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Porn Spammers Wrecked my Websites- Now What?

by MyIncomeReports
9 replies
OK,

So I am a total Internet marketing noob, and I didn't know how to back up my websites. I also kind of assumed that my hosting service was doing it for me automatically.

Be that as it may, my sites were compromised and now all 4 of them are a total mess.

The only backup I have is the corrupted version (I figure even a corrupted backup is better than no backup)

I have googled "how to clean up my infected Wordpress site" and all of that, but I can see that the information is far too technical for an idiot like me.

My hosting service recommends using a software utility to fix the problem for me, but of course they want money for it that I do not have.

So I guess my question is: Is this a lost cause? Is there any point in trying to fix my sites, or should I just give up? Is there a way to maybe build new sites from scratch, but plug in my original content like nothing ever happened?

I am at the end of my rope here. It saddens me to think that this was my last chance to maybe accomplish something in life and it was destroyed by some selfish, greedy, a-hole with nothing better to do.
#spammers #websites #wrecked
  • Profile picture of the author ClickMonkey
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author MyIncomeReports
      Originally Posted by ClickMonkey View Post

      You mention:



      You also mention:



      Finally, you say:



      In summary, you're calling yourself an idiot who has no money to hire someone else to fix the problem.

      That's way too harsh -- I totally get why you'd be frustrated, but the negative self-talk sabotages your motivation and diminishes your sense of self-esteem.

      You ask:



      You've gotta be somewhat realistic with yourself.

      If you don't have the money to pay for a solution, then you need to take the time to educate yourself about how to fix the problem. (And, ideally, structure your sites so that the odds of this happening are much lower in the future.)

      Just trying to be helpful, does anything I just said make any sense? I hope so!
      I hate to admit it, but that's pretty much my situation right now. It seems like everything I touch turns to crap. Thanks for trying to be helpful. what you're saying makes sense. I thought I did everything right. I setup some security and tried to keep my plug ins updated. It's frustrating to put effort into something and not see any return. Yes it was my fault for not having a backup. The part that kills me even more, is the fact that I did some offline marketing which should have caused a spike in traffic. Now it takes them to a site that doesn't work and is likely infecting their computer at the same time. My reputation is sunk now : (
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  • Profile picture of the author HDRider
    It is probably not as bad as you think, most hackers don't know what they are doing. They may have just uploaded an index page, or made a few simple changes. Look for files that don't belong there.

    Compare the wordpress files you have on you computer or go download wordpress and unzip it. Then compare that to what's on your site. Delete any ones that don't match.

    Or, upload wordpress again and overwrite everything.

    It's a start, and that may fix it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
      This is a start (and a good one)

      Originally Posted by HDRider View Post

      It is probably not as bad as you think, most hackers don't know what they are doing. They may have just uploaded an index page, or made a few simple changes. Look for files that don't belong there.

      Compare the wordpress files you have on you computer or go download wordpress and unzip it. Then compare that to what's on your site. Delete any ones that don't match.

      Or, upload wordpress again and overwrite everything.

      It's a start, and that may fix it.
      Most WordPress hackers (IMHO) do not touch the WP database.

      If you can still log into your WP admin, identify what theme and what plugins you are using on each site.

      Delete all files/folders under your public_html and re-install the latest WP, your theme, and your plugins.

      P.S. assuming that all goes well... get your own backup of each WP database as soon as you've verified that everything is good.
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      Sid Hale
      Coming Soon... Rapid Action Profits (Pro)

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  • Profile picture of the author EPoltrack77
    Id find a different traffic source If I were you.
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    Working to achieve higher results...
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  • Profile picture of the author RobDeleu
    Most likely it was just a 'bot' that infected your site through a security hole. Patch up your site and let someone more experienced take a look at it. I had this problem too on theporndude with my wordpress blog. Luckily, I still had an old backup, so the damage was limited.
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    • Profile picture of the author CapnWillard
      Originally Posted by RobDeleu View Post

      Most likely it was just a 'bot' that infected your site through a security hole. Patch up your site and let someone more experienced take a look at it.

      ^this^

      I have (had) about 8 to 10 sites with my hosting provider. Four of them were dormant/testing/I'll-get-back-to-one-of-these-days sites with Wordpress Versions (and plugins) that were becoming ancient. Either an old install of WP or a plugin that wasn't updated left me vulnerable.

      Along comes what was most likely a bot that got in, changed and my index page(s)

      ...and that's it.

      Wordfence plugin allowed me to restore the index page, I had my hosting provider do a scan (well a couple) until I caught all the sites that were compromised, and I simply restored the important sites, let the "projects" go.

      Who was your host? (I host with Dreamhost)
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  • Profile picture of the author MyIncomeReports
    Thanks for the replies guys.

    My host is Bluehost. Bluehost is telling me that I have to fix the sites by hand, or run a utility that costs like $150 a year. As mentioned before, I am out of money and can't even afford even this paltry sum of money at this time. Doesn't sound like Bluehost can offer me much help.

    I don't have access to my WPADMIN so I can't even log in. I sent a text to a friend of mine who could probably fix this, but I haven't heard back from him yet. The initial problems seem to have started with an htaccess corruption and might have spread.

    I am so frustrated with this, that I haven't even tried to work on it at all today.

    I noticed that when I try to visit any of the sites, that a mysterious file gets downloaded to my computer. I'm assuming that this is a virus or malware?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
    You may get somewhere by looking at your control panel logs. For example, you may see that people are going to a certain file to see porn or download something. Then through the control panel you may can manually delete those files.

    If something is downloading onto people's computer when they visit your site, please take your site out of your profile and signature here or you risk spreading the misery.

    If you can get the website part cleaned up, don't forget to thoroughly check your PC for security issues.

    Mark
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