Hi all

I look after the website of a local AIDS charity. This includes
collecting the access logs and putting the info into a database for a
simple stats page I put together. lately, the web logs have been showing
hits like these:

+---------------------+------------------------------------+
| time | referer |
+---------------------+------------------------------------+
| 2006-11-21 04:38:40 | http://www.fast-search-engine.com/ |
| 2006-12-20 07:56:06 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2006-12-20 07:57:32 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2006-12-21 09:06:01 | http://www.fast-search-engine.com/ |
| 2006-12-21 09:06:14 | http://www.fast-search-engine.com/ |
| 2007-01-25 07:02:43 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-01-25 07:02:44 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-01-25 07:02:44 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-01-25 07:02:44 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-01-25 07:02:45 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-01-26 08:11:44 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-01-26 08:11:45 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-01-26 08:11:45 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-01-26 08:11:45 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-01-26 08:11:45 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-02-15 05:01:25 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-02-15 05:01:26 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-02-15 05:01:26 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-02-15 05:01:26 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-02-15 05:01:27 | http://www.jetzy.com |
| 2007-02-23 13:08:51 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-02-23 13:08:52 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-02-23 13:08:53 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-02-23 13:08:53 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
| 2007-02-23 13:08:54 | http://www.identity-tracker.com |
+---------------------+------------------------------------+

The user agent given for the hits above is either simply 'Mozilla/4.0'
(for the fast-search-engine.com hits) or Firefox/1.5.0.6 for the rest.

The above URLs go to those horrible generic-looking sites with tons of
commercial links and no signs of life. None of the sites appears to have
a link to my site.

Can anybody explain what is going on here? Is this any form of
legitimate activity or should I filter it out of the stats?

Many thanks

In article <5cia11F308pfoU1@mid.individual.net>, JD <user@example.net>
wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I look after the website of a local AIDS charity. This includes
> collecting the access logs and putting the info into a database for a
> simple stats page I put together. lately, the web logs have been showing
> hits like these:
>
> +---------------------+------------------------------------+
> | time | referer |
> +---------------------+------------------------------------+
> | 2006-11-21 04:38:40 | http://www.example.com/ |

<snip!>

> The above URLs go to those horrible generic-looking sites with tons of
> commercial links and no signs of life. None of the sites appears to have
> a link to my site.
>
> Can anybody explain what is going on here? Is this any form of
> legitimate activity or should I filter it out of the stats?

Just another niche that the cretins have evolved to exploit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam

--
Philip
http://NikitaTheSpider.com/
Whole-site HTML validation, link checking and more

Nikita the Spider wrote:
> In article <5cia11F308pfoU1@mid.individual.net>, JD <user@example.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi all
>>
>> I look after the website of a local AIDS charity. This includes
>> collecting the access logs and putting the info into a database for a
>> simple stats page I put together. lately, the web logs have been showing
>> hits like these:
>>
>> +---------------------+------------------------------------+
>> | time | referer |
>> +---------------------+------------------------------------+
>> | 2006-11-21 04:38:40 | http://www.example.com/ |
>
> <snip!>
>
>> The above URLs go to those horrible generic-looking sites with tons of
>> commercial links and no signs of life. None of the sites appears to have
>> a link to my site.
>>
>> Can anybody explain what is going on here? Is this any form of
>> legitimate activity or should I filter it out of the stats?
>
> Just another niche that the cretins have evolved to exploit:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam

Oops. I reckon I did 'em a favour by posting those links!

Thank you for the info.

In article <5ckl34F30puiaU1@mid.individual.net>, JD <user@example.net>
wrote:

> Nikita the Spider wrote:
> >
> > Just another niche that the cretins have evolved to exploit:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam
>
> Oops. I reckon I did 'em a favour by posting those links!

You did! I realize it's annoying to have fallen for their con, but I
wouldn't feel too bad -- you're certainly not the first or last to do so.

Cheers

--
Philip
http://NikitaTheSpider.com/
Whole-site HTML validation, link checking and more