Using Spam Karma and Spam Words to Fight Comment Spam
As you know, I was testing Spam Karma on RMFO-Blogs a while back. Now, I’ve rolled it out for everyone, and have had that done for a while.
But since the TrackBack spammers are back, well, there’s still some manual work to be done.
You should refer back to my previous article on how to rid yourself of comment spam with Spam Words; this just adds a couple of steps.
Once we find the dastardly trackback spams …
and have them ready to be deleted …
… we get to take an extra step!
I recommend having two browser windows or tabs open to do this to make it easy: take the data that Spam Words puts out and put it into the Spam Karma database. Unfortunately, they don’t talk to each other, but you can help them out.
First, you’ll need to go to Plugins, then down to the Spam Karma entry; click the long link that’s in the description area. From here, you may likely be presented with some maintenance for Spam Karma.
Check the lists for anything you know to be good [say, rmfo-blogs or one of your friends' domains] and uncheck the box next to it, then click both Confirm IP Ban and Update Blacklist DB. But now comes the fun.
See the “Add Entries” fields? You’re going to populate those with data from Spam Words.
Highlight the first IP entry in the list …
… then drop it into Spam Karma like so and hit Go.
Check out the happy blue box! That IP won’t be bothering us again.
Now, go through all the IPs in the list, one by one, and add them like you just did. Yes, it’s tedious, but once you add them … they won’t be bothering you again. 
Once you’ve added IPs, you still have other gobbledygook. These bits, sometimes words and sometimes, well, letters strung together by crackmonkeys, are pieces of the spammer’s URL that you never want to allow in again. You want to highlight these …
… then feed it to Spam Karma and hit Go.
Voila! More happy blue box action!
If you keep up with this, you’ll delete TrackBack spams as people post them, and you’ll also help Spam Karma catch the spams before you even have to deal them. That’s a win-win in my book!