As part of my morning routines, I check my website statistics to see how many people are visiting, where they’re being referred from, what pages they’re clicking on, and where they’re from. (As an aside, I can pretty much associate most of my regular blog readers with who they really are based on locations and even service providers — and I can tell what hits are spiders and spambots. If if you don’t think I know who you are, I really actually do because I’m just good like that.) Yesterday I had a random referrer from some site I’ve never heard of — no, Mr. Spammer, I will NOT give you the good graces of a link. I clicked it, wondering who this person was and why they were linking to my website. Instead of finding my link, I found borderline smutty pictures, ads, and minimal text. I shrugged it off, closed out the site, and decided it was a fluke. But wait, there was another hit from this referrer this morning. So I brought out the big guns… Google! Yes, Google is my answer to just about everything. Lo and behold, this guy is notorious. Um, uh-oh? Here’s what I’ve learned…
1. This guy — we shall consider him like Voldemort and refer to him as “He Who Must Not Be Named” from here on out — practices “black hat” techniques. More specifically, he practices referrer spamming. I assume he was banking on me allowing my site patrons to view the website statistics. Sorry, Voldy, I don’t operate that way. The goal of that is to spam my readers with links to his crummy website and try to turn off profit at my expense. Apparently, people have been banned by their webhosts as a consequence of this guy. (Don’t worry, I’ve already tweeted @hostgator and submitted a support ticket to HostGator to nip this Dark Wizard in the bud.)
2. He Who Must Not Be Named is some 60-year-old pervert in the Philippines. Excuse me? (WARNING: RANT AHEAD) I was once a 13-year-old girl who all too often felt the eyes of older men eying her like a piece of meat. I learned how to give an icy glare at a very, very young age. I blame this on living in Broward County, Florida as a teen, a place where sexual predators run rampant. I have absolutely no tolerance for men (or women, for that matter) who prey upon innocent children for their own deviant desires. I am of the opinion that child molestors are in the same league as murderers and should be treated as such. How dare this pedophile come to my website in the attempts to make a profit off of me. I have three wonderful little children that I would protect like a very rabid momma bear — this means you absolutely don’t mess with my kidlets if you know what’s good for you. Now that he’s made himself known to me, I will be doing my part to bring this black magic hat practitioner to justice. (Hey, the website was premised off of Sailor Moon, what can I say?)
Here’s hoping HostGator can reassure me that my site itself has not been compromised.
