Help! What to do about...

I'm drowning in SPAM. With my blog postings more infrequent, it seems the the amount of SPAM is on the rise.

My first year of blogging, a fellow blogger told me to put comments on a 3 day moderation cycle. Since I allow anonymous comments, this worked like a charm, until lately.

Now I get so much SPAM dumped in my in box everyday. It can be as many as 70 comments a week to the point unless I recognize the name, I usually have no choice but to delete it from my blog and my email. As a result, I've put some emails in the SPAM folder that were important. Oh, there's lots of variety to choose from, much of it down right weird and creepy. Unfortunately, I've dumped some legitimate emails- and for that, I apologize!

So do I stop taking anonymous comments, moderate comments daily, or add the word verification- which I know drives everyone nuts, me included? I need some advice and are any of you experiencing the same thing?


HELP!!!