Are my sites being spammed

26 replies
To the point, not sure if my laptop has been targeted or my sites! Certain words like make money, job, value for money, have links which are shown in green with double lines underneath going to a particular website 'play sushi' How can I prevent this happening in future please. These sites are on the first page of google.

Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
#sites #spammed
  • Profile picture of the author keadams26
    Are you sure this isn't a contextual advertising link?
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    • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
      I don't really know as I am still learning. I certainly did not put these links in and only found out today!


      Originally Posted by keadams26 View Post

      Are you sure this isn't a contextual advertising link?
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  • Profile picture of the author keadams26
    The double lined green links sound a lot like contextual advertising. Did you sign up with Bidvertiser or Adbrite with this website? If you could direct me to your site, I will take a look at it for you.
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    • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
      Thanks for the offer. I haven't signed up with any of those mentioned. What I have done is I have substituted those words with something else and the links are gone! but don't know if they'll appear again.

      I am sending you a pm now.


      Originally Posted by keadams26 View Post

      The double lined green links sound a lot like contextual advertising. Did you sign up with Bidvertiser or Adbrite with this website? If you could direct me to your site, I will take a look at it for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
    Are these your own sites on your own domains and your own hosting or are they pages you built on web 2.0 sites like Squidoo or Hubs, etc? If your own site, are you using WordPress? If so, where did you get your theme, who put up the site and are you using any advertising plug-ins?
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  • Profile picture of the author keadams26
    Soujourn asked you some very good questions. The answer to those may be your answer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Murphy
    It sounds very much like abbie has got a Wordpress blog based around a free theme that has an advertising plug-in attached or as has been said, contextual links plug-in.

    This is very common with free Wordpress themes. Been there. Switch themes and watch them disappear.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
    Appears Abbie may be seeing these contextual links on other sites where the rest of us might not see them, like on WF portal itself. I've never seen any contextual links on here and that's why she initially thought it might be her laptop. Is there such a virus that could do that? I've suggested she run Malwarebytes but can anyone advise what else she might try?
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    • Profile picture of the author Afreeman
      Originally Posted by Sojourn View Post

      Appears Abbie may be seeing these contextual links on other sites where the rest of us might not see them, like on WF portal itself. I've never seen any contextual links on here and that's why she initially thought it might be her laptop. Is there such a virus that could do that? I've suggested she run Malwarebytes but can anyone advise what else she might try?
      Hi Abbie, Try going over to g o o g l e com /webmaster , login to their site, submit the site to review, they have a tool that will scan the site for malware and it's the right price it's free. I've used it and so far no problems on my sites.
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      • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
        Thanks a lot!

        Originally Posted by Afreeman View Post

        Hi Abbie, Try going over to g o o g l e com /webmaster , login to their site, submit the site to review, they have a tool that will scan the site for malware and it's the right price it's free. I've used it and so far no problems on my sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author keadams26
    Yeah, I am at a loss. I see nothing other than links to her homepage and to amazon.
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    • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
      The theme I use is emoms legacy which is free but have had this for a while and not seen it before. I'll be doing what Sojourn suggested and post back my findings. Thanks everyone.
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  • Profile picture of the author Goatboy
    The double underlining is usually a sign of a contextual advertising link. Kontera is another of these 'in line advertisers'.
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  • Profile picture of the author keadams26
    Thanks Goatboy, Kontera was actually the one I was thinking of. The name just totally escaped me since I haven't used them in a long time.
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  • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
    The scan results - 9 threats and 396 infections (i have norton 360 though so don't understand)

    Application.PlaySushi
    Application.Trackign cookies
    Trackware.Tracking cookies!rem
    Adware.Advertising
    Spyware.Trustyhound!rem
    Spyware.known_bad_sites
    Adware.Discoverylive!rem
    Adware.Hotbar!rem
    Adware.Hotbar
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    • Profile picture of the author Bradshaw
      Yeah, this happens to me too. Blergh. Wordpress blogs tend to have this problem; Just use the Approve Comments option so you have to approve them manually so spam doesn't appear on your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
    Ah! The playsushi application was one you mentioned in particular! Did you get rid of them all and does everything look normal again?
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    • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
      hubby is sorting this out today. The kids played with my laptop whilst at work and may have unknowingly done the damage, bless them!

      Should be ok today. Thanks everyone for your input. Much appreciated!

      Originally Posted by Sojourn View Post

      Ah! The playsushi application was one you mentioned in particular! Did you get rid of them all and does everything look normal again?
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      • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
        Originally Posted by abbie kye View Post

        hubby is sorting this out today. The kids played with my laptop whilst at work and may have unknowingly done the damage, bless them!

        Should be ok today. Thanks everyone for your input. Much appreciated!
        Ah, yes. Kids. My son once managed to delete my entire work email file. Nothing forces you to get in and clean up a comp like children.

        Good news is it appears it wasn't your site or theme so none of your visitors are seeing anything but what you want them to see.
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        • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
          Yes, Sojourn, try telling them not to touch it....
          It's all okay now. thanks so much.

          It would not have been in good tase at all for my viisitors to be redirected somewhere after all your hard work! I get the usual spam I have to moderate every day and I can deal with that. some of the comments..ha! don't know how they expect anyone to give them a thumps up on them!!! yet they continue to do it. not sure where they are learning their IM skills from!!

          Originally Posted by Sojourn View Post

          Ah, yes. Kids. My son once managed to delete my entire work email file. Nothing forces you to get in and clean up a comp like children.

          Good news is it appears it wasn't your site or theme so none of your visitors are seeing anything but what you want them to see.
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  • Profile picture of the author leeann61
    very often, i hate spam
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  • Profile picture of the author Derwin
    The double lined green links sound a lot like contextual advertising.The theme I use is emoms legacy which is free but have had this for a while and not seen it before.Such problems comes in some themes so you should avoid those themes.Try some others to get rid of this problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author Goatboy
    For your laptop computer, you can also go over to download.com and look for 'Advanced SystemCare.' There is both a paid version and a free one. I have used both and see little difference and now I am back with the free one.

    This software works well with Norton and will 'immunize' your computer against many of the threats that spam poses. Immunization means that those threats will be blocked from being able to get back in. IIRC there are many thousands of threats that are covered.

    It will also correct any registry errors, delete unused files and empty the temporary folders. I run it on my computers whenever they seem a bit sluggish and it can really make a difference.

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author abbie kye
      Thanks Steve
      this is very helpful info indeed. Glad i came here to seek help.
      Everyone's input has been fantastic!

      Abbie



      Originally Posted by Goatboy View Post

      For your laptop computer, you can also go over to download.com and look for 'Advanced SystemCare.' There is both a paid version and a free one. I have used both and see little difference and now I am back with the free one.

      This software works well with Norton and will 'immunize' your computer against many of the threats that spam poses. Immunization means that those threats will be blocked from being able to get back in. IIRC there are many thousands of threats that are covered.

      It will also correct any registry errors, delete unused files and empty the temporary folders. I run it on my computers whenever they seem a bit sluggish and it can really make a difference.

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author sarahberra
    I am so sorry. I would love to find out the answer because this has happend with two of my sites. There is a make money link at the bottom of two of my word press blogs that I never put there. I went in my cpanel and there is no option to remove it and I can't even see it. The link might have been built into the theme that I bought for wordpress or someone hacked my account. I'm not sure.
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    • Profile picture of the author KenL
      abbie,
      I've got the play sushi crap on my computer also, but it's only appearing when browsing with firefox and not with IE or chrome. The phone numbers on websites are changed to links to a skype phone service and that's the only problem I see as of now. Previously I also had certain words changed to links to the play sushi site. My initial attempt to remove this malware was not successful but not a big problem for me as I'm using chrome sbecause it's faster.
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