@Shane, you’re right, it’s just annoying because in the end we’re all quite powerless to do anything. Google Mail is awesome at blocking spam so email spam isn’t much of a problem for me but my dad receives upwards of 1000 spam messages in just one day. I’ve told him to start using a different email address but he says the hassle involved in changing it doesn’t outweigh the benefit… It’ll only get worse for him.

@Daniel, I think comment spam only becomes a real problem with really big sites – moderators don’t have time to review every comment in detail so many of the spam comments (like the seemingly innocent one in the example) end up getting through. LOL @ me being a robot!

@Corey, I’ve heard of that method before and I’m sure it works really well but eventually (like all other methods) the spammers are going to be able to detect those fields which are hidden.

by hidden though, i mean “display:none”, not an “.
for example:

<input type="text" name="check" value="" style="display:none" />

Bots usually fill in all fields of a form with fake values. If someone submits a comment and the “check” field has a value, then you know it was a bot. If your worried about users w/out css enabled, then just place something before it saying “don’t enter anything”.

I always review my comments before publishing, so a part from spam, nothing offensive get’s published.

Ps. Judging from your level of productivity James, I’m starting to think that you are some kind of robot too

There are some spam e-mails that are more difficult to recognise than your typical ‘go larger’, particularly for users not familiar with phishing and so on.

You’re absolutely right that education is the key – but it’s an ongoing concern. Spammers are always developing new methods to trick the unsuspecting.