A Word of Warning

There is a new scam that many bloggers should know about, especially if they have their own domain name. If you see your URL that ends with an odd domain by the name of sponsorsforblogs[dot]com or sponsors4blogs[dot]com, take caution! This has been circulating around the web for about a week as other blogs have the same hijacked URL.

I have no idea how to stop this, but the only way to do so is to get the message out to other bloggers and to whoever is doing this to give up. This post will also be stickied. As I write this, this blog has been targeted:

sponsors4blogs - Blogger and Buyer Beware!

Not only are domain names being targeted, but Blogspot and WordPress.com blogs are victim to this scam. For the visitors who came from the Sponsors page, please note that this blog is not looking for sponsors. The only way we are looking for potential advertisers is through the proper advertise page. NEVER MAKE DEALS WITH THIS SITE OF ANY KIND!

Written by: Sanjo-chan (536 Posts)

Posted on: September 8, 2008 23:21 (Site Updates)
Website: http://centakume.info/

There are 10 comments (Reply?)

Ms. Pixel

Commented on: September 9, 2008 at 12:03 am
Website: http://mspixel.com

I ran into this site two days ago. At first it confused me because one of it’s sub-domains was the name of my blog. I thought it might be a scam. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Ms. Pixels last blog post..Oops! Free Petrol Stunt Backfires on EA

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Sanjo-chan

Commented on: September 9, 2008 at 1:06 am
Website: http://centakume.info/

@Ms. Pixel: No problem. I did a search with these domain names and some of them are already indexed, and a few of those blogs have a post about this site already with the title “Get them from SponsorsForBlogs?”…but it seems to be a ploy.

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Rhiannon

Commented on: September 9, 2008 at 2:16 am
Website: http://petshopgirlsreviews.com

This has happened to my site too. I just wish I knew how to stop it

Rhiannons last blog post..Great. Now I have a moustache.

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Apple

Commented on: September 10, 2008 at 10:49 am
Website: http://www.xiaoyenzi.com

Thank you for the information. I’d keep this in mind. ^^

Apples last blog post..Fast & Furious (2009) Trailer

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Jamaipanese

Commented on: September 12, 2008 at 11:28 am
Website: http://www.jamaipanese.com

thanks for the warning!

Jamaipaneses last blog post..Erotic Otaku and Anime Subculture

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Motorokr

Commented on: September 12, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Website:

Thanks for the info! I’ll be sure to keep the eyes peeled.

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Baseguardian

Commented on: September 14, 2008 at 8:45 am
Website: http://www.superheroesbase.com/

Thanks for the info, better watch out now.

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Lakelandmom.com

Commented on: September 14, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Website: http://lakelandmom.blogspot.com

I ran across this happening to me when I was researching my visitors through statcounter because my friend’s adsense ads and some of mine too are being considered invalid. I emailed the webmaster for sponsors4blogs, but am awaiting an answer I’m sure I’ll never get. I told them to stop using my domain name without my approval or I would report them. If anyone who has seen their url being used by ‘sponsors’, better check your adsense to see if you’re getting clicks but no money…and somebody should figure out how to stop this.

Lakelandmom.coms last blog post..Chilling Movie – The Orphanage

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Lakelandmom.com

Commented on: September 14, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Website: http://lakelandmom.blogspot.com

NEWSFLASH!!! Here is what statcounter says about this, please take the time to read it:

Hi there,

I work with StatCounter and I just wanted to drop by and add to this discussion.

First thanks to David and to Zoe who both brought this issue to the attention of StatCounter.

From my understanding, someone is “link spamming” blog spot accounts.

When you look at your StatCounter stats, I’m sure you often see entries in your “Came From” stat which show you how different people found your blog. For example, if someone visits examplesite.com and
clicks YOUR link, you will see in your stats that someone found you via examplesite.com. (Then when you visit examplesite.com you will also find the link to your site that someone clicked.)

With link spamming, “false” referring information is sent to your account. If you have a StatCounter then you will see this “false”
referring info in your stats. (The way this is done is quite technical.)

The link spammers are usually HOPING that you will click the (false) referring link and visit their site so that they can make money from your visit by advertising OR possibly to install something nasty on your PC. (In the case of link spamming, you will NOT see a link to your site when you visit the referring site. This is because the referring information sent to your site is FALSE.)

To be honest, there is not that much YOU can do about link spamming and, the best thing to do really is to ignore the link spammers – and don’t visit their site! If they don’t get any “hits” from link spamming, they’ll just have to stop doing it.

I’m not sure what blogspot can do.

But i KNOW what we can do at StatCounter! We are going to BLOCK the tracking of the false referring URL blogspot.com.blogsexmoney.com – this thwarts the efforts of the link spammers. Since the false information will not show up in your account in future, you won’t be
able to accidentally or otherwise click on the spammer links and so the spammers will not benefit from spamming you.

I hope this helps!

StatCounterJen

Lakelandmom.coms last blog post..Chilling Movie – The Orphanage

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Sanjo-chan

Commented on: September 14, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Website: http://centakume.info/

@Lakelandmom: Thanks for the information! I do have a StatCounter account, but I haven’t used it for about a year, but the account is still linked to the blog (with none of the code embedded, of course…).

At first I thought about SiteMeter being targeted as well since they are preforming upgrades to their service, and a hacker may gained access while they were doing them. Hmm…

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