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Arti
from Mumbai |

For the past few days, the traffic sources tab in my dashboard shows that I have been receiving a lot of traffic from this site –

777seo.com / 282 hits

I googled a bit on it and came to know that it is a blocked/blacklisted site by google. What makes me even more worried is the fact that a few days back google had taken my entire blog down due to some malware reporting and suspicious intrusion and I had to change my password and go through the authentication process to get it up and running again. And now this problem…

I am continuously receiving traffic from the above site and the numbers are increasing by the day. What should I do? Any precautions that I should take?

I haven’t a clue of all these things Frown Any idea, anyone?

Replies 1 to 20 of 33

Rumbaho.com
from Hyderabad |

It's referer spam.  Nobody is accessing your blog, and nobody knows about the link but you.1. Don't click on the links.2. Don't publish your access log.3. Wait until Google blocks the traffic.

The above content is from google's forums.

Arti
from Mumbai |

I did click on the link once initially, but not after that :( And what does the second point mean?

Third point is fine.

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

May be it was about Blogger stopping recording those visits

DS
from Mumbai |

What is access log?

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

May be the list of incoming traffic links, here. But mostly access log refers to the information about the various times at which we logged into our account.

Arti
from Mumbai |

Ok.. But whoever publishes all these things and where... i wonder ?

DS
from Mumbai |

Ya who publishes his access log in public??

Chaitanya Kulkarni
from Mumbai |

i wonder where to find access logs for blogspot lol

Sumit Surai
from Calcutta , Kolkata |

I think the second point meant do not post the links in any public forum as someone else might click that too.

Firoze Shakir
from Mumbai |

My advise never click on a link you are not sure of ,I never check traffic on my  Blogspot never, I just read the blog stats , I only trust Fickr where I have my Pro account , I have clicked links or referrers and never faced a problem as yet..and Flickr has a safe fool proof sysytem, because I am paying for it US$25 PER YEAR.

I am really sorry the problems you have faced , I once had my ste hacked at Buzznet Wordpress  so I know what you must have gone through.. and Flickr is only good if you are a photoblogger and have money to buy the Pro account..

I had stopped using Blogspot for quite a long time now I crossblog here from Flickr..

Take Care

Arti
from Mumbai |

Point very well noted, I will be more careful with links I dont trust.. Your soothing words made me feel much better, thanks for your reply Sir..

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

I too occassionally receive a few visits just as you have. And, I too just like you, out of curisoity check out to know the reason behind getting traffic from that site. And after visiting the site, I don't find my site name listed there and on some sites I see a scrolling list of websites at the bottom. May be they are automated robots visiting your site. 

Arti
from Mumbai |

I did go thro that link Ranjith.. though I cant confirm on how much of it actually went in my head Innocent  So do you think we can classify this problem as a robot problem? And should I just wait about it or do I need to do something from my side as well?

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

Never mind... I wonder if even I understood anything. Placing unnecessary restrictions on robots may also harm, for even Google uses robots to crawl our site. I think it is better to leave it as it is and as others have pointed out, do not click any links that appear suspicious.

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

Hope that some expert would come and answer this question.

Arti
from Mumbai |

Ok, thanks again Ranjith... lets just stick to what we know - blogging :)

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

Yes, that's the best thing to do instaed of spoiling things that are working fine now.

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Hey Arti, first, you did wrong thing by clicking on the link once. If you even do it once, its enuf. I had a virus attack on my site two years back and that virus affected close to 2050 files on my server. I had to manually remove that virus code from all the 2050 files... that probably explains the reason why Google took down your blog for sometime and forced you to change the password and change the autentication. As for you still recieving hits, well I really dont have an idea. Its the ill of the world wide web that one can link to you and that one can be anyone...

DS
from Mumbai |

Never knew these things happen as well to blogs...

Arti
from Mumbai |

I dint know that I should not be clicking it, obviously, otherwise i would have never done that Cry Yea, the dots do seem to be connecting, the blog going down before and this..

You faced a virus attack on 2050 files Surprised And you removed it MANUALLY! You are great Hemal! But atleast, now I know whom to bug if ever I am going to face a similar situation Wink

Thnaks for the reply, got a fair bit of idea of what can happen and what's goin on... but really speaking, all this is very scary for me!

DS
from Mumbai |

All the best Hemal!
Sometimes its better not to boast even if its true:-P

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

I'm now getting a doubt if someone can remove viruses manually... that too from 2050 files and not 2049 or 2051...Smile

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@Arti I had removed all of those manually.. but there was a trick! it was painful, to keep a track of the files but otherwise it was all not too taxing. even one file having the code and it spreads again. I kept my site down for about a week. and yes, i will be happy to help you but god forbid you face that situation. It is scary, but you gotta get to understand all these things. It matters... really when you are in the open world wide web.

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@DS thanks for the suggestion :P but yeah, only one knows the pain who went through it.. :)

@Ranjith dude! it wasnt a fake amt, please read it well.. i said "about 2050" coz the amt was around 2040+ and i dont remember it exactly.

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@ranjith not "about 2050" i wrote "close to 2050"

DS
from Mumbai |

It must have been one headache Hemal, that above comment was made in jest...

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@DS am easy ;) i get that well... Heheh

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

@ Hemal So we have someone who can cure one's site or blog from a virus if it gets attacked. Smile I have seen only the phrase "all the 2050" and not "close to 2050"

Anyway, that was a great job.

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@ranjith it was something i had to do... U can use a fe tools.. But befor that u hve to know how to remove it... In my casee, it was a javascript that pasted itself on every page it had editing access to

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

And one more thing, i did it on wordpress self hosted blog coz i have access to all files, the same wont be true for blogger.com

Arti
from Mumbai |

Gosh! My head is whirring Innocent Hopefully, I will slowly pick up all these things from all you poeple around... Till then, however... forum zindabad :P

Sumit Surai
from Calcutta , Kolkata |

@Hemal - If it was the iframe attack I know the pain Frown

Dhiraj Shenoy
from Bangalore |

@ Arti , Even i received a lot of traffic from the same source and some other urls (directing towards same 777seo.com about two days back , but now its okay .  Even i clicked on the link , lucky me actually nothing went wrong at least till now .  Thanks to people who have replied will never click on the urls given by traffic source from blogger stats .

Arti
from Mumbai |

Nothing has gone wrong for me too till now. Ya we should be careful of clicking such links in future...

DS
from Mumbai |

All Indian Travel Bloggers attacked??

Arti
from Mumbai |

Yes looks like that DS.

DS
from Mumbai |

Sad

RioZee
from Out of this yEt in this World |

This virus thing is a menace, and I understand the plight of hemal and arti too,
This acts as a deterrent and a billion $ industry thrives on virus removal only,

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

Very true pramod! Who knows these companies itself create these / encourage these viruses...

RioZee
from Out of this yEt in this World |

i also had similar doubts.

Arti
from Mumbai |

Very very pathetic this is but so true!

Chaitanya Kulkarni
from Mumbai |

you are using blogspot, blogspot is owned by google, so it knows you are not doing anything personally malicious on blogspot. unless your pc/laptop is infected by some malware/virus and it has your passwords now.

Arti
from Mumbai |

Thanks a lot chaitanya.. Never knew abt this thing. I keep doing deep scans regularly, still will do it once again today itself to remove any malwares from my PC if any..

DS
from Mumbai |

Yup scanning the Pc from time to time is good.

umesh derebail
from Mumbai |

Arti, even if you receive links on your mail box you should avoid clicking it, i just received one stating that google application is tracking your location on the mobile, so when i checked the email address it was sent by friendster cleverly masking it as google.  Thus all the unrecognised links are safe not to be accessed.  Luckily google has an authentication process Smile

umesh derebail
from Mumbai |

Oh bad news is that this link is featuring in my blogspot traffic source 206 hits, how did you manage to get rid of it Arti ?  Only by authentication process or through back up and restore

Arti
from Mumbai |

Yes Umeshji true... untrustes links shud be avoided... a lesson well learnt now..

Oh, its featuring for you too, seems like all travel blogs were tagetted! I did nothing Umeshji, as suggested to me by others. It is still showing in my stats board and am waiting for google to remove it for me.

umesh derebail
from Mumbai |

I hope three other side kick links too vanish, luckily 777seo.com the main link is not visible today.  I hope google removes the virus producing link from our blogspot.  Smile  There is a special feature in the blogspot, which is termed as back up and restore, any idea when this feature has to be used.

Arti
from Mumbai |

Sorry Umeshji, but I have never used it.. I think its got something to do with the template...

Dhiraj Shenoy
from Bangalore |

http://www.searchpeack.com/run.php?user=martyxmas , have recieved some more unwanted traffic today from the above mentioned link .

Arti
from Mumbai |

Oh Yes!! ME too! Just checked.. Close to 130 hits!

Anyone else facing a similar situation? Umeshji?

DS
from Mumbai |

Gosh, This is seriously affecting the Travel Bloggers...

DS
from Mumbai |

Is it only Indian Travel Bloggers?

umesh derebail
from Mumbai |

Now i am scared to click on any links Lolz, today luckily i don t have any visits from 777.seo.com but some other minor links visit is prevalent.  Hope they too will fade away Smile

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

@dhiraj u really had to make that as a link dude? Refrain from doing so, what if someone even accidently clicks it? Just be careful :)

DS
from Mumbai |

You are right Hemal. The reply should be edited by the moderators.

Uma's Culinary World
from Michigan/Mangalore |

I am a food blogger and my blog also gets such unwanted traffic from many links.  Any suggestions to get rid of such unwanted referring links ?

DS
from Mumbai |

I dont you can get rid of them. Google will do that.

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

How to think through this situation lets discuss that... If you are getting traffic from one or more than one url, see if it is affecting ur visits per day.. Minus the hits from that url n see if that resultant amt is abt average of ur regular hits. Many a times, its does not matter. One interesting thing however is, google may penalise u for no fault if urs if for ex. A p*rn site is linking into u, google wont throw up ur site if safe search is on...

Hemal Shah
from Mumbai |

N one thing we all cant deny, nor do we know neither we cant stop anyone from linking into us. We can get the link removed, but most of the damage will be done

Ranjith
from hyderabad |

A small doubt: How can visiting those links bring my site down. If it does so, is cross site scripting use? Even in that case, most of the time, the browser asks for our permission.

And, if I am really interested in visiting that viisting, can I log out of all my accounts, clear my browser's cookies and then  visit that site? Will that do any harm ?

Rubina Dcruz
from Goa |

You could create a .htaccess file within your web-directory and could add the following code to block the unwanted traffic

order deny, allow

deny IP address of Domain 

Allow all

Example:

Order deny, allow

deny 198.123.23.23

deny 198.100.*.*

allow all

Santosh BS
from Bangalore |

 A little late here, but nevertheless in a similar situation of some unwanted 777seo.com, goo.gl. t.co visitors to the blog Yell

Can anybody check if all blogger users are having the same issue or only those with Indi accounts? (Well, I'm not blaming Indi but just an instinct...?)Wink

All's well till all of us are in the well Smile

Santosh BS
from Bangalore |

Another thing is that generally I don't refer to the stats shown on blogger (nor click on any of the links), rather I prefer the more trusted google analytics that gives me authentic information Smile

DS
from Mumbai |

Yes, google analytics is a much better tool.

abhin@v
from mumbai |

two relevant threads i found on the blogger help forums.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=02996e001d4da596&hl=en

and

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=5dfd97c0c3e5dada&hl=en

Hope this helps.

abhin@v
from mumbai |

I am sure there are many other similar threads as well. Enter diffferent keywords in the search on the help forums to view them.

Dhiraj Shenoy
from Bangalore |

@ abhi, one of the unwanted link i recieved today is college/nitecruzr/net  , and person name (nitecruzr) in your link is same

Arti
from Mumbai |

Received traffic from same site Dhiraj :(

Arti
from Mumbai |

Extremely Sorry for my late reply here Frown

Many Thanks all for the info and related help.. I think the problem is sorted out now and the links have all gone Cool

I very much appreaciate all your concerns and assistance... Thank you @everyone Smile

Dhiraj Shenoy
from Bangalore |

Have recieved more unwanted traffic today also from a different link .

Arti
from Mumbai |

Well I opened my mouth earlier!!!

Arti
from Mumbai |

Received unwanted traffic from these sources today...
1. googlecorrection.com - 55 pageviews
2. college.nitecruzr.net - 52 pageviews
3. justforlaughsgags.tv - 49 pageviews

Dhiraj Shenoy
from Bangalore |

Same here +favorite 777seo/com also . But these clicks are not being counted in page impressions of Google adsense .

Kristy Kumari
from Amritsar |

Arti, I too have been getting those exact same 3 links. They are registering higher on my traffic list than my top referrers which is how I noticed. I'm sure google with notice and remedy it soon. I'm not a travel blogger and I havent seen the 777seo either. I checked google analytics for my site and they aren't even mentioned. It's weird.

Arti
from Mumbai |

@Kristy Yeah, same is the case here.. Try sending a feedback to blogger as Uma suggested.

Uma's Culinary World
from Michigan/Mangalore |

Hello fellow bloggers,

I sent a feedback to Blogger about this issue of unwanted traffic with my blog and the next day all those links just disappeared.  Its been a week now and luckily no more unwanted links.

Arti
from Mumbai |

Ok, then will do it too Smile But, I do hope it has not caused any damage, as pointed out by Hemal in his previous reply... Thanks for the reply Uma :)

DS
from Mumbai |

How you contact Blogger?