Hackers?

1. 77

   thebluestarposted 9 years ago

   Recently, the activity on my account has increased considerably. However, none of the comments received on my hubs are from people who are signed in to HubPages. They are all in different names, and they all have one thing in common, what would appear to be a deliberate spelling mistake. How can I stop this from happening and is there a way that I can find out who it is? I have deleted all the comments from this person (people), but it is annoying to say the least.

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   1. 90

      Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Make sure you report them before deleting them.
      
      You can change your settings so that all comments have to be approved before they are published.  That stops them, and they eventually go away.  At that time, you can change it back, or just leave the settings as they are.

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   2. 84

      Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Don't delete these comments - after you 'deny' them, submit them as spam, but don't delete permanently.  The site needs to research them from the spam report, and if you delete them, there's nothing for them to research.  They will eventually 'go away' after you report them as spam, but be sure to give the admins a chance to block the IP or do whatever they need to do to protect the site.

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   3. 88

      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi bluestar,
      
      As others have mentioned here, it's a good idea to change your comment settings to require approval before showing up. You can do so by visiting your My Account page, clicking the Comments tab, choosing "show settings," and making sure "Yes" is checked for the option "Comments must be approved before they appear." Hope that helps!

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2. 61

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Set your comments so that you have to approve first.  You cannot do anything to block them.   Another option is to not use comment boxes at all.

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3. 72

   relacheposted 9 years ago

   Not only do you have the option to approve comments prior to publication, you can set comments so only people signed up with HubPages can comment.

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   1. 89

      Patty Inglish, MSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      +1 That's what I did a year ago when they hit me, then changed settings later on.

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4. 93

   agilitymachposted 9 years ago

   I just had the same issue.  I, unfortunately, deleted them. Next time, I will mark them as spam. My account is already set up for approval of comments before they are published.  I am glad to know I am not the only one being spammed.

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   1. 77

      thebluestarposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you all for your helpful comments. The mystery continues today too, but I have marked them all as spam, so here is hoping that the problem stops now.

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      1. 86

         rebekahELLEposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Do they have the same IP address?

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         1. 87

            neosurkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Exactly! Do all the comments have same IP addresses? If they do, then they might be spammers or just trolls wanting to mess with you. But if not, they might be genuine people who didn't know the spelling.
            
            Whenever I get comments from non-hubbers, I usually think either my hub is worth interacting with or it has got attention from different non-HubPages sources (which is a good thing). Is the subject of the hub getting hot media attention this time or is it evergreen?

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5. 69

   PaigSrposted 9 years ago

   A couple reasons that I approve all comments. Sometimes folks will leave links in their comments to sites that I have never heard of. Personally I want to screen those links before passing them on. Another big reason I approve my comments is that I aim for G ratings for my hubs. If I don't feel comfortable the words do not get published. I hope these help.

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6. 88

   Sylvia Leongposted 9 years ago

   Thank you LindaSmith1 - I never realized there was an option to get rid of the comment boxes completely!  I have a Hub explaining why it's more beneficial to weight-train only once a week.  Boy-oh-boy, do I get some angry, condescending comments - I deny them of course.  You'd think they'd be thanking me!
   Voila! Comment option removed!

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7. 77

   thebluestarposted 9 years ago

   Thank you all once again for your insightful advice. I have spammed all the unwanted comments, and actually thought I had made the person/persons responsible bored, not at all, with more comments this morning.
   
   I hope that this will soon resolve itself, as I am loathed to write more for HubPages at the moment, if this is to continue. This makes me sad, as I learned most of my writing skills from the brilliant friends that I made on this site. I haven't posted for 12 months now, but was writing and saving to my computer files in the meantime.
   
   I actually found a link between the comments on my hubs, and at one point it was people discussing the purchase of a four poster bed. I don't know how the conversation got started, and am even more confused on how these off site comments where able to be posted on my writing.
   
   Has anyone else come across a similar situation?

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      90% of visitors to Hubs are NOT members of HubPages - that's how the site makes money!  So it's not surprising that you get comments from non-members.
      
      It's common for website owners to promote their own site by posting comments on other blogs and articles.   Done properly it can be effective, but there are many amateurs who go around mindlessly posting spam comments wherever they can - and there are people who sell automated programs to these gullible people, so they can post hundreds of comments at a time. 
      
      I know it's annoying when this happens, but consider that if you prevent non-members from commenting then you risk alienating the majority of your readers, and that would be a pity.  If you set your comments so they have to be approved before they appear, and report all the spam comments you get, that will put them off.

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8. 81

   earnerposted 9 years ago

   I, too, screen my comments - receiving spam/links comes in clusters, luckily for me they're not very frequent though.

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9. 86

   sparkleyfingerposted 9 years ago

   I, too, am receiving these comments. Often completely unrelated to my hub, and a load of rubbish! I can only think they hope to drag the content and ranking of the whole site down with this continuous babble? I have reported, but permanently deleted, so i will try not to do this next time!

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10. 86

    sparkleyfingerposted 9 years ago

    Now getting an error when trying to deny these comments? Anyone else?

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11. 82

    belleartposted 9 years ago

    I had the same thing happen, it must be spam, a lot of hubbers are seeing it on their hubs. I had no problem deleting mine though.  I doubt there is a way of finding who it is, since they aren't hubbers, if they're even real people at all.

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12. 87

    sheilamarie78posted 9 years ago

    I've also noticed this happening on my hubs. I don't get what it's about.

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    1. 90

       Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       My theory is that it is a challenge that someone is having with another person or group.  Can you create a program that posts a bunch of comments?  Who posts the most comments? And whomever's comments are still out there after a specified period of time wins. I think this because there is a specific word in each post that is misspelled (so they can be searched in a search engine), and they come in bunches.  My latest batch did pretty good at trying to stay on topic.

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