So, here goes another one of those announcements that, in anything like an ideal world, one should never have to publish… but which, given all the sleazeball cyber-criminals and fast-buck-artists who infest the Web, is sadly necessary.
As you may have noticed if you have tried to add a guest post to The Angel Brings Fire blog, all such comments are “moderated”; that is, before the posting will actually appear, it must be reviewed and approved by myself.
Why?
Well, rest assured that this has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not I agree with your point of view, or if I like what you’re saying about me (go ahead, I have the proverbial thick skin), or if your comments are — up to a point — even particularly relevant to the core purpose of the blog (which is, obviously, about The Angel Brings Fire series of science fiction novels).
The reason why I (as well as 99% of other, “responsible” bloggers) have to impose this policy is because of the fact that about 99% of the “comments” that are presented for my approval, are sent in by spammers, cyber-criminals and malware purveyors, who are, I suppose, figuring that I’ll slip up and let them infest my blog with this kind of garbage, which not only would clutter the blog with all sorts of completely off-topic junk, but which would also represent a risk to the safety of my legitimate readers and posters.
Typically, these types of spam postings involve URLs (hyperlinks) that connect to “discount pharmaceutical” and “male performance enhancement” scams, but, more seriously, many of these sites also serve up what in the IT security community, we term “drive-by download” malware… that is, a virus that infects your PC, if you even visit such a site. Unfortunately, the Web is crawling with criminals who leverage this tactic, in the hope of planting a virus on a victim’s computer, and then using this malicious software to do things like stealing the victim’s credit card or banking information, launching denial-of-service attacks or using the PC as a launching pad for “hacking” elsewhere on the Internet (and when the intrusion gets detected, guess whose IP address gets flagged and raided by the police… right, the victim’s, not the criminal’s… cute little trick, eh?).
I refuse to become a passive accomplice in criminal activities of this type… hence, why I review each and every third party message that is proposed for inclusion in The Angel Brings Fire blog.
And thus, I have a special message for the next bunch of cyber-criminals, thieves and other similar a**holes who figure it would be a good idea to “enlist” my blog, into their little get-rich-quick fraud-and-malware empires :
It won’t work, so don’t waste your time.
Marcus Shields
Author, The Angel Brings Fire