People who use the Movable Type blog platform (like this blog) have joked, growled and complained about MT being a target for comment spammers.

Comment spam is unwanted text in the comment box under a post that is unsolicited - advertising various things, services, and pr0n. It’s a pain for the blogger and profitable for the spammer.
Comment spam sucks up bandwidth. Paying for this blog costs me my yearly mad money. I have a good host, but it isn’t their problem.

And it’s really pathetic when the top referrer in your log is a spammer. It’s really pathetic when a none tech such as myself has to go into My SQL (wipe out! danger, danger, danger!) and put in special coding to close comments off to keep the comment spammers at bay. I break into a cold sweat, it isn’t a place I should play.
I write, I read, I comment. I blog.
The technical aspects of this hobby can be daunting and that’s great if you like that aspect of blogging as much as you like having a blog. But most of us don’t go nuts over the technology, learning technical basics is only part of what we have to do to be online.

It takes an aggressive approach by a blogger to deal with it, including coding, filters and time.
This blog is average, I can spend up to 1/2 hour a day or more getting rid of it.

Comment spammers try to sell you something, get you to click over to a site, or boost their search engine rankings.

Well, MT users aren’t paranoid. We are being targeted. Blog Herald has the details.

I’m not providing a direct link that might help their page rank). For $300 US Dollars you “get high quality submit software for send [sic] Your ad to millions of blogs, guestbooks, wwwboards, forums, classifieds and any other forms…The script includes a HTTP Proxy checker and URL extractor modules.”

Further investigation reveals that the “millions” of blogs are exclusively those using Movable Type. Also offered are lists of 1000 “successfully worked” (by this I presumed spammed) blogs for $10 USD.

Oh wait, there is more!!

This script is not only for sale, it is being advertised in Google ads.

Brothers and sisters, do I hear a grrrrrrrrrrrrr!?!?!

Riley holds the record as far as I know for the most flooding of comment spam on an MT blog. I think it was 45 thousand pieces in one day.
Made my 2 thousand and some look tame.

Duncan Riley goes one step further and finds a blog that sells comment spam scripts.

Brothers and sisters can I hear a grrrrrrrr!?!?!
Let’s hope someone in the tech field and law enforcement find a way to shut Amy and her friends down so they do not go forth and multiply.

Grrrrrrrr.