currently researching the topic for a university module. I understand about getting the right titles, body text, alt tags, links, etc, but there one area that's getting to me... links that aren't links! After chatting to the webmaster of a friends small car leasing company, he asked me to have a go at making the site more search engine friendly (good commercial experience for me), but we have this problem of links. The website has been online in some form or another for over 4 years with no attempt at SEO until the most recent overhaul (we are still working on it). It's even in the Looksmart Directory for free! Where a directory or other website lists his company, they use some kind of referring or scripting URL, for example: instead of the link being http://www.acornfinance.com , it's something like http://www.searchuno.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=64202. This is not classed as a link to his site, even though it is and the page has been indexed and cached by Google! When doing a backward link check, Google delivers no results. When I do the same query but take out the "link:" , and select "contain the term" I get 115 results because sites show the URL but the link behind it is different. That is one problem... The site is also listed in the ODP (and Google's directory) as well as some others which are all indexed by Google, so why doesn't Google recognise these? Is the site being penalised in some way, and if so, what for? The only thing I can see which may be frowned upon is the site map at the bottom of the index page, but this only links to pages without other static links to them, and is within Google's own guidelines. Any comments gratefully received. Regards, Ben Rohleder ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Mick Force Subject: SE spammers > I am new to SE marketing and am in the process of > optimizing my companies web site... I am noticing some > competitors that are consistently in the top positions > but are relatively new to the industry... - Mick Force, LED 1515 > I know you didn't ask for a site review, but I took > the liberty oflooking at your site, and have a few > suggestions... - Joann Chokrach, LED 1516 Thanks Joann, I will work on your suggestions and I appreciate your comments. I reworked the site in December but it has been around since 1995. I neglected to mention that, sorry. Prior to my efforts the site was averaging about the 80th position on the search engines that it did show up in. Don't get me wrong, The top positions are a goal not an expectation. My questions were geared toward the ethical issue of whether it is appropriate to report folks that you suspect may be spamming to improve SE ranking. Can anyone recommend a good site analyzer? Thanks again, Mick Force, Web Developer Handicomp, Inc. ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Trevor Johnson Subject: Contact info > Hiding an email address from the harvesting robots > can be done by using ASCII code in the source. This > will still allow visitors to click on the link... - Reg Charie, LED 1516 This method is losing its effectiveness. The programmers of the most recent spam bots have programmed their beasts to interpret and convert ASCII encoded email addresses. This matter, and stronger alternatives to it, along with a number of tactics for avoiding spam bots and preventing them harvesting email addresses from your website have recently been comprehensively researched and written about in a three part series by the anti-spam organisation Bestprac.Org, entitled "Spam Bots - and how to avoid them". This series is available free of charge at http://www.bestprac.org/articles/ Trevor Johnson bonuswords.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Joe Halbrook Subject: Contact info Both Reg Charie and Jennifer Polen provided good suggestions in LED 1516 on how to incorporate an email address on your web site. I found and use a neat little trick developed by Kenric Ashe, called AntiSpambotMailto. The email address parameter is not just the usual collection of Unicode or ASCII codes, which would be relatively easy for a spambot to recognize. Instead, each encoded character is also offset by the total length of the email address. While it is possible that spambot programmers could eventually write a complete JavaScript parser to circumvent this, it's highly unlikely. Here's a link to the free AntiSpambotMailto utility: http://www.cleanmymailbox.com/free.html Joe Halbrook Permission Technologies http://www.cleanmymailbox.com ===== GEEK TIPS =================================== From: Dudley Dix Subject: Spam from aliased addresses Hi Adam, I have a new subject that may be worth airing. Today I have received spam emails that show two of my own addresses as the sender, whereas I have nothing to do with them. They are both advertising the same website with a short message as follows:- -------------------- "Welcome to http://www.url.com The best carders site. Best Regards, Boa." -------------------- My guess is that this is another way of protecting the source of the spam but it puts us all at serious risk of losing potential business by being blocked by spam services or software. Our addresses may be blocked instead of the originating address. I have MailWasher and simply run down the list clicking on "Bounce" for any spam. After that anything else from that address will be bounced until I remove it from the bounce list. If it was illegally used as an alias then any legitimate mail from that address will be lost. I looked at the message source and identified the following as the only section that references my address. I don't have enough technical knowledge to be sure what I am reading but guess that "adsl-61-66-58-110.KH.sparqnet.net" is the true source of the spam. Is this correct? -------------------- "Received: from 61.66.58.110 (adsl-61-66-58-110.KH.sparqnet.net [61.66.58.110]) by secure-hosting.net (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h1C47Lb28138 for < This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it >; Tue, 11 Feb 2003 23:07:22 -0500". -------------------- I thought that maybe the company that owns [URL removed] does not know how its site is being marketed through a bulk email service. I visited the site to send a polite email and expected a company selling sports cards or similar. Instead I found a website for a company named BOA Factory and advertising to sell credit card details and anything else that is illegal. I can't decide whether it is an elaborate spoof or the real thing. I found no live email or htp links but there is an email address that appears to be in the Ukraine. I will advise my ISP and ask them to block this company, if that is possible. Is there anything else that can be done? Regards, DD Dudley Dix Yacht Design http://dixdesign.com/ ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Peter D'Aprix Subject: Domain registration I am suprised that no-one has mentioned http://123cheapdomains.com I have all my domains with them all under one account. Priced at $13.95 per year per domain, they are very cost competitive. I believe I was led to them from a post on this very newsletter. If I have a problem, they are quick to help. Peter D'Aprix exclaimbranding.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Vincent Tan Subject: Domain registration Godaddy.com does not accept Singapore's credit card. One can check from the internet that Singapore has a per capita GNP of about US$30000/- and is one of the financial centre in the East. It is a first world country but yet Godaddy.com chooses to treat the credit card from Singapore like some third rate centre. Godaddy.com needs to review its policy and not show itself to be ignorant. Vincent Tan ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Donald Nelson Subject: Domain registration Dear All, Don Johnson asked about domain registrars. We have been using directnic.com for the past two years and have found their service excellent. You get a control panel and it is easy to change your information, including DNS settings (which is important should you have to shift your website to another server). They notify you two months in advance when a domain is up for renewal so you don't have to worry about missing the payment and possibly losing the domain. They charge $15, which is reasonable. I know that there are some lower priced ones at $8.00 but I don't mind paying the extra $7.00 and being sure that my domain is safe and in a place where it can be managed efficiently. Sincerely, Donald Nelson www.a1-optimization.com ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995-2003 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them." - Michael Jordan |
