Blog-spam.

You can build in all the safeguards you want, but the spammers find a way. On the "comments" function of this blog, I've turned on the code feature--which requires a human to enter a text version of a graphic series of letters, to prevent automated comment entering from spammers. Of course the spammers just get some bottomfeeder to enter their messages. Last night, one of these charmers placed a comment on an old post of mine regarding free samples of a certain prescription drug, advertising that drug "cheap" on the Net. I posted my own comment under it and left it in place, for future searchers after truth. I'm not turning off "comments" again. Here's what I posted.

Just for the record, this commercial comment obviously comes from an online drug dealer, who, as you no doubt know, are the most active spammers right now. I'm leaving it up, though I could easily delete it, as a monument to another genus of hype--the Undernet Marketplace. It's cheap advertising, one of the byproducts of expensive prescription drug marketing. I could turn off "comments", too. Even did that for awhile. I'd rather take the opportunity to add a caveat. It's illegal in the U.S. to sell prescription drugs without an order from a licensed physician who's actually examined the patient. Maybe we can't chase down every on- or offshore perpetrator, but we can get smart about the whole mess.