Has my blog been hijacked?
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In the last three weeks, I’ve been getting some strange referrals that all seem to be coming from this link (link grouping): redirect.ad-feeds.com.
All of them have different suffixes (?) that look like links to splogs.
Has my blog been hijacked in some way?
I know I’m probably not using the right terminology, but I am entirely new to this problem.
As you might have guessed from the previous statement, I know very little about how this works or what to do about it.
Could someone help me figure out how to report this in order to make this stop? What else do I need to do to stop this now, and to keep it from happening elsewhere?
Thanking you in advance,
Courtenay Bluebird.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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I’ve been getting some strange referrals that all seem to be coming from this link
Does that mean you are seeing referrals in where you get traffic from into your blog?
That would be in the referrals section of your blog stats.
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The ads would show I think in the clicks section – we will just need to wait to see which box they see the info in.
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These are showing up under referrers.
When I click on the link in my referral panel, I get a blank webpage and this:
http://redirect.xmladfeed.com/filtered.html
But if I go to my referral page, I find entries like this underneath the header of redirect.ad.feeds.com/:
[Staff edit – removed link as it was being marked as spam]
Sorry for the long link!
I do have WordAds. Is that what these are? Why would they show up as referrers?
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So, to clarify, timethief and auxclass — These are not clicks, they are referrers.
And thank you so much in advance for asking questions that should help me start sorting this out. (I’m freaking out a little bit here.)
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I’m seeing the same thing. It’s probably spam linking hoping that you’ll click to see it, OR it could be a splog scraping your content and posting a link to you in hope you’ll feel “grateful.” To see if that’s what it is, Google the first sentence of each of your recent posts; if they show up on another blog, take action in accordance with the recommendations at http://stolen.wordpress.com
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Thank you, Raincoaster! Normally, if it’s a one-time pass-through, I haven’t bothered with it. (Knock wood.) Now I’m wondering if I should be checking every single time. Have I done myself and others a disservice?
I’m a professional writer with good credentials; I’ve written for pay since I turned 20. I would go ballistic if someone tried made money off of my writing without a prearranged payment, and there’s no way in heck I’d sell writing to piece-of-filth splogs. So, there’s that.
“Redirect Ad Feeds” has shown up as a referrer 17 times in 30 days. It took me three weeks to catch on.
The few times in the last week when I (reluctantly) clicked a link — it lead to an empty page. That’s what started to really freak me out.
“Redirect” hasn’t sent me any spam at all. All I’m getting are these creepy referrals, with a different suffix each time. And from the spot-checks I did, I assume they all lead to a blank page. Each referral is from a different post, and not necessarily a recent one. Periodically, I try opening up old posts to new readers, but end up closing them again due to a periodic run of spam.
This is different though. No spam. Creepy referrals.
Thank you for the clear instructions and the link. I’m going to go and check right now and find out whether I’m being content scraped.
Dang, and double-dang.
Thanks so much— Courtenay Bluebird.
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Nothing is coming up? I’ve done first lines on my last five posts, and (thankfully) it’s all me. I also spot-checked popular back posts from the last seven days— nothing. Not a single hint of anything.
I checked the most recent “Redirect Ad Feed” referral and it lead to this site:
[edit – removed link]
Nothing of mine on there.
I guess the more likely culprit is that “Redirect” is spam-linking? What, besides not clicking it, should I do about that phenomenon? And you’re experiencing it too?
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Dangit, I didn’t think about that link going active. Can one of the moderators disable it? I’m not trying to encourage SPAM, I promise.
Sorry about that!
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The same thing is happening with my blog as well.
At the moment I get over 100 hits via them as “Referrer”. All of them from links that differ slightly. Trying to click on them just brings one to an empty page.
Very peculiar. -
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Searching works wonders folks: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/referrer-redirectad-feeds?replies=6
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More search results here https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/whats-redirect-ad-feeds?replies=6
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