From an answer I gave to another question:
There are comment filtering services out there that can analyse comments in a manner similar to mail spam filters (all links to the client API page, organised from simplest API to most complex):
- Steve Kemp (again) has an xml-rpc-based comment filter: it's how Debian filters comments, and the code is free software, meaning you can run your own comment filtering server if you like;
- There's Akismet, which is from the WordPress universe;
- There's Mollom, which has an impressive list of users. It's closed source; it might say "not sure" about comments, intended to suggest offering a captcha to check the user.
For myself, I'm happy with offline by-hand filtering, but I suggested Kemp's service to someone who had an underwhelming experience with Mollom, and I'd like to pass on more reports from anyone who has tried these or other services.
There is an API at www.atlbl.com that you can query for IP address, hostname, domain, full URL, and even email address, to help combat comment spam etc.