Mark comments as spam in Wordpress automatically by IP address

SPAMThe comment spammers are getting smarter. It used to be that my Askimet spam plugin for Wordpress would catch just about everything, but lately I have noticed some are getting through. They are sneaky and the comments read something like this:

“Really cool blog. I found it on yahoo. I am looking forward to read more posts.”

And of course they have a URL and it is obviously spam because the same IP address will leave a similar comment on other posts but with a different name and email address associated with it.

There are a couple of things you can do in this case including installing a plugin to completely ban IP addresses from accessing your site to begin with. But there is a way in Wordpress and without a plugin to automatically spam comments from specific IP addressses.

So if you receive these sneaky, shady comments and are tired of manually marking them as spam, all you need to do is follow the easy steps below in your Wordpress dashboard:

  1. Click on “comments” on the left and locate the offending comment (or if you receive email notifications of all comments, you can click on the Whois link).
  2. Copy the IP address located just below the Author’s email address to your clip board (if you clicked on the Whois link, the IP will be at the top of the page and it actually was in the link itself but it is harder to copy it from there).
  3. Click on “settings” on the left, and then “discussion.”
  4. Scroll down to the box called “Comment Blacklist” and paste the IP address into the box. You can also enter a word, name or URL (one per line) and it will automatically mark as spam, any comment containing them.

That’s it. A simple easy way to help keep spammers from wasting your time and taking advantage of you.

About Kim

Kim is the Owner, Editor and main contributor at What's That Smell? As a wife and stay-at-home mother of two, she enjoys sharing anecdotes and photographs from her life, and telling the world all (well almost all) of her embarrassing stories. You can also find her at TopMomBlogger.com giving advice and tips on how to monetize and generally improve your blog.

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9 comments for “Mark comments as spam in Wordpress automatically by IP address”

  1. 9

    Very nice hint, yes :) Still manually is a bit weary if you have 70 spams on morning ;)

  2. 8

    You rock Kim! That was so easy. Thanks for the step-by-step instructions.

  3. 7

    Great advice for WP newbie!

  4. 6

    You’re just awesome Kim. A few of those comment junkies got me at first too.

  5. 5

    I’m still trying to figure out how to do this in blogger! This is great information though – thanks for posting!

  6. 4

    great tip thanks!

  7. 3

    Awesome, awesome, awesome! Thank you for the great idea Kim!! Here’s my special friend’s IP’s that I added :)

    24.42.138.223
    24.240.62.223
    59.34.70.18
    59.149.44.121
    61.18.170.237
    61.116.180.133
    67.152.211.166
    71.62.27.113
    71.225.100.191
    74.50.102.219
    75.111.140.81
    76.105.62.113
    76.113.200.140
    79.141.19.227
    83.233.30.35
    84.109.43.239
    85.214.33.108
    86.64.66.125
    88.41.111.190
    88.198.36.73
    92.48.201.43
    92.114.170.192
    93.174.93.200
    114.40.74.178
    124.119.145.2
    124.244.251.180
    143.90.221.247
    189.55.121.253
    190.202.107.117
    194.8.75.157
    194.165.130.118
    200.89.135.26
    200.163.75.27
    201.193.44.200
    206.230.106.209
    208.89.208.246
    210.187.51.60
    211.154.130.244
    213.163.65.176
    213.163.65.176
    220.178.1.26
    221.239.117.67

    Posted by Queen of the Click | April 19, 2009, 1:10 am
  8. 2

    You’re awesome! I’ve been wondering how to stop the spam that just started getting through.

    Thanks so much!

  9. 1

    Thanks a bunch for the tip.

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