Ever wondered how exactly blackhat SEO works? My brother has forwarded me a link to an excellent video shot by Sophos, which shows how they are taking advantage of the hottest/trending topics (on Google and Bing).
The eventual goal is to infect your computer with malware (and ultimately, get your money, one way or another).
Enjoy, and spread around for others to see this too:
Related articles:
This was hugely profitable about a year and half ago but its a bit sucky now.
The main payment provider that took the dodgy antivirus payments went down.
Still good though for different stuff.
Like what?
what software is that ? i think you should expose them for all to know
I wish I knew, Razvan. That would be a question to the folks at Sophos.
That software is a tad dated, but keep in mind one thing Geno – it’s not the software that does it it’s the intention put into the implementation of the software. Not all Blackhat SEO’s are out there to do user’s harm. Just wanted to stop in and put my 2 cents about that on here. 🙂
Good point there (about the intention being the final determinant of judgment).
I also agree with the second part of the comment even though I myself do not advocate anything “black hat”. Blackhat SEO is not necessarily about harming the end user, and in this example the two (black hat SEO technique and fake software/malware) just came together… The title of the post is still right on the money (wouldn’t you agree?) — it’s still about manipulating searches (based on Google Trends data) in this case.
Completely agree it’s accurate. 🙂
Fethard is the main payment processor and it mainly Russians doing the AV stuff.
Other stuff using the same technique is just anyone really.
Before loads of people jumped on the AV bandwagon it was good for $10k a day.
I know a couple of ruskies through a friend of mine and they were claiming $20`000 a day but i don’t know how true that was.
It’s just amazing how many people fall for this…
Firewall vendors should use this data to sell their products.
If you’re claiming $10k a day was possible, why isn’t it possible the ruskies could do 20k??
“Not all Blackhat SEO’s are out there to do user’s harm”….
What rubbish. They change the coding of pages, make ligitimate links unusable, cause google to stop indexing the infected page because it is full of advertising for the spammer’s filth, cause users to be blocked by their anti-virus software, destroy the company’s chance of selling stuff….
And you call that “not doing users harm” ???? How *dare* you have the arrogance to believe that it is right or fair to deliberately change someone’s websites without their knowledge or permission, in order to spread perverse filth, sex aids for pathetic impotent men, illegal software, cheap fake copies of high-end goods (harming the reputation of those companies too) in the form of hidden advertising ? My academic website has been blocked by google because of these swine. The people who are doing this should have both hands chopped off.
@dako
Google will always be one step ahead of this sort of thing, and you just need to use the webmaster’s tools to re-submit the site after the pages are fixed. Then collect the information from your sites and know that you can get just as much information about the visitor that most likely needs a blacklisting,
BUT- remember the internet is a two way street. There are many opensource options to
Thanks for this post. It is such an importance in the web these days…. Having so many websites that are nothing but email spamming, keyword stuffing, and insufferable amounts of ads. Not to mention people who create 6 websites to distribute their 5 paragraphs of outdate business information.
Maybe the web will become like the US postal service. I get about 4-5 pieces of junk mail for every 1 bill, or letter.
Some people have a pipe dream that somehow they can force the masses to click on their affiliated links. Maybe send out some spam email from their computer. What a waste of code.
For anyone wanting to make money on the web. Learn how to sell a product that someone wants to buy. Start a blog about something that the masses want to read. Advertisers will love to pay you when website is around long enough to become an asset.
Sorry for the rant.
Rob