So… we’ve received some weird comments in the past 3 days. Some read absolutely normally, some seem normal but “off” in some way, others just make no sense.
They’re coming from different IP addresses, in Ukraine, Belarus, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia. The only commonality is the email address used.
Maybe you’ll find this as bizarre as I do and get a kick out of it, or maybe you should just click on the headlines and check out a semi-recent post you might have missed.
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Is this weird or what? I can’t tell if this is some kind of weird bot activity, or what.
The links are to the main stories since I might delete all the comments. For now, I’ve blocked the email address from making any additional comments.
Green Toys Tool Set:
Love Green Toys line, go USA! In our house the women are the ones who brandish the power tools, so I looked for a while for a little starter play set for my two year old girl.
Makita Coffee Maker:
(This one I manually removed as spam.)
The experts at Illy s research and development laboratory identified some important changes to be made to the espresso maker that would reduce, and nearly eliminate, the so-called Stromboli-volcano effect, explained Alberto Alessi.
Rite in the Rain Mechanical Pencil:
I figure it will eventually get bent so many times that it just breaks. Used with Rite in the Rain notebook and pencil in the Amazon — worked very well.
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L-Boxx Mini:
(The straight-from Google translation sounded funny, but I thought this was a testimonial,)
In addition, it is equipped with two removable dividers that allows you to separate small parts of all kinds – whether screws, mini drill, dowel or otherwise – protected and easy to accommodate. With the L-BOXX mini you have always with the best materials for the respective daily requirements on site.
New Ryobi Brushless Drill:
The combination of these innovative technologies working together optimises the tools output to deliver this huge performance increase. The new RYOBI Brushless Drill Driver comes with E-Torque technology that automatically regulates power output to help prevent damage done to the drilling surface or the screws being used.
Mechanics Stethoscopes:
An automotive stethoscope can be the most effective diagnostic tool in your toolbox. It works just like the ones doctors use, allowing you to “hear inside” a mechanical component.
16 More-Than-Ordinary Hex Key and Driver Options:
A special driver must be used to fasten or remove these fasteners. Some hex keys have a ball on one end, which allows the tool to be used at an angle off-axis to the screw.
Bench Dog Glue Spreaders:
I only have one complaint for them. After using the bottle one day and coming back to it the next, the tip is always packed with dried glue.
Milwaukee Heated Jackets for 2015:
On or off the jobsite, Milwaukee® M12™ Heated Gear products deliver unmatched utility and up to 8 Hours of adjustable heat per battery charge tostop cold dead in its tracks. Featuring an optimal women’s cut and new heating zone locations.
Small Metal Lathe Tool Post Upgrade:
The 8mm wrench is also used to loosen the bolt any time that you need to change the angle of the toolpost on the compound, so you’ll want to keep it close at hand. The toolpost has two male dovetails, each with a piston to lock the tool holder in place.
Milwaukee M12 Free Bonus Deal:
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Craftsman Clamping and Assembly Table:
The swivel pegs can be posltloned into any of the holes Jaw Use and Adjustment In theJaws and rear of top for gripping frregular shaped Your CRAFTSMAN Clamping Table ls designed for workpleces, or to extend gripping and clamping when maximum versatility.
Jerry
It almost sounds like you are getting replies from Yoda
Cole
haha I love the reply to the green toys post! It sounds like a “In Communist Russia” joke.
Eric
They’re probably just using a VPN to get fresh IP addresses.
Richard
This smells like a bot that’s scraping other sites for phrases related to the topic you’re posting about in the hopes they stick in the comments – with the long term goal of evolving the bot such that they’ll eventually be able to comment a believable comment that includes some sort of clickable link to affiliate spam/malvertising/etc.
Stuart
Yup, that looks to be case. After your idea, I looked at the Green Toys post and saw that the comment is ripped straight from 2 Amazon user reviews.
I’ve seen spam that copies from same-page content, especially in forums, but didn’t think to look at pages I had linked out to, or were otherwise external but closely topic related.
I’ve seen multi-spamming that comes from the same IP address, but never before have I seen non-human-generated spam that came from the same email address.
Mike
I’m disrespectful to dirt!! Can you see that I am serious?
Get out of my way, all of you. This is no place for loafers. Join me or die. Can you do any less?
(Also, the Rite in the Rain link is broken.)
Stuart
Oops, fixed, thanks!
Benjamen
Mr. Sparkle!!!
john
I moderate on a forum in the UK and we are inundated with Polish, Russian and Ukrainian spam offering sportswear for discount prices.
We also get loads of indian students practising their English!
“I am working for many years in carpentry type workshop environment. My most favourite machine is the planer saw moulder. Protective eyewear is essential is such hazardous carpentry type workshop environments”
etc etc.
KL
Speaking of PRACTICING your English, a FAVORITE thing to do……..(proper spellings if in the States)
steve
He’s in England, and spelled it properly for British english.
You are spelling it for American english.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences
john
Cheers Steve much appreciated!
KL
Cheers? Oh yeah, it was that show with “Norm!”
jesse
Slow news day…
ToolBoxHero
The spambots have been pounding away at Todaysmower.com for the last week also.
My favorite one is. “But people have wardrobes full of clothes, song to do that.”
Jim Felt
I wonder what the end game is? Spam and phishing are all pretty obvious. If you’re half awake.
Oh. I see. Big company and government employees are the future real targets?
fred
I’ve seen a few of these – but did not see the bigger picture and just thought they were from folks who were smoking some funny cigarettes and/or had poor command of the language.
Porphyre
It’s SkyNet, man! The machines, they’re evolving! Judgement Day is coming.
🙂
John Blair
Reminds me of an episode of NewsRadio. A self improvement book fails in the US but sells very well in Japan. So they translate the book back to English. The title transforms from “Jimmy James Capitalist Lion Tamer” to “Jimmy James Macho Business Donkey Wrestler.” I feel I should include a review for, “Super Karate Monkey Death Car” and links, because I am sure someone made a six figure salary working from home… or something like that.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660229/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzNUg_IcKrI
Michael
Sounds like the same people that write the instructions for putting a grill together
Jon
Typically it’s all about the links. The more links back to your own page the higher the results in search engines.
Rite in the Rain
I was stumped as to what that comment meant as well. We do have a lot of customers who end up in weird places (the Amazon, Antarctica, etc). I just assumed that they meant that they’d used the pencil in the Amazon and that it had worked, but they still expect it to get destroyed because they abuse their gear.
I see a lot of comments worded in exactly that fashion on our own social media stuff, so I don’t believe that particular comment was spam.
Stuart
It was submitted by the same spamster’s email address, and when I checked, u saw that the exact wording was found in 2 sequential user reviews on Amazon.
Rite in the Rain
Oh, forgive my lack of reading comprehension. I had glazed over the first part; I just found through my usual Google comb for mentions of our stuff and scrolled down in a hurry hoping that I wasn’t the cause of the spam. Strange indeed!
Richard’s comment sounds the most likely.
Tyler
Michael:
“Le Grille? What the hell is that!?”