Background of the issue:
I am experiencing an issue with spam comments appearing in my string-translations on my WordPress site hidden link. I have previously contacted support, and the issue was supposed to be resolved, but the spam comments keep reappearing. These comments are not visible in product reviews or comments in any language on the back-end, only in WPML.
Symptoms:
Spam comments are appearing in the string-translations section of WPML, causing database clutter.
Questions:
How can I prevent the build-up of spam comments in WPML string-translations?
Thanks for reaching us. I apologize for the delay in getting back to you due to the weekend. I need to check where these comments came from.
I will need to closely examine your website. Therefore, I will require temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) to a test site where the problem has been replicated, if possible. This will enable me to provide better assistance and determine if any configurations need to be modified.
Please note that it is important to have a backup for security purposes and to prevent any potential data loss. You can use the UpdraftPlus plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/) to fulfill your backup requirements.
Your upcoming reply will be treated with confidentiality and will only be visible to you and me.
✙ To resolve the issue, I may need your consent to deactivate and reactivate plugins and the theme, as well as make configuration changes on the site if necessary. This emphasizes the significance of having a backup.
due to EU regulation I am not able to provide access to a live database full with sensitive information. I can check settings and current configuration, but wont be able to allow you access.
Having said that, I am sure this must happen more often?
Over the weekend a bunch of them appeared again,
all in the wcml-reviews product-14474-review-119090.
"wcml-reviews product-14474-review-119090." refer to product reviews. I’m curious about your mention that this comment isn't visible in the product reviews. Could these be older comments? Would you mind double-checking?
They are new.
I spend time cleaning out the database last week and removed all the wcml-reviews that were spam.
These have appeared over the last few days, and in this case are all related to product-14474-review-119090. See attached screenshot for the first few, but there are many more.
WPML cannot block spam reviews. Maybe you can consider applying a "recaptcha" on the review section as shown in the attached screenshot. Also, enable this "Users must be registered" or "Comment must be manually approved" and "logged in to comment" in WP > Discussion > Other comment settings to see if it helps prevent spam.
That is not really what I am asking about. We are already running a Cloudflare challenge on all these pages, but it is still happening.
The point being, these spam comments DO NOT show up anywhere else in wordpress.
When a spam comment is made on our Dutch website, it will show up under 'Products >> reviews', and then we delete them.
However, these comments on the English version of our website do not seem to show up anywhere, EXCEPT in the wpml string translation. They also do not show up if we switch our back-end from NL to ENG..
This isn't a known issue and we do not have similar reports about this.
Strings will only show up if it's available on your Website. If none are there, then it's probably from the database or from some 3rd party plugin. Try to manually remove these strings by selecting the strings and clicking on the Delete String button.
I have already reviewed them manually, and it is still happening.
We went through the same process a couple of months ago, and now I had to remove 500+ spam product reviews.
As explained, I cannot allow you access due to EU LAW. European privacy laws would not allow access, and would be in direct violation of GDPR. It might be time to update your policy on how to handle these tickets as you are making requests that break local regulations.
What other way can we have to resolve this? Because I am growing tired of the manual work that WPML requires from time to time.
Thank you for your response. I’m not requesting access to the site, but rather a copy of it. You can exclude any client data to ensure compliance with privacy laws. With this copy, I can escalate it to our 2nd Tier Support team for further investigation.
For now, the only solution is to manually remove the spam reviews, as we’re unable to trace their source. It would also be a good idea to check with your hosting provider to see if any malware on the server might be responsible for generating these hidden spam reviews.
The topic ‘[Closed] Spam comments in string-translations’ is closed to new replies.
