Someone redirected their domain name to mine!

[Lady T]

I was just checking my stats and saw that I was visited by a website w/a cool name referring to coaching moms.:)

So I typed that cool name into the browser and MY WEBSITE CAME UP!:eek:

What does that mean and why are they doing that?:confused:

I also noticed that my site was "entered" & "exited" by

wp-admin/index-extra.php
wp-admin/ajax.php
wp-admin/load-scripts.php
wp-admin/widgets.php
wp-admin/load-styles.php
ETC.

I haven't yet learned how to read my stats (another thing to learn on my list) but is there something fishy about that? Is that me or someones else? Is this related?

[Kayla Fay]

People do that to me and insert their affiliate link. No idea why they would do it to a site without affiliate programs.

[Lynn Terry]

I'm not sure on that either. We could move this to the main public forum and see if we can get some help on it if you like?

[Lady T]

Yes, let's move it.

[billdotd]

People do that to me and insert their affiliate link. No idea why they would do it to a site without affiliate programs.

How would they get an affiliate link to your site when you don't have a program? Weird...

[TheWealthSquad]

They can also be testing an adwords campaign. To get an initial high quality score you select a site that is already optimzied toward the keywords you are setting up a campaign for.

You get a high quality score because you are targeting ads to a page that is very relevant to the words. This allows you to test out titles, changes in the ad etc for a reasonable cost.

Once you have it tested and find which ad gets the best CTR you switch to your site and state promoting away.

I have seen it done to test Titles of courses and books.

[Lady T]

They can also be testing an adwords campaign. To get an initial high quality score you select a site that is already optimzied toward the keywords you are setting up a campaign for.

If that's the case then the joke is on them! I have not yet optimized my site (I'll have to do that later when I'm armed with knowledge).

[MaryB2010]

I also noticed that my site was "entered" & "exited" by

wp-admin/index-extra.php
wp-admin/ajax.php
wp-admin/load-scripts.php
wp-admin/widgets.php
wp-admin/load-styles.php
ETC.

This may be a stupid question by someone who hasn't a clue, but if your site was entered and exited by wp-admin doesn't that mean that they hacked your site?

[TheWealthSquad]

If that's the case then the joke is on them! I have not yet optimized my site (I'll have to do that later when I'm armed with knowledge).

But if they found your site on Google's first page using the keyword they want to test, then it is optimized :) At least for the moment. If it is a new blog post the freshness of it could help it out.

And it is also possible they are trying to sell a site they don't own too. Check Flippa, sedo and some other sites to see if that domain is up for sale. You can do a search on Google for it to see.

It is a scummy way to sell a site but people have been fooled before.

[pmaior]

wp-admin/index-extra.php
wp-admin/ajax.php
wp-admin/load-scripts.php
wp-admin/widgets.php
wp-admin/load-styles.php
ETC.


I think these are just normal result of logging in to your admin area, but hard to tell without actual stats.

A hacking attempt would show an outside "referer" ip address.

Pablo

[Lady T]

And it is also possible they are trying to sell a site they don't own too. Check Flippa, sedo and some other sites to see if that domain is up for sale. You can do a search on Google for it to see.
It is a scummy way to sell a site but people have been fooled before.

R U saying that their domain is up for sale and they'll try to pass that off to someone by showing them my website?

When I type it into Google my site comes up. How do i check to see if it's up for sale?

[Lady T]

One of the best ways to make your blog more impervious to hackers is to create an account with a completely different name, make it the administrator account and then delete the admin account completely. This will help keep hackers from figuring out your doorway.
Micheal


How do you do this? Sorry I'm a babe online.
(that's "babe" as in "baby". Not "babe" as in "hottie"...although I'd like to think I'm one of those too. LOL!)

[CameraShy]

Oh Teisha - I have no idea why this is happening I just wanted say Ugh! It is very curious....

I think
wp-admin/index-extra.php
wp-admin/ajax.php
wp-admin/load-scripts.php
wp-admin/widgets.php
wp-admin/load-styles.php

is just you access your domain via wordpress though?

[TheWealthSquad]

Lady T

Create a new user in the wordpress admin part of your blog. Make it an admin level. Once you have proven it works, go in and delete the admin account. You now log into your blog using the new account rather than admin.

Since hackers know admin is the default account, they use it to try to break passwords. You can also use plugins like Login Lockdown to limit the number of tries someone can make before locking the account down.

[drmani]

You live, and you learn. I've been around the block a couple of times, and
still this thread has been an eye-opener!



...they may have linked to your site with their cookie stuffing link for aweber


This one I knew about.



They can also be testing an adwords campaign. To get an initial high quality score you select a site that is already optimzied toward the keywords you are setting up a campaign for.

This one I didn't!



And it is also possible they are trying to sell a site they don't own too.


Or this one!

Wow.

Dr.Mani

[TheWealthSquad]

Dr Mani

I am glad I could provide two reasons you hadn't thought of :) The first one I read about (don't remember where). An author was doing a seminar about the Lord of the Rings movies. He tested several titles out to find out which one got the highest click through rate. He sent the ads to the LOTR site so he would start out with a high quality score. He spent about $20 testing titles before doing offline advertising for it.

The second one (Selling a site you don't own) is just my own devious mind at work thinking how someone might scam people. Working in risk management can sometimes give you an odd perspective on things :)

[amibr]

You live, and you learn.

Yes definitely. Interesting indeed. Thanks Lady T. I hope you get it all sorted out and that it is nothing to worry about.

[AlexNewell]

Have you tried a Whois to find out, um, who is doing this?

Also might be worth phoning your host to see if they can see what the heck is going on.

:-)