For the past several weeks there has been someone spamming my low entry giveaway linky. Each morning as I check all the links I delete almost 30 of these spam links.
When clicked on these links take you to a website that begins a countdown to an automatic download of software to your computer. You can quickly close the window before the countdown ends and you’ll be safe, but if you click on another of the spam links and are taken to the spam site the countdown will resume where it left off.
I have never stayed on the site long enough to know what will be downloaded, but I think it is safe to say that it is best not to find out. I would assume that it is some sort of malware.
I am doing all I can right now to try and keep my readers safe as you enter these giveaways, but right now I don’t know enough about who is linking these to block them from my site.
I will continue to delete these links as soon as I see them, but to ensure your computer’s safety please continue reading.
To keep yourself safe please do the following before clicking on any of the linky links (normal links on my blog posts are safe):
- Hover over the giveaway title. You computer should display the URL of that giveaway somewhere on your computer screen.
OR
- Right click the giveaway title and select “Copy link address”. Open a new tab and paste the link address.
If the link URL contains or is similar to any of the following do NOT click the link:
- http://adf.ly
- http://j.gs
- http://q.gs/2002366/babyville-sewing-products
All of the links begin with these and similar prefixes and end with what looks like an actual giveaway page title. Do not be fooled! It it begins with something that looks like the above links DO NOT CLICK IT. *bit.ly links are okay.
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about this.
About Amy @ Oh So Savvy Mom
I follow quite a few blogs and have received numerous spam emails directly from them! It seems many of them have been hacked. I also have protection on my computer that lately keeps telling me many of these blogs sites are unsafe. Someone seems to be focused on blogs.
This is good to know, thanks for telling everyone. And sorry about those spammers.. That really makes it a pain in the butt. I’ve been getting spammed on my comments like crazy lately and like Carrie said above I’ve also been coming to some blogs that say they’re unsafe… Hopefully we can find a way to stop this.
Jessie recently posted..Cran-Stachio Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins
thank you so much for telling me! I use your low entry giveaway linky almost daily and I even posted my own giveaway on it yesterday. Is there a way to add a captcha to the linky entry page or is someone actually taking the time to put all them in there? How terrible. Thank you for catching as many as you can to help protect us. I’ll be sharing this post to my friends!
Julie Jones recently posted..How to Create a Favicon and Add it to Your Blog
Thank you so much for letting us know!! People are such a trip. Theres always someone out there who wants to ruin peoples fun. I hope you get it straightened out. Thanks again
this sucks… too bad ppl have nothing better to do than mess up other ppl’s web sites… hope it stops happening to your blog
So sorry that you’re having this problem!! Thank you for sharing. I’ll be watching on my site as well. Thank you for your honesty–we all appreciate it…and you!!!
Robyn R recently posted..Washington DC
That’s messed up. I search your site for giveaways to share on my site. But so far, so good. I haven’t come across anything like that yet. I don’t click on short links. You must be doing a pretty good job of keeping them deleted. I’m sorry this is happening.
Thanks for the heads up!