Log Spamming is OUT - Widget Spam is IN!

Create Account

Subscribe to my feed

Log Spamming is OUT - Widget Spam is IN!

2007-11-05

Web 2.0 gives us new ways to referer spam!

I can't believe people still engage in spamming referral logs.

As far as blackhat techniques go, it really is absolutely lowest common denominator. The carpet bombing log spamming kind of approach is so incredibly 2005.....

Aside from it being incredibly base and uncreative, I have a feeling that SE's are probably filtering out and disqualifying links in peoples logs. I mean, why wouldnt they? There are so many obvious footprints that indicate a certain page is a log file, it would be lazy for the SE's to not filter out that kind of referral spam. So....what the hell do people think it is going to achieve?

Not only is it stupid and outdated, but it's also stupid. Wait...did I just say that? Well its worth saying it again: it's stupid. If you're gonna spam, don't just spam everyone indiscriminately....at least try to limit your spamming to those people who really deserve it. You know who I mean....those people who consciously open themselves up to spamming through their own stupidity.

Thanks to widgets, the kinds of stupid people who've opened themselves up to referral spam are easy to find. Because of widgets, stupid people can travel in packs! Yes! Thanks to widgets, stupid people can share their stupid interests with their stupid friends, saying: "Look at me! I'm stupid!" "Hey! I'm stupid too! We should be friends!"

Widgets allow stupid people to wear their idiocy as a badge, and to share their stupidity with others! Using widgets that monitor and publically publish referral traffic is akin to holding up a big sign to the world that says "I am a vapid, brainless twat. Please kindly spam the living hell out of me"

As an example, allow me to introduce the utter idiocy that is feedjit.

Try this search

Oh look, 14,300 morons for you to direct your referral spam at. How nice!

--Rob

Back

Comments:

Name: Jason
Website:
Comment: Are they checking referer IPs against referer URLs? I'm trying to get the "from <my site here>" link to appear in blog widgets, but it's not showing up... :)

Name: JoeL
Comment: I tried and they quit logging me after a few hits. :( they have some kind of filter.

Name: sol
Website:
Comment: Seems to be filtered based on IP and Geo Location.

Name: Chris
Website:
Comment:

Somehow it always ignores my referer when using curl or similar tools, but it works if I test it in a browser.

Anyone know how to script this?

Name: bontb
Website: http://www.bontb.com
Comment: Yeah it looks like its filtered on ip

Name: Rob
Comment:

Hey guys.

There IS a way to get around this....and the usual simple CURL script wont do it in this case.....I really don't want to go into too specific details on how to game feedjit though....

think of this as a more open ended concept.....there are LOTS of referal widgets out there if you know how to search for them...and some are easier to exploit then others...

If you cant figure out feedjit, don't worry about it....here are some other options:

Check out hxxp://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/
Notice the recent referals plugin in his side bar?

Think of how you can arrange a google serarch to track these kinds of footprints...
Eg:
Google search 1

Google search 2

Google search 3

Name: Jason
Website:
Comment: Pay dirt... 9900 widgets to go... :)

Name: Mr Bowling
Website:
Comment:

whipped up a nice quick n dirty asp.net implementation of the Widget Spammer does a nice little google search based on rob's suggested queries and scrapes urls, puts them in an array randomizes then, and allows you to put in the reffering url you would like and how many times you would like that url to be visited and how long of a pause between vists. Just played around with it a bit; but I am happy with the results so far.

Rob about time you gave us an article worth while.

Name: Mr Bowling
Website:
Comment: if i get some time, aka if I feel like not being a lazy ass, I might actually have it scrape the site that is to be spammed and pull the exact number of refers you need to get be top 5 or 6 - you know just enough room as to not get you bumped off too easy.

Name: Rob
Comment:

As one last freebie for all you comment readers, I want to throw one more thought out at ya'll.

Alot of referal spammers use tracking seeds in their spammed urls.....for instance, there is one particularly tenacious S.O.B who has been spamming the hell out of one of my sites uses tracking numbers like this:

www, my stupid spam url .com/ track/MTAxNzEyOjM6Mw

We can use these tracking seeds to our own purposes in finding new places to direct referal spam at. Try this google search

Ta daaaa......theres some more places for you to research and develop ways to target....this gets back to my previous post on the importance of watching your logs

You never know what you'll learn!

Name: xHydra
Website:
Comment:

Interesting read but if FeedJit has filtering how come they are not filtering out microsoft live search referrer spam..

I am working on a script to game feedjit right now.