RUSSIA AND THE RISE OF THE MACHINES
It's nice to know that friends read the blog. It's nice to know that websurfers the world over are directed to it when they search for an image or particular phrase. 
May the joy of my life and the associated humour be spread far and wide, propagating out into the universe in ripples of laughter. But recently a new menace is threatening the benign cyber-chatters of the blogosphere: referrer spam. Overnight, 8 hits arrive from somewhere: traffic sources tell you it's Russia (maybe using a .tk suffix registered in the Pacific island state of Tokelau). The referring website is pingywebedition.somee.com or postring.tk or pu.gg or massprofits.tk or xnoid.com or bllog.tk or glowlan.tk or directfashion.tk or profitsites.tk or lethalcomission.tk or lethal-commission.tk or fusrodah.tk or domar.ru or designfashion.tk or macrou.com. It's never Harry'sCarRepairWorkshop.com. So you visit these sites to find out who they are. (Don't ever visit the sites, if you have done, run a deep scan/quarantine) 
Upon arrival, there's something tempting like unlimited torrent downloads, promises to scan your computer for viruses, or pictures of stripping girlies or cats falling down, and you think "Oh, that looks fun" and you click on it and invite worms, trojans and viruses into your computer and suddenly your credit card has been used in Nigeria, you're on the Interpol watch list and your computer is part of a botnet attacking the US State Department. Not to mention the endless popup adverts and redirections you'll get. Of course, you can't block them because that's the way the internet works. We make our blogs searchable precisely so people can read them. This means that the nasty malware distributor people can also see them. Google knows about them: eventually they block these pages but the net is a big place and it takes time so for now: just ignore them. (Writing 2 months later, most of them have gone silent, so be patient, just good ol' Domar pinging mercilessly). Perhaps they just want to sell you something (viral traffic making money online with easy profit bot) but dodgy sites are risky in too many ways, many are phishing for your money. Some may be almost legit - pu.gg and t.co and blogobo.com and getdentalimplantsinfo.com - they're definitely trying to sell you stuff but it's still spam advertising, direct to you and targeting you specifically because they know you'll be curious and may click on their link in your stats. New thing is t.co+string of numbers getting redirected from sensible-sounding websites. My #3 country for hits is Russia. I'm sure 90% of these are spam. So really I just discount the whole country when looking at my stats. It's a shame, but that's life for you. Seven out of ten of my "Referring URLs" are spamsites. What's the ****ing point?
You can't stop them. But you can ignore them. Don't visit the sites. You'll be fine.
Back to my Home Page:
http://professormungleton.blogspot.com/
Pointless pings I have met, we love you all! How many have found you?
pingywebedition.somee.com
postring.tk
pu.gg
massprofits.tk
xnoid.com
bllog.tk
glowlan.tk
directfashion.tk
profitsites.tk
lethalcomission.tk
lethal-commission.tk
designfashion.tk
fusrodah.tk
domar.ru
domar.ru/
macrou.com
devdef.com
chartlyrics.com
superlyrics.com
getdentalimplantsinfo.com
tourism-education-online.info
stopsmoking-instantly.info
buy-a-computer.info
internetsupervision.com/urlcheck
webceo.com/site-summary-errors/
offline-business.info
golf-tees-story.info
onlinebachelordegreeblog.info
adsenserrors.info
adsensewatchdog.com
mspy.com/?aff=513 (phone monitoring app)
stop-a-cheater.com/?AFF=513?AFF=513
instant-online-refills.com
skin-care.hot-trend-now.com
f-ace-app.com/1729
troll-face-ru.blogspot.com
blogobo.com
ontolo.com
purebloggers.com
blog-zug.com/?chat=
roznica.com.ua
zgodzinski.com/smaczek
nonplo.pebrpa.pp.ua art.php?id=907933
adpulse.go2cloud
neoopt.com (redirect from cgi.cnn.com)
tracking.adpulse.net
sucuri.net
webwarper.net
0rz.tw/orp80
0rz.tw/CNDUS
allob.ru/go.
buygenericsfromindia.com
averagepeniswidth.com
adsresultpages.com/?aff=5801&saff=1&source=1&q=buy+viagra
airportcigarettes.com
pradaoutletstore3sale.com
pradaoutlet1online.com/
youtube.com/watch?v=s4p9PjdqHN4
pregolom.com (pregolom.com/find/in/index.php)
super-online-search.com/find/in/index.php
uk.search-results.com
ajakbicara.com/penulis/csl-mi-300-dah-mia-tukar-galaxy-nexus
software.refererx.com
discountchristianlouboutinpump.com
fashionhandbagsoutletstore.org
malaysianbuy.com/Sports-Recreation
cawdsdfesrnsdferhjkytugfgfgfggf.com
abexercise.mybizzs.com
ae442647.whackyvidz.com
yagara-stock.com/?wm=13059&tr=8035
hoodiastock.com/?wm=13059&tr=8035
www3.personal-scanera.com
www3.bestbxcleaner.com
www3.personaldcsentinel.dnset.com
www3.hardueantivir.dnset.com
www3.hardtakdefense.dnset.com
www3.t-8jy1o8pij.trickip.net/?gh9b=i92ixrFibqOtV9urrZacjdytzrGRaZ%2BuaqWdos%2BjnYw%3D
www4.safe-vochecker.com
www4.savegco-antivir.com
www4.strongdxgsoft.com
www.4youcoupons.com
www4.best-aruchecker.com
forex-for-business.ru
3.rubesteduonlinehigh.ru/Domashnee-obuchenie/62
Twitter trackbacks via lovendar.com - topsy.com, vipublog.com, b.hatena.ne.jp
weebly.com various - watchesabsolutely.weebly.com, stunningceramicwatches.weebly.com,
ceramicwatches101.wordpress.com, swissmechanicalwatches.blog.com
Money various - bluegoldbackers.com, hyip-libertyreserve.com
And those "special" sites that hide behind a string of digits.....
adf.ly
adf.ly/7AFBN
tinyurl.com/EarnMoneyFromADFLY
tinyurl.com/Tips100KTwitterFollowers
tinyurl.com/Secret10USDviaTwitter
tinyurl.com/GetEasyUSD10DailyWithEmail
tinyurl.com/EarnUSD10DailyWithAffiliate
tinyurl.com/AutopilotMoneyWithForex
tinyurl.com/MakeMoneyWithClassifieds
tinyurl.com/MakeMoneyWithLegitSurvey
tinyurl.com/MakeMoneyWithPaidSurvey
tinyurl.com/GetUSD5WithApps
tiny.cc/5pkl6
tiny.cc/jqa6d
alt.com/go/g1342476
bit.ly/I8DxZ
bit.ly/HG1ylX
bit.ly/HltFrP
bit.ly/GVqvQz
bit.ly/Tuso9z
ow.ly/7OeAd
ow.ly/7Md0Z
ow.ly/8QWmn (appearing as a redirect from nba.com)
ow.ly/8wDjj
ow.ly/8Mdeu
ow.ly/7uZRF
ow.ly/8DFmk
goo.gl/cKyYq
wp.t4s.vot.pl
luch.vityazi.biz
vrox.net 307492
mp3xy.com
1.xg4ken.com
1418.c-uk.360tag.com
1427.c-us.360tag.net
5f258933.theseforums.com
530dbd45.ultrafiles.net
98f3687e.goneviral.com
b25aae0b.goneviral.com
3ee8a8c0.tubeviral.com
6dd260ed.urlbeat.net
big5.cri.cn
big5.chinanews.com.cn:89
10.197.249.32:15871/cgi-bin/blockOptions.cgi?ws-session=2467341127
linkn.co/JInwfU
linkn.co/ErGH0k
linkn.co/hVPoL8 (appearing as a redirect from linkedin.com)
stumbleupon.com/su/26GRUD/t.co/vyxBTw7n
stumbleupon.com/su/4wUNPn/t.co/oxMNk7cC
stumbleupon.com/su/4ENDdj/t.co/8nUJ64tE
stumbleupon.com/su/2gA2gc/t.co/TIlBBraD
r1rk9np7bpcsfoeekl0khkd2juj27q3o-a-fc-opensocial.googleusercontent.com
tr.netlog.com/go/out/url=http://t.co/cM5qnlnl?kjKJHl8HKd23
fr.netlog.com/go/out/url=http://t.co/z1v6ZazZ oh, look
myhealthscore.com/frame.cfm?page=http://ft.co/fz1v6ZazZ
devscripts.net/frame.php?url=http://ft.co/fYwAPiP08
filmhill.com/redirect.php?url=http://t.co/eITCxupy?3094ofdg234
filmhill.com/redirect.php?url=http://t.co/ItwYXAL4?093df5623k
filmhill.com/redirect.php?url=http://t.co/UEmjqui3
filmhill.com/redirect.php?url=http://t.co/ZQanvcY3
cultek.com/link/link.asp?link=http://ft.co/ftB3O5iZt?9823745923
meendo.com/videos/teen+amateur?sort=rating_down&partner=2631
meendo.com/?partner=2631
aptratings.com/t.co/DUMoaedy
aptratings.com/review/frame_page.jsp?page=http://t.co/TIlBBraD?dsfldfgjlkKJlekjrwl
e3401crfnbydbre5tdk--31htl.hop.clickbank (redirect from log.go.com)
e7f83eqofhr6co22hbg6nirf9i.hop.clickbank (redirect from wzey.ask.com)
5aeaecmjkem53ufjsjgcf6xu86.hop.clickbank (redirect from bizrate.com)
c490f8o7xi1aqmybfjnm1imcaz.hop.clickbank (redirect from nagt.org or ad.cnyes.com)
9a2d60gmhhw5dm11uhpdufode1.hop.clickbank (redirect from cisco.com)
in-ter-net.info
uglystat.com
villainstat.com
zombiestat.com
vid.surfs.it
probtheme.com
urlopener.com/index.php
kallery.net/Q/quiz.php?d=28&c blogspot&t=1355951840
justsamachar.com/
agoda.ru/
mnews.atode.cc/
videoshub.needz.it
malaysiahomestays.org
surveys.questionpro.com
digitalmovies.digs.it
make-money-writing.review-blogspot.com
asian.erolove.in
2bj.ru
kmzackblogger.blogspot.com
itplatib.hostoi.com
flavors.me/mobilespy_limitresys1985
Steve Finnell. He left a blog comment spam "You are invited to follow my blog" - he's an 'Keyboard Evangelist - religious maniac spreading holier-than-thou rubbish. Sorry, I'm an atheist.
Stvplyr. A fake spam follower whose blog is yet more religious fundamentalism. What a coincidence that my newest follower stvplyr joined an hour after I was spammed by Steve Finnell the cybergod-botherer.
wimiciy.bmtc.ca
rujamiza.skysols.in
bthemes.info/
ontimemarketing.biz/secrets2success/step-by-step-cash-system/
tkdot.com/info/
alprazolam.pw
t.co/L9fMlZJG0n
hotprivateeye.com
getbits.info
lorazepam.pw
edpills2013.sc-specialhost.com
dinorx.com (belarus)
blesktatu.ru
dinomed.com (belarus)
music.dances.ittrazodone.pw unlicensed medication sites - Belarus
fluoxetine.pw
blog.oricon.co.jp/mygoodwork64
sertraline.pw
oakleysunglassesoutletstores.comberrymall.ru
current.com/1rhh7kc
blogreviews.is-groovin.it
bit.ly/14j9Fmg
topblogstories.com (lots of russian porn)
r-e-f-e-r-e-r.com
blogsrating.pw
vipgod.ru
Several of these sites are of naked ladies doing funny things. I'm only 7 so am not yet interested. Several of the more recent ones (current) are unlicensed medicines and dodgy pills, payday loans, pirated films etc.
Perhaps us bloggers are a breed apart. We're intensely private individuals, and yet (self-denial) choose to make our thoughts and lives public to the whole world via the great anonymizing randomizer that is the internet in a sort of proxy-orgy revelation. I could be a schoolchild in Penang, a life prisoner in Ohio, a researcher in McMurdo or a goat herder in the Takla Makan, and I'm sure many of us pretend to be someone else with a very different online persona. Our personality profiles may be of special interest to the spammers: our deep-seated interest in anyone who has an interest in us. We look back through the one-way mirror of statistical analysis and see who's watching us. Then we get stung for our troubles....this page is a copy - I accidentally pasted the whole of a bad URL into its predecessor, the Russian spambots saw it and started bombarding the page with 50 hits a day. In the end I had to delete it and start again, losing the 20 or so comments from humans. Who knows what these sites want, I don't, because I don't go there. Purebloggers.com may be helpful. But then it might not. Having seen all the rest of them annoying people, I'm less willing to trust new sites. BTW, there are other statcounters available that ignore spamsites. I quite like Blogger stats so I'm staying, but NiteCruzr of Blogger Help forum can show you other ways.
If this post helped you, feel free to forward the link. The more of us that are aware of this rubbish, the better for all of us.
COMMENT SPAM
It took me a while to work this one out. The first times I saw them I thought "Oh, what a nice thing to say, I shan't visit their site because the link is obviously a sales pitch and I can't visit their blogger profile because they're anonymous, but nice comment anyway."
It was only when a few had built up I noticed the pattern. The comments were kind and promising, but generic and not actually relevant to what I'd written in the post that had been commented on. All were anonymous. All invited me to view their websites in poor english. Here are some of the comments, and a link-less list of the source websites so you can see what I'm talking about.
● It's an awesome post designed for all the online viewers; they will take advantage from it I am sure.
● Having read this I believed it was extremely enlightening. I appreciate you finding the time and energy to put this short article together. I once again find myself spending way too much time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worth it!
● Appreciate your info. I've bookmarked it in my bookmarks to check out this weekend. Keep up the great work!
● I couldn’t resist commenting. Very well written!
● There is certainly a great deal to know about this issue. I like all the points you made.
● I would like to thank you for the efforts you've put in writing this website. I am hoping to view the same high-grade content from you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own website now ;)
● Very good post. I'm facing many of these issues as well
● Pretty! This was an incredibly wonderful post. Thanks for providing these details.
● Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article! It's the little changes that make the most important changes. Thanks a lot for sharing
●Saved as a favorite, I like your site!
● A fascinating discussion is definitely worth comment. I believe that you need to write more about this subject matter, it might not be a taboo subject but usually people do not speak about these subjects. To the next! Many thanks!!
● You should take part in a contest for one of the most useful sites online. I am going to recommend this website!
● Good day! I simply would like to give you a huge thumbs up for your great information you have got here on this post. I will be returning to your web site for more soon.
● Excellent blog post. I absolutely love this website. Keep it up!
● Great article. I am dealing with many of these issues as well.
● I'm excited to uncover this website. I want to to thank you for ones time due to this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoyed every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to see new information in your web site.
● An outstanding share! I've just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has been conducting a little homework on this. And he actually ordered me breakfast simply because I stumbled upon it for him... lol. So allow me to reword this.... Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about this subject here on your site.
● I have to thank you for the efforts you've put in penning this website. I am hoping to check out the same high-grade content from you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own, personal website now ;)
● This site was... how do you say it? Relevant! ! Finally I've found something which helped me.
See the pattern? Broken English, full of praise and promises but clearly not based on the actual post.
No doubt they are designed to instil a benevolent feeling in you so you then visit their link with a kind and open heart. I also got a few comments of a different style but still designed to elicit a response:
● The next time I read a blog, I hope that it won't fail me just as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read through, but I actually thought you would probably have something interesting to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of complaining about something that you could possibly fix if you were not too busy seeking attention.
● Howdy! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I'm getting sick and tired of Wordpress because I've had problems with hackers and I'm looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
● After I originally left a comment I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on each time a comment is added I receive four emails with the exact same comment. There has to be a way you are able to remove me from that service? Thank you!
Luckily, Blogger can see through this and mark them as spam. I still think it's quite funny, but still pointless. Plus they tend to target the same post repeatedly.
They can only do this because I've allowed anyone to comment, not asked people to do a CAPTCHA thing, so they don't mind commenting. I could simply put that back on and get no spam.
I don't know if they're purely advertisers or phishing / malware sites, and I'll never find out. Looking at the list, I can see another pattern - cheap loans, betting sites and a few random ones. Any of these guys been praising you?
Latest - "Thanks for share" (anonymous). But in the last letter there's a hidden link to hotprivateeye.com.
They get a backlink to their site - it increases their google ranking and they come higher up in a google search. So they're just using you.
Perhaps us bloggers are a breed apart. We're intensely private individuals, and yet (self-denial) choose to make our thoughts and lives public to the whole world via the great anonymizing randomizer that is the internet in a sort of proxy-orgy revelation. I could be a schoolchild in Penang, a life prisoner in Ohio, a researcher in McMurdo or a goat herder in the Takla Makan, and I'm sure many of us pretend to be someone else with a very different online persona. Our personality profiles may be of special interest to the spammers: our deep-seated interest in anyone who has an interest in us. We look back through the one-way mirror of statistical analysis and see who's watching us. Then we get stung for our troubles....this page is a copy - I accidentally pasted the whole of a bad URL into its predecessor, the Russian spambots saw it and started bombarding the page with 50 hits a day. In the end I had to delete it and start again, losing the 20 or so comments from humans. Who knows what these sites want, I don't, because I don't go there. Purebloggers.com may be helpful. But then it might not. Having seen all the rest of them annoying people, I'm less willing to trust new sites. BTW, there are other statcounters available that ignore spamsites. I quite like Blogger stats so I'm staying, but NiteCruzr of Blogger Help forum can show you other ways.
If this post helped you, feel free to forward the link. The more of us that are aware of this rubbish, the better for all of us.
COMMENT SPAM
It took me a while to work this one out. The first times I saw them I thought "Oh, what a nice thing to say, I shan't visit their site because the link is obviously a sales pitch and I can't visit their blogger profile because they're anonymous, but nice comment anyway."
It was only when a few had built up I noticed the pattern. The comments were kind and promising, but generic and not actually relevant to what I'd written in the post that had been commented on. All were anonymous. All invited me to view their websites in poor english. Here are some of the comments, and a link-less list of the source websites so you can see what I'm talking about.
● It's an awesome post designed for all the online viewers; they will take advantage from it I am sure.
● Having read this I believed it was extremely enlightening. I appreciate you finding the time and energy to put this short article together. I once again find myself spending way too much time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worth it!
● Appreciate your info. I've bookmarked it in my bookmarks to check out this weekend. Keep up the great work!
● I couldn’t resist commenting. Very well written!
● There is certainly a great deal to know about this issue. I like all the points you made.
● I would like to thank you for the efforts you've put in writing this website. I am hoping to view the same high-grade content from you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own website now ;)
● Very good post. I'm facing many of these issues as well
● Pretty! This was an incredibly wonderful post. Thanks for providing these details.
● Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article! It's the little changes that make the most important changes. Thanks a lot for sharing
●Saved as a favorite, I like your site!
● A fascinating discussion is definitely worth comment. I believe that you need to write more about this subject matter, it might not be a taboo subject but usually people do not speak about these subjects. To the next! Many thanks!!
● You should take part in a contest for one of the most useful sites online. I am going to recommend this website!
● Good day! I simply would like to give you a huge thumbs up for your great information you have got here on this post. I will be returning to your web site for more soon.
● Excellent blog post. I absolutely love this website. Keep it up!
● Great article. I am dealing with many of these issues as well.
● I'm excited to uncover this website. I want to to thank you for ones time due to this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoyed every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to see new information in your web site.
● An outstanding share! I've just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has been conducting a little homework on this. And he actually ordered me breakfast simply because I stumbled upon it for him... lol. So allow me to reword this.... Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to talk about this subject here on your site.
● I have to thank you for the efforts you've put in penning this website. I am hoping to check out the same high-grade content from you later on as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own, personal website now ;)
● This site was... how do you say it? Relevant! ! Finally I've found something which helped me.
See the pattern? Broken English, full of praise and promises but clearly not based on the actual post.
No doubt they are designed to instil a benevolent feeling in you so you then visit their link with a kind and open heart. I also got a few comments of a different style but still designed to elicit a response:
● The next time I read a blog, I hope that it won't fail me just as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read through, but I actually thought you would probably have something interesting to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of complaining about something that you could possibly fix if you were not too busy seeking attention.
● Howdy! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I'm getting sick and tired of Wordpress because I've had problems with hackers and I'm looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
● After I originally left a comment I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on each time a comment is added I receive four emails with the exact same comment. There has to be a way you are able to remove me from that service? Thank you!
Luckily, Blogger can see through this and mark them as spam. I still think it's quite funny, but still pointless. Plus they tend to target the same post repeatedly.
They can only do this because I've allowed anyone to comment, not asked people to do a CAPTCHA thing, so they don't mind commenting. I could simply put that back on and get no spam.
I don't know if they're purely advertisers or phishing / malware sites, and I'll never find out. Looking at the list, I can see another pattern - cheap loans, betting sites and a few random ones. Any of these guys been praising you?
Latest - "Thanks for share" (anonymous). But in the last letter there's a hidden link to hotprivateeye.com.
They get a backlink to their site - it increases their google ranking and they come higher up in a google search. So they're just using you.
My blog likewise is regularly assaulted by Domar and someone using the ow.ly short url. I only see these hits when I use Google statistics. Statcounter effectively blocks them from my stats. I'm not sure why Google doesn't react faster to this spam, but the net effect (pardon the pun) is that I favor Statcounter for my daily activity review and statistical totals.
ReplyDeleteI too have noticed this more. I didn't until I decided to add the google adsense. Is there a connection? Also I accidentally clicked on one of the links and it sent my Norton into a frenzy. : ) So am more a little more careful. Was just wondering if it is just something benign?
ReplyDeleteStatcounter sounds good but opening this page about the sites I see has given me 20 or so thank you comments so many more people have been reassured by it. That was until I accidentally pasted the whole URL of one of the spamsites instead of just the root - then I got so much from the same site I had to kill the entire page and republish as a new title, so lost all the comments!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I also accidentally clicked on one and the blocker went into overdrive
Trust nobody who doesn't tell you who they are
I've been getting hits from log.go, linkedin, and nba.com. Are these all referer spam too?
ReplyDeletelog.go is definitely referrer spam. You may have pals on Linked In...
ReplyDeletethank you for the list
ReplyDeletei was thinking i had turned fool, caus i couldn't find any reference to this url's, but i can see other people can see them
greetings from Spain, i have copied you list giving you the credits (of course)
here is the post:
http://vamospues.blogspot.com/2012/03/direcciones-peligrosas-para-bloggers.html
Hehehehe... Carbon-based!
ReplyDeleteSame junk has been happening with my blog, and I figured it just had to be dirty business. I'm a seasoned surfer; I trust (almost) nobody!
..nice post and funny, and yes I got those annoying sites visiting my blog too. if I just ignore the fact they are bots, maybe it will make me feel more popular :-) hehe
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. Last year I was getting a lot of bogus traffic from .ru sites like Yandex and I couldn't figure out why. It didn't make sense that my extremely limited readership has suddenly expanded to include thousands of Russians with a deep interest in what bitter Canadian men have to say about food.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is true. Even the Cheese cake gets hit with Domar or my favorite "get dental implants". In my naivete, I actually thought, "Hmm? Who could I know that actually might know someone who know's someone in Russia?" Answer? No one. Norway, yes. England, yes. I just got hit by China recently. Specifically Hong Kong. There is a chance that someone there may have heard about a little blog site about a "One B Debie" who's an island girl. And that would be great. If they know someone in Russia, they can pass it along that way. Great post!
ReplyDeleteYes, they are out there Way too many of them.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was going crazy at first because I had a bunch of traffic when I checked my blogger stats but according to Project Wonderful (an ad network I use) I was getting only about a third of that number). I finally figured out that most of my "traffic" was referrer spam. What a blow to my ego that was.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the informative article. I get about 25 per day from Russia, I've been ignoring them. It started with 2 to 7 a day and is escalating. This bothers me, since I don't have ads, just one with amazon, I don't get any email with comments from Russia, lol, there are no back links as far as I know. So I'm confounded as to what there interest is in my blog about narrators/audiobooks?? I worry they have snuck in somewhere and are rerouting my traffic, copying my content, or using it somehow as a zombie. Any tips on what to look for in the HTML?? Thanks for good article and list of spammers.
ReplyDeleteJenie
The Russians are up my ass in my blog. Is there a way so they're not count in stats?
ReplyDeleteIf you see a visit from Italy, well, it's real! Now I know that myhealthscore and devsripts are not really interested in what an Italian mom writes about her 5 years old kid!
ReplyDeleteA real hello from Canada here =) I also get loads of russians hit from myhealthscore and devscripts (same as last poster here)... my blog is in french and actually really new so it actually made me laugh as it was sooooo obvious that these were scams hehe... and if I ever get false comments (in english) I think I'll ROFL... For now it's just annoying and, as someone said, a little harsh on the ego! =P
ReplyDeleteAs a carbon-based life form to another...,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information.
I knew stumbleupon as a decent site. Apparently someone has found a way to hack it, most probably by using
that seems to be the link to a stumbledupon page, and adding something after it.
The link of the "visit" re-directed me to a page called "be paid to use facebook, twitter", something like that. They promise that you will be paid for comments, uploading photos to facebook etc, that apparently will really be ads. This they call "social media managers".
I'll check this statcounter. I was wondering about statistics of visits and looking for something better.
Hey, as a carbon-based life form to another... Next time, keep it shorter, SHORTER I say!! Time is too valuable for us finite children of carbon...!!
-.
Yes. Sorry it's so long, I just kept adding to it, more and more spam keeps happening.
ReplyDeleteAt least it's got lots of info.
I suspected it wasn't legit, since I'm not part of stumbleupon. I wondered why the heck they were showing up.
ReplyDeleteI've had a lot of the ones you posted show up at one time or other.
I'm actually tempted to block all of Russia from m site, seeing as the country seems intent on spamming my blog. Keep up naming and shaming them. I actually report all instances to google in the hope they will remove the sites from their index.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, very informative! I have been receiving many visits from a Russian based website called FILMHILL.COM? Probably a spammer/hacker or sorts.Ugh.
ReplyDeletehttp://light-andsweet.blogspot.com/
Thank you for this post. I had wondered why on earth my blogs have been getting hits daily from sites like filmhill.com and meendo.com mixed in with all the genuine visitors. This explains why.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from the PNW (USA)!! I found your site searching for information on some of the werid sites that i have (hehehe) stumbled upon. I also get soo many hits from Russia. The only other sites that i found when search for these URLS were werid anti-american/super crazy christian consipircy websites. SOOO thankful that i found your site. (not a fake comment btw) It helps knowing that i am not the only one who is having this happen to them. Reading what other people have commented has also made me feel much better about this annyoing and shared exp.
ReplyDeleteI dont use ANY ads on my site what so ever!
DeleteAlso, what is statcounter?
It's a little depressing to see just how many of my "page hits" are actually referrer spam. I wanted to believe I was popular, but it's unlikely that I have a huge Russian fan base! I wish there was more that Blogger could do to block them, but maybe it's just too big a problem to manage. I guess I should count myself lucky that I'm not seeing spam comments yet.
ReplyDeleteI googled what the heck was going on with my many Russian hits from weird websites and I got this explanation. Excellent. Thank you for clarifying that I am not, in fact, big in Russia. Or anywhere for that matter but hey, who cares?
ReplyDeleteI am also a carbon-based life form living in the US of A and found you, Professor, also from putting in filmhill and meendo in Google. I am so sorry we all have convened this community of spam pong-scum victims. I am trying to change my language to Greek, as in "It's all Greek to me." Me being the pond-scum suckers. I'd like to see their face when their TV Station or Stripping Girl starts talking in another language. Uh, I'm really not usually revengeful. But, in this case, I think it warrants a anger. In the spirit of taking a positive from a dirtbag, how about we reconvene here anytime someone finds new info or links to watch out for. Eh? By the way, is StatCounter good or bad? Found inconsistencies between 1st and 3rd comment. "Stay safe out there."
ReplyDeleteI get plenty spam like this too - though it has quietened of recent. Beware though, I'm also seeing more hits from Digg containing spam pages if you click the link (dumbly as I did!).
ReplyDeleteAs someone else replied in here, I, too, and a carbon-based life form.
ReplyDeleteSo glad I googled, 'what is pregolom in Russia' and found your blog, although you'd think anything with 'golem' in the name, might have given me a smidge of a clue, but some of us blog 'newbs' need to have it spelled out - so thank you for the detailed explanation.
54 hits from Russia, indeed. Geez.
Same thing for me, my biggest referral site is filmhill, which has very little to do with any of my blogs!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post. I always get a kick out of the spikes in visits to my blog from Russia -- it's always to the post about lions.
ReplyDeleteEvery blogger gets them - What is Putin doing about them? after all he did jail the punk rock group - why doesn`t he do it to the owners of these sites or are the comrades?
ReplyDeleteExcellent list and excellent post. The spam is annoying, but it's nice to know where to go to see a list of these bogus websites. I, too, don't have that captcha thing on my blog (wanted to make it easy for people to comment). So again, thanks for the list. Very informative.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Just my sentiments, and now I don't have to blog them because you did. :>). When you grow up we can go on a date, ok?
ReplyDeleteOh it was so nice! I was also wondering why my blog's pageviews rose but maybe the warning of not opening the website came too late... but next time I wont open those websites you listed... anyway, thanks for this... I'd just like to suggest it would be better if our blogs that are of no need of being searched on google are better set to "non-searcheable"... Thanks anyway...
ReplyDeleteAnd I was wondering... thank you for the Info :)
ReplyDeleteWe've all been brought here to your wonderful blog with the promise of anti-spam solutions and tips, or at least some company with whom we can commiserate. Your dastardly plan has worked, professor!
ReplyDeleteHaha, love this, I actually found this blog by googling that crap b/c it's been driving me crazy...especially the adsense one, I thought google was stalking me thinking that I was illegally inflating the $0.02 I earn each month! Was relived to see that on your list :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post! My english is not so properly, but when I saw this high number of visits in the same night and their "attractive" origins, I was really tempted to go directly to these websites.
ReplyDeleteI would like to share these information by copy-pasting your link in my twitter account, if you don't mind.
Thank you for clarifying what is going on! I definitely will NOT click on these referral websites. I'm glad Blogger eventually takes care of these spammers, but it sure does make it hard to determine if anyone "real" is reading my blog! I'll keep blogging anyways, and hope for the best!
ReplyDeleteSanta Barbara area carbon based life form here! I think my only legitimate reads now are my facebook reads.
ReplyDeleteDeeDee
http://yesindeedee.blogspot.com.
Tell me it "ain't so!" I thought I was becoming a "legend" in Russia, the Ukraine, and Checz. (lol).
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the info...everything you wrote of in this article I have been the "sad recepient" of.
And you are also correct...DON'T CLICK. I did one time...and my security system went on the offensive immediately...fortunately...it solved the issue in a short amount of time.
Thanks again, Joe
More thanks from a carbon-based lifeform. I kind of figured I didn't become a Russian legend without my knowledge, and this proves it. I was a bit worried maybe someone had access to my password or some nefarious scheme. Your post let me know if annoying these URLs are not an indication of anything particularly serious, except for Blogger's inability to recognize and remove these statistics from view of the user. Thanks for the heads up!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning. The latest culprit showing up in my stats is internetsupervision.com. Sounds benign, right? Well, I will NOT click on that one either:) Not quite that gullible lol.
ReplyDeletewell done! really good post - and amusing! BTW I am not from Myanmar! I also have some weird referral sites.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteI'm a carbon-based life form... XD
In fact, I want to thank you for the explanation.
A few days ago I noticed these strange links on my blog's referral and, unaware of this kind of spam, I clicked on two links and found out they were porn sites. I was shocked, I have a blog about books, movies and games and a blog about all kind of stuff, but I NEVER wrote about pornography or something the same.
I started googling to find something about this in my language (I'm brazilian), but a lot of people had the same problem and were on the dark, just like me. Then I just googled some of the links and found your blog (because you mentioned on your post some of the links "popping up" on my blog's referral) with all this huge content.
Thank you so much.
Do you mind if I translate your info and put a link to your post on my blog? I'm sure it'll be of great help to much people who don't speak english.
Again, thank you!!
Hello
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU!!
It scared me at first, but now I understand, and yes its so weird, they are all Russian and porno sites, oh yeah!!!! not thank you for the information and what is happening I guess there is nothing to do, but ignore it..???
thank you for taking the time to write this..
Renee
That's a gigantic list of referrer sites o_o
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. (Your style of writing is quite humorous, by the way. Keep it going!)
I've been getting persistently spidered/botted recently from Switzerland, Sweden, and New Hampshire/Vermont (!?!). In addition of course to all the Eastern Europe, Argentina, Malaysia, and South Korea. For some reason, many spam hits register in Blogger stats as coming from my own URL. I've Googled that a few times, but though I've found others enquiring about the same phenomenon, I've found no coherent explanation.
ReplyDeleteI have read that even the bot hits help your search engine rankings, and that may be true since Statcounter tells me several of my most spam-hammered posts came up in the Top Ten returns.
I'm running four analytics: the bundled Blogger stats, Google Analytics, and Stat. Blogger is far the laziest; it will report anything (though it also strips a few back out over time.) Statcounter is most conservative; too conservative sometimes, stripping out known readers (even while reporting known bots). And GA is somewhere between.
Final observation: so many people are running Ghostery these days (as am I) that I've "lost" many regular readers; they still read, but their hits no longer register. Soon we won't be able to get any figures on real readers at all. Thanks, Scumnet. (And chin up to the rest of us; our analytics may report nothing but cons, but that's because lots of genuine fans have gone stealth.)
Great post! Thanks for all the data! (And the validation!)
Robin
Rusty Ring: Reflections of an Old-Timey Hermit
So glad to find this post although disapponted to face the truth that my blog is not a global attraction. Although, I do know for a fact that one of my readers does live in a country outside of mine - at least I hope so - or I've been chatting with a robot. That would be the ultimate embarrasment.
ReplyDeletehahaha chatting to a robot, something never to admit. That suggests it passed the Turing test and AI-capable software is amongst us.....
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post! I have been assaulted by these people as well.
ReplyDeleteInformative and funny ... I needed this. Thanks a lot
ReplyDeletethats for this Professor M! I was wondering who the frikking hell filmhill were! and now i know. spamming gits! argh
ReplyDeleteThanks from this human, carbon-based life form! This started this afternoon...I did click back on the filmhill.com one and couldn't understand why a movie download site would care about my blog at all. 18 visits from Russia today, and that sent me Googling it. I appreciate your explanation.
ReplyDeleteI too must renounce my Russian "fan base" - my husband thought they were reading my blog for the purity of my English prose... but I noticed the spikes and realised they were not actually "reading" anything - not even my piece about Mrs Thatcher! Thank you for the explanation.
ReplyDeleteThis carbon based life form was not slightly disappointed for the wit and skillfully applied words to the article. I have place it in my bookmarks and mimeographed broadsheets gluing all over necessary utility structurings to be seen by all my friends and neighbours. You are obviously an expert! You may visit my site at grot dot uselessspam dot ru.
ReplyDeletethanks for the post. I've seen the spam urls show up in me stats before. The .ru was a big one for awhile. Just today (I don't look at the stats too often) I noticed a huge visit number from filmhill.com/redirect.php and I did a quick search and found this post. It's a big numbers game they play. I think if they get one out of 10,000 they are probably having a good day. thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post - good to know the frequency may decrease!! It's so annoying when your stats look great then you realise it is just a bot *sigh*.
ReplyDeleteHello and Thank you very much for your Good work. i have been getting a lot of hits from current.com and all the visitors are from Russia and filmhill.com i will like to know about it.
ReplyDeleteThank ya soooooo much!! ..mmmmh! a kiss!
ReplyDeletea very helpful post! filmhill seems interested in our blog!
:) Thank you fellow actually sentient being. Looks like you have hit a real carbon based nerve. :) I was heartened and cheered by your confirmation of my my own refferal based spam sadness. Empathy from another sentient being. Nothing against silicon based life replying to my posts if they actually cared. Sniff.
ReplyDeleteuse Norton ConnectSafe to safeguard ur pc nd network http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_DNS
ReplyDeleteActual Carbon BAsed Life Form Here :D I feel your pain! I have three blogs (Music, Historical Trivie, and Famous Disasters) and all three are reguloarly assaulted by spam sites. i just sigh and ignore them, and feel thankful for those hits from people who obviously were searching for something and either found it, or maybe stumbled upon it by chance.
ReplyDeleteAlso as you noted, the great majority of the shady Spam-bearing hits seem to come from Russia. love youtr Blog BTW...
Filmhill.com and flf.com bug me all the time! I'm about to write a post about this and other cyber annoyances today. This was a great post by the way!What about current.com ? I think that may be referrer spam as well but I can't find any complaints on the web.
ReplyDeleteFilmhill.com is a normal one that seems to target new blogs. I had 6 from there, all in the first week I started. I clicked on it first time to see what it was, then got 6 more. I never clicked again and have had no more referrals from Filmhill.
DeleteOkay I put your link on my post and quoted you. I hope you don't mind!
ReplyDeleteI had an amazing 173 page visits today, normally I'm at 10-25 legit visits a day. 78 of these are from http://t.co/1B9JYaYgp8, also one from http://twitterrific.com/referrer#iPad. What's extra strange about them 85 are from Mobiles and 47 from Mobile Safari (I never have mobile visitors). I don't understand how these don't match up. There are still over 100 unaccounted for referrals. 155 are UK visitors (my normal audience), but also odd ones from new countries (Hong Kong, Isle of Man, South Korea and none from Russia!).
ReplyDeleteFor a moment I thought my clever use of # on Twitter had worked :-(
It's weird because my stats on blogger dashboard has all the russians and ukrainians, and the one on site meter seems to be legit with none of that ... one would think that blogger would know better how to protect itself.
ReplyDelete