Comment Spam on the Up?

When I sit down to write a short blog entry, a list and number of recently posted comments is included in the login page. Usually I don’t have any comments (poor me and lazy you), but recently the comment spam has been on the increase. Comment spamming is the use of automated programs on some evil spammer’s computer to search the web for blogs and to post comments that include the spammer’s advertiser’s web page and keywords. The aim of the game for the money grabbing scum of the internet here is to increase page rankings within major search engines for their clients. You see, the search engines have their own automated programs (bots, spiders) that crawl the web searching for all those keywords that you’re going to tap into your search bar sometime in the future. When the search engine’s bots read those keywords and web addresses, that website’s ranking will go up in the search engine’s list. Of course the spam ruins the feel of the person’s blog, filling its pages with adverts to enlarge your penis or reduce your mortgage.
Tossers.
Anyhoo, most modern blogs, including the engine I use to run my website, allow the blogger to review all submitted comments before they are posted. I can easily delete all comment spam before it appears on the web, and that makes me feel kind of good inside. Like I got one over on the spammer. The truth is, they don’t care. Their bots hit so many blogs that the payoff is likely to be positive for them, and they can make a lot of money. However, if we all delete comment spam then they’ll have to look elsewhere.
Usually I get a few spammy comments a week. The last week or so I’ve been getting maybe a dozen every other day. Today I had 186. What’s going on? Is comment spam rapidly on the increase or have I just been “found” by a particularly persistent bot? It’s a little worrying.
On the flipside, I think the amount of email spam I’ve been getting has been going down. Has yours?