From what I’ve read, “post scrapping” is when someone steals your blog post or web content, put it on their website and try to pass it off as their own work. Vered of MomGrind brought this issue to our attention a few months ago when she wrote about her experience. A few other bloggers I follow also have had similar experiences.
I didn’t think the issue stealing content off a blog or website can get more pathetic until I realized that someone started scrapping my blog comments! Yes, the comments you write when you read blogs, and take time to write thoughtful responses to what’s written. How did I find out my comments were being swiped? I found out when I was on the road in the process of moving up north. It was my turn to be a passenger, so between knitting, reading and writing, I checked my emails and browsed the web on my Blackberry. When I write blog comments, I generally subscribe to comments if the blog is a WordPress blog and the owner utilizes the Subscribe to Comments Plugin. Sometimes the best part of a blog post is reading the comments other people have written.
When I was reading blog comments to a post I previous commented on, I noticed one of the comments sounded strangely familiar. It was exactly what I wrote word for word a day ago! It was literally copied and pasted. It was posted under a different name and the link was not mine. When I logged on to laptop later that evening to get a closer look, it was indeed my comment. The name was different and the website link they used was obviously different as well. The link was to a site that looked like it was full of scrapped work. It didn’t look real or original. It had a very “fly by night” type of feel and it was full of ads.
The fake comment was deleted after I contact the blog owner (that I posted on) and told them what happened. It happened again on another blog I commented on a few days later. Its probably some sort of spam bot. I did some research to see if this was common but I haven’t really found any information on this issue yet. Thankfully, it hasn’t happened since.
Are thieves, scammers, spammers and scrappers getting so desperate that they have to steal blog comments now?
That’s insane Carla! I’ve had people scrape my posts, but hadn’t heard about comment copying. It’s a little strange, since you’d see the same comment twice on a page.. and wouldn’t that automatically make them look a little silly?
.-= Nathalie Lussier´s last blog ..From Cookie Monster to Glowing Raw Power =-.
I don’t think it’s a matter of being desperate. It’s easy to steal, easier than coming up with new material on their own.
.-= Mike Goad´s last blog ..Delta County Fair =-.
Strange. And pathetic!
Thank you for the link love.
Carla,
You left a comment on my sister reviewing lip balm and with in seconds your comment appeared again in my spam box but the URL was from colonadvice and not from your website. I caught it right away and then came here to read this. Weird.
.-= sommer´s last blog ..A Lipolicious Confession and Review =-.
Wow, Sommer, that is strange. I wonder if its some sort of spam bot/virus? Ill do more research on this…Thanks for the heads up!
It’s crazy the lengths spammers will go to. They also have some sort of script that takes words from the post and comments to cobble together a comment that looks almost like a real one and will pass through spam filters.
I don’t even get the point of that. How annoying!
Well, Carla. It did happen on me twice in a few months ago, where my comments were being copied and past elsewhere. Luckily, the blog owners knew I’m not the spammer behind this nasty work! She immediately deleted the comments and banned the URLs of the spammer for good.
Carla, you’re right, as there’s some sort of spam bot spreading wildly on the internet. You must beware of this little monster!
Unbelievable! This infuriates me. But thanks for bringing it to my attention Carla.
.-= Davina´s last blog ..5. Another Thyme, Another Artist =-.
@Mike – I see what you mean. Scammers will try anything these days.
@Vered – Anytime!
@Nathalie – You would think they would know how silly they look when they do that!
@Tracy – I think I have seen that before on my own blog. My spam filters didn’t even pick them up but I did.
@Lisa – I dont get the point either.
@Wilson – Wow, so they were copying them someplace else? I wonder if that’s happening more than we think.
@Davina – It pissed me off too! Thankfully I caught it early on both times.
The truth is we can never prevent people like these from intruding on our works. All that is important is that we employ the necessary precautions to prevent these people to further their crafts.
Still, I believe they will never succeed, no matter how much they steal. It is also important for us bloggers to be vigilant when we found someone who has duplicated the works of our friend bloggers.
Hi Carla,
I’ve had my posts scrapped, but as far as I know, not my comments. How pathetic.
I like Walter’s idea of us bloggers being vigilant and watching out not only for ourselves, but for our fellow bloggers, as well.
.-= Barbara Swafford´s last blog ..Blogging Etiquette – Write The Wrongs =-.
I can’t believe someone would stoop so low as to steal a comment. How lazy do you have to be? I mean, seriously.
.-= Lovelyn´s last blog ..My Food Philosophy =-.
Walter, you are so right about that. They will never get very far with practices like that. We should definitely look out for each other!
Barbara, I’m glad you found our your posts were scrapped. Hopefully too much time didn’t go by.
Lovelyn – That IS pretty lazy! I guess since bloggers are on to people who post “good post!” and leave, spammers and scammers have to be more creative, LOL.
I have experienced both – content and comment scraping – and it is one of the most annoying and intrusive things a blogger or web publisher can experience. Will it hurt in the long run? Probably not – intelligent search services like Google and the like are smart enough to be able to filter where content comes from; where it was originally published and so on.
The funny (and mind-boggling) thing is that there are a number of WordPress plugins that allow these so-called blogs to scrape content quickly and easily! One plugin, “WP-o-matic,” lets a site syndicate any content, be they posts or comments, via RSS and re-publish the content as its own!
@Joe – I had no idea that there are WordPress plugins for scraping! Wow! Thank you for the heads up and its helpful to know I’m not the only one who had their comments scraped!
Super post. You have got a brand-new regular reader. Please keep up the great posts and I look forward to more of your entertaining updates.