I really wonder about humanity…

This past month has seen a hundred situations that make me wonder “what were they thinking?” A case in point: spammers. Every day I clear dozens of spam posts in my websites where people are supposed to write comments about the articles they are reading. On my regional news site where I post announcements and events, most of the comments are on obituary notices. Generally they are condolences or memories about the deceased.

But the spammers post comments like: “Thanks for ones maгvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you will be a great author. I will be sure to bookmark your blog and will often come back in the foreseeable future. I want to encourage you to continue your great posts, have a nice evening!”

And this on an obituary: “I think thіs is among the most signifіcant info for me. And i ɑm gⅼad reading your article. Βut should remark on some gеneral things, The web site style is great, the articles is really nice : D. Good job, cheers”

“Thank you for the ɑuspicious writeup. It in fact ԝas a ɑmusement account it. Loоk advanced to more added agreеable from you! By the way,
how can we communicatｅ?” (I still haven’t figured out their weird characters in the mix…)

And another one wrote, “It is possible to have your repairing upvc windows fixed if you live in an old home or in an area with many windows that are prone to damage. It could be due to rotted wood or an accident.” (That was a comment on an article about a car accident)

“I visited various websites but the audio quality for audio songs current at this web page is really wonderful. save refuges” posted on an article about registering to vote!

Of course, most of them are just links to questionable websites for porn or pharmaceuticals. I don’t know what they think they are getting by doing this. Any links they put in the form are stripped out, and the forms don’t send any notices to the e-mail address of the spammer. So what’s the point?

I often buy products online and usually am asked to write a review of the merchant and how the ordering process went, or a review of the product and how I liked it. But for the last few years I’ve had email spam come in that offers me “x number of great reviews for only $50” which tells me that there’s apparently a market for good phony reviews out there. So that makes ALL reviews suspect now.

If these fake review outfits are run by the same folks who spam my comment forms, I can only imagine the weird reviews they would post. Most of the spam letters are in terrible English in the first place, but maybe that explains why some of the reviews I’ve read are odd. Like a review on a set of LED lights for the garden that said they got the closest shave from this product.