Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically

jord2n · 10-06-2011, 02:52 PM

I was hacked through my Filezilla ftp connection on Tuesday and my Adsense niche sites were attached. They are receiving a spike in traffic through email opens all over the world, mainly from europe.

All of the pages and directories were removed (deleted) but the hack is causing a ton of page views to these pages that no longer exist. It is brining about 1500 page views a site (50 sites) and although the landing pages (since they no longer exist) from the hack are no longer there the same click through ratio I normally experiencing from normal traffic is still being achieved. This is causing roughly 175 ad sense impression per site a day.

first of all. I pissed because my sites have been hacked and after spending nine hours yesterday researching what to do it is all extremely tedious and complected requiring entering in command codes to try to figure out what happened and some stuff that is still beyond me. In the end I have to backup, then delete all of these sites, and reinstall them. That is going to take many long days.

secondly. I am kinda fearful of getting banned form adsense even though I was the victim here. I mean what happens if all of these clicks that are coming from sources of emails opens and with a high bounce rate and modestly good click through.

I am waiting to hear from my hosting company (support ticket, major hosting company) many of their clients sites got hacked as well in what appears to be all from Filezilla A response said that it is being sent to a specialist familiar with this problem and due to the nature could take longer than 24 hours which is their normal response rate since they have to figure out and resolve this too. I also understand I am responsible for my sites security and to be honest there is a lot I need to do. But while that is happening I am receiving the amount of traffic I am aiming for from these sites about 3 months too soon and again it is all form a hack.

what should I do? The hosting company is working on it and I have changed all passwords in the C panel and ftp access. Now I need to begin one at a time backing up and deleting these sites and then putting them back to together again. I have no way to stop the traffic without taking them off line but not sure I want to do that if they are bringing in so much revenue daily with my normal click through ratio just a dramatic increase in traffic.

I expect the traffic will decrease sooner then later and while waiting to hear back form the hosting company I have been researching and preparing to fix these sites one by one so that I am safe and secure going forward although I do not believe any of the malware is still attached to the sites.

Mir, peace, shalom,
Jord2n

Kay King · 10-06-2011, 03:47 PM

I would immediately remove the adsense ads if the traffic is resulting in a spike in clicks. Put the ads back as you get the sites fixed.

Nathy Curiel · 10-06-2011, 03:51 PM

That sucks big time . Worst nightmare of every website owner. I have a small army of sites and I don't want to thing about it ..scars the .. out of me

John A · 10-06-2011, 03:51 PM

Do what Kay King has just proposed, and also you could get in touch with google adsense to explain the situation, so they don't take this confusion too seriously.

TryBPO · 10-06-2011, 07:13 PM

Yes...I would immediate shut down AdSense on the sites. Use the "allowed sites" feature to shut them all down.

I would also report the situation here to AdSense:
https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...s_contact&rd=2

If you're proactive you're much more likely to save yourself from an AdSense ban. The people that find themselves in trouble are those who try to benefit from it and then report it after the fact.

Sucks, man...feel for you, for sure.

Kay King · 10-06-2011, 10:55 PM

I don't advise contacting adsense unless the problem is severe already.

Anything you do to call attention to yourself can cause problems and if you can manage it by removing ads and the spikes aren't too obvious and out of whack, I'd just take care of it and get back to business.

InternetMarketingIQ · 10-06-2011, 11:12 PM

Use an .htaccess file to BLOCK foreign traffic. It's very easy to do. That way any foreign hackers can't even get to your site.

I now do this on all my Adsense Sites. Before doing this I used the new Interface to view my foriegn traffic and figure out which countries were actually sending me traffic and making me money.

Think about that? Can the guy in Nigeria, South Korea, Brazil, China, Russia make you money with Adsense? Probably not. Why? Because adsense targets by GEO IP so they will not see ads and if they do see ads they probably won't be worth anything at all. But these countries do have a lot of hackers. I've been hacked by people in these countries. It sucks.

But I now pay a little extra for hosting so that if I need an old copy of my site restored it is very easy. My sites are backed up daily by my host. And they will usually restore in only a couple of hours.

You can get your lists here: Country IP Blocks

And other places. This is NOT an affiliate link.

10-06-2011, 02:52 PM	#1
jord2n Warrior Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 27 Thanks: 4 Thanked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically I was hacked through my Filezilla ftp connection on Tuesday and my Adsense niche sites were attached. They are receiving a spike in traffic through email opens all over the world, mainly from europe. All of the pages and directories were removed (deleted) but the hack is causing a ton of page views to these pages that no longer exist. It is brining about 1500 page views a site (50 sites) and although the landing pages (since they no longer exist) from the hack are no longer there the same click through ratio I normally experiencing from normal traffic is still being achieved. This is causing roughly 175 ad sense impression per site a day. first of all. I pissed because my sites have been hacked and after spending nine hours yesterday researching what to do it is all extremely tedious and complected requiring entering in command codes to try to figure out what happened and some stuff that is still beyond me. In the end I have to backup, then delete all of these sites, and reinstall them. That is going to take many long days. secondly. I am kinda fearful of getting banned form adsense even though I was the victim here. I mean what happens if all of these clicks that are coming from sources of emails opens and with a high bounce rate and modestly good click through. I am waiting to hear from my hosting company (support ticket, major hosting company) many of their clients sites got hacked as well in what appears to be all from Filezilla A response said that it is being sent to a specialist familiar with this problem and due to the nature could take longer than 24 hours which is their normal response rate since they have to figure out and resolve this too. I also understand I am responsible for my sites security and to be honest there is a lot I need to do. But while that is happening I am receiving the amount of traffic I am aiming for from these sites about 3 months too soon and again it is all form a hack. what should I do? The hosting company is working on it and I have changed all passwords in the C panel and ftp access. Now I need to begin one at a time backing up and deleting these sites and then putting them back to together again. I have no way to stop the traffic without taking them off line but not sure I want to do that if they are bringing in so much revenue daily with my normal click through ratio just a dramatic increase in traffic. I expect the traffic will decrease sooner then later and while waiting to hear back form the hosting company I have been researching and preparing to fix these sites one by one so that I am safe and secure going forward although I do not believe any of the malware is still attached to the sites. Mir, peace, shalom, Jord2n

10-06-2011, 03:47 PM	#2
Kay King Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Gulf Coast, USA. Posts: 15,365 Thanks: 4,328 Thanked 4,677 Times in 2,500 Posts	Re: Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically I would immediately remove the adsense ads if the traffic is resulting in a spike in clicks. Put the ads back as you get the sites fixed.

10-06-2011, 03:51 PM	#3
Nathy Curiel HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Rotterdam, Holland Posts: 330 Thanks: 22 Thanked 42 Times in 39 Posts	Re: Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically That sucks big time . Worst nightmare of every website owner. I have a small army of sites and I don't want to thing about it ..scars the .. out of me

10-06-2011, 03:51 PM	#4
John A Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 98 Thanks: 12 Thanked 25 Times in 13 Posts Contact Info	Re: Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically Do what Kay King has just proposed, and also you could get in touch with google adsense to explain the situation, so they don't take this confusion too seriously.

10-06-2011, 07:13 PM	#5
TryBPO AdSenseFlippers.com War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Davao City, Philippines Posts: 876 Thanks: 182 Thanked 183 Times in 132 Posts Social Networking	Re: Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically Yes...I would immediate shut down AdSense on the sites. Use the "allowed sites" feature to shut them all down. I would also report the situation here to AdSense: https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...s_contact&rd=2 If you're proactive you're much more likely to save yourself from an AdSense ban. The people that find themselves in trouble are those who try to benefit from it and then report it after the fact. Sucks, man...feel for you, for sure.
	Justin Cooke Joe Magnotti TryBPO Building A Niche Site Empire! - Step-by-step niche site guide...our gift to you! AdSenseFlippers.com - Income Reports and our EXACT Niche Website Process...for FREE!

10-06-2011, 10:55 PM	#6
Kay King Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Gulf Coast, USA. Posts: 15,365 Thanks: 4,328 Thanked 4,677 Times in 2,500 Posts	Re: Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically I don't advise contacting adsense unless the problem is severe already. Anything you do to call attention to yourself can cause problems and if you can manage it by removing ads and the spikes aren't too obvious and out of whack, I'd just take care of it and get back to business.

10-06-2011, 11:12 PM	#7
InternetMarketingIQ Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: US of A Posts: 2,190 Thanks: 47 Thanked 258 Times in 212 Posts	Re: Worried Adsense: Many Mini Niche Sites Hacked And Earnings Increasing Dramatically Use an .htaccess file to BLOCK foreign traffic. It's very easy to do. That way any foreign hackers can't even get to your site. I now do this on all my Adsense Sites. Before doing this I used the new Interface to view my foriegn traffic and figure out which countries were actually sending me traffic and making me money. Think about that? Can the guy in Nigeria, South Korea, Brazil, China, Russia make you money with Adsense? Probably not. Why? Because adsense targets by GEO IP so they will not see ads and if they do see ads they probably won't be worth anything at all. But these countries do have a lot of hackers. I've been hacked by people in these countries. It sucks. But I now pay a little extra for hosting so that if I need an old copy of my site restored it is very easy. My sites are backed up daily by my host. And they will usually restore in only a couple of hours. You can get your lists here: Country IP Blocks And other places. This is NOT an affiliate link.
	Internet Marketing IQ™