While I post about referral spam as a form of public service, I sometimes get sites that won’t load right in my Linux based virtual machine. I can’t tell if the error is due incompatibilities or attempted shenanigans by the spam site.
http: // ceae2122 . dyo . gs / is once such site that appeared in my Blogger stats today. It goes straight to LinkBucks and is supposed to be a video. When I clicked on the video it wanted me to update my video player.
It looks like an ad before the actual destination, but curiosity led me to see what would happen if I clicked the button. First came instructions and then it got interesting:
It wanted me to download and install a customized version of VLC player. Being very familiar with that software, I recognized that isn’t the real release file. Not being interested in cleaning up an infection when I haven’t even gotten to the final destination, I canceled that.
So where did clicking “skip this ad” end up taking me?
Well that’s disappointing. I have no clue what it was supposed to be thanks to the server error. It could be a missing destination for all I know.
LinkBucks is a very shady bunch and to be avoided like the bubonic plague anyway. Don’t click on anything going to them!
I really need to get ReactOS or WindowsXP running in a virtual machine for some of these investigations.
7 comments:
Interesting. I just posted a new post up on mine and have 3 hits on it from the same site - I literally made my blog just today. Seems very shady.
Welcome to the world of blog spam where spammers would have it up on your blog before you created if they could figure out time travel.
This is why I wish I understood the technical side of how they do this more. It is amazing how quickly a brand new blog is hit by this. They must have programs hammering Blogger's servers constantly looking for new blogs.
I got hit by several referrer sites. Each time there is a new one, I inform google as to help me getting rid of those ones. most of them come from russia. they spoil my stats which i do not like at all. How can bloggers get rid of those spamsites???
I saw this also just now today and I never click on them as I am suspicious. At the same time I also had a visit from http://www.icerocket.com/search?tab=twi
Do you know who they are ?
Cheers, Kevin
Timeless - IceRocket is a legitimate search engine that is trying to make it by word of mouth only. They specialize in blogs, so somebody found your post through them. I've never had that, so congratulations!
Thomas - The only way to really avoid the spam in your stats is to use a different service than the built in one.
Google Analytics integrates very easily and has more data than you could ever process!
StatCounter does the same and the free version only keeps a limited record but has a terrific interface that makes it easy to see the who, what, and where of your visitors.
I use both and they filter out referral spam much more effectively.
when i saw that this blog had come up on traffic sources (the http:// thing) i tried to click on it to see where it would take me (im not very good with blogs and technology as ive just started today) and the url thing lead me to linkbucks, what does this mean?
Clara - What it means is that you were tricked into helping someone make money. Linkbucks pays out x number of cents per clink on the link. More information on that service, which is legal if not exactly reputable, check out the description here:
http://www.imreportcard.com/services/linkbucks
Read the comments and you'll get an idea of why people would use trickery to make money off the service. Rule of thumb is to do a search on any link you see in your referrals before clicking on them.
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