How can I get rid of a Blogspot spam blog?

March 1, 2008 3:05 AM

How can I get rid of a Blogspot spam blog?

A year ago, I had a blog related to my professional interests set up on on Blogger. I posted a while, but eventually deleted it. It was not at all popular and used a very obscure address (i.e. obscureblogname.blogspot.com). A few months ago, I Googled myself and in the results found an old link to my blog from a prominent blogger in my field (from when the blog was still active). Since the link was dead, I didn't care -- until I realized that the same URL is now being used for one of Blogger's many spam blogs.

Essentially, I don't want people (especially prospective employers) Googling me and finding a link to a blog full of debt consolidation crap. I tried asking the prominent blogger to take down the link, but he never replied. I have flagged the blog, but it remains up months later. Is there anything I can do to expedite the removal of this blog from the site? Thank you!

posted by Locative to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Once you deleted the blog it ceased being yours. You have no control over what somebody else does with the same blogspot address address. Your best bet is to continue to politely contatct the prominent blogger about killing the link, and at the same time do something online to give you a positive online presence. LinkedIn profiles rate very high on Google, if you don't have one I would at least start with that.
posted by COD at 6:06 AM on March 1, 2008

Link to it here, and we can all flag it.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:23 AM on March 1, 2008

COD, I don't think that is what the asker is asking.

These spam blogs basically just pull in the RSS from blogs with any keywords related to their spamming. So they copied the posts from the asker's blog when the blog was active. It no longer is active, and worse yet, the deleted posts live on in a spam blog. The asker wrote the posts and still has full copyright on their writings.

If you contact Google/Blogger about it, they will request that you make a formal DMCA complaint. It may sound like a pain in the ass, but it's not too hard and you can type up a letter in about 30 minutes that can be sent off to their DMCA address. Google almost always takes everything down as soon as they are notified (they force the person accused to respond if they disagree).

As copyright holder on the posts you wrote, that is your best course of action.
posted by mathowie at 9:41 AM on March 1, 2008

Blogger spam report form.
posted by brownpau at 10:05 AM on March 1, 2008

Reporting Blogger spam works wonders. I also usually at least flag the blog and also report it using Google Webmaster tools. Stuff disappears fast and it looks like they do some blocking of those spammers to prevent them from making even more spam blogs later.
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:36 PM on March 1, 2008

I had the same problem but the prominent blogger (Kottke, bless his kind soul) who was still linking to my old blogspot blog quickly changed the link after I asked him to. It was amazing how soon that old blogspot blog then disappeared from search results on my name.

I'd keep asking the blogger to change the link and contact Google to remove the spam blog.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 7:18 PM on March 1, 2008

Flagging is now disabled on the offending blog, a technique I've seen on other spam blogs on Blogger. I've used the spam report form each of the last three days, but the blog remains up. The blogger ignored my second e-mail to him. DMCA complaint it is.
posted by Locative at 11:47 PM on March 3, 2008

Thanks for the help, everyone. I used the request form every day for a week, and the blog finally went down yesterday.
posted by Locative at 7:27 AM on March 15, 2008