Log Spamming, why and how

What is log spamming, how is it don and why

[bufferzone]

I just learned a new word. Log spamming

What is it, what’s the purpose, and how do people do it.

Along the same lines, please clarify for me why accessible log files and log results (form online logging tools I guess) a problem and how can they be used by us and others for marketing purposes and malignant use

Please explain in detail

[dcrombie]

Sounds like a question from a homework assignment?

The short answer is that IF your log stats are world-accessible THEN unscrupulous advertisers can get their links to appear in your stats which can give their sites a higher PR.

[Dreamquick]

Some might also suggest that a percentage of log spam is also aimed at the person reading the logs ... either to tempt them to click or to confuse them enough to get them to post a link to the offending site on a forum somewhere when they ask for more help.

They are able to do it because the HTTP protocol relies heavily on the user for a lot of the meta-data associated with a request (for example browser info, referral string etc), so if a user decides they want to send false data in the header there isn't a lot that you can do to stop them.

- Tony

[pmkpmk]

Along the same lines, please clarify for me why accessible log files and log results [...] a problem

Depending on your country of origin, legislation for protecting privacy related information might be high. It is for example in my country.

Having a world-readeable logfile which includes the visitor's IP address (and probably the referrer) might be considered a substantial breach of privacy and individual's rights. Actually in my country it's being discussed whether logging the sufer's IP address is legal at all...

[karmov]

> Some might also suggest that a percentage of log spam is also aimed at the person reading the logs

I'm getting suspicious of this myself. My logs aren't world readable however I've gotten some log spam and it tended to be SEO, Hosting or connection oriented sales sites. Would be disapointing to see this become a widely used technique... Log files already require work to pan out the gold... Mudying up the water won't help.

[kapow]

I hate log spam. Yes - I think the main purpose of it is for ebay, yahoo etc to get a zillion extra links. They know a proportion of sites have open stats pages so count towards their links = greater link popularity.

I use Analog for my stats, I can't find a way to filter this cr*p out of my reports. I want to show my customers the popularity of their web pages but this rubbish is always there - makes it seem unprofessional.

Anyone know how to filter log spam from Analog?

[Wilma]

I just got my first #%*$ log spam today. This on a small site that only went up 2 weeks ago. In AXS it looks like this:

This visitor first arrived from www.spammersite.com/
  and visited www.spammersite.com/url.htm

as if their page was on my site. And yes, it's an internet marketing site. Grrr!

I hadn't made the logs private because I figured my business partners might want to see our stats. Now I'm going to make them private. <sigh>

I hate spam.

[sidyadav]

WOW - I just found out how dumb I am:
Before reading this thread, I always thought "Log Spamming" was robots/crawlers/bots/spam bots "spamming" your logs by making too many visits to the same webpage.

lol.

Sid

[Marcus Aurelius]

If someone does not mind explaining, exactly how does spamming a web log have any postitive effect for a spammer, after all usually only the webmaster is viewing the log after analysis, am i missing something?

[deejay]

Marcus, many websites have their logs 'out in the open' - accessible to people and more importantly, bots.

Many log programs also automatically format referrers as an active hyperlink.

So.. bot visits public log.
Bot crawls links in log.
Bot crawls link from your site to logspammer's site.
Logspammer's site gets credit for a backlink to their site.

[FromBelgium]

When you as a webmaster see a new referal link in your logs you believe that someone is linking to your site (which should be good). You are curious and check that site but of course you don't find the link. In the meantime the spammer got an extra visitor (you).

[sidyadav]

exactly - well explained!

That tells me why I went to that "Health Care" site (really something irrelevant - on what my site is about), and couldn't find where the link was. Infact, I even went there and signed up for a link partnership thinking they would show me the link or something.

But my question is, for those who make their statistics available for strangers - why do you do it? whats the benefit?
I don't see any reason why you would let a stranger know how your site is doing.

Sid

[Receptional]

Obviously, you shouldn't do it. It is generally extremely lazy ISPs offering very low cost hosting that do.

[Dreamquick]

Perhaps it could also be the default configuration for certain server-based stats packages that ship with a webserver package?

When you're new to all this it might seem like a godsend to be able to avoid the complex logs and just hit your site once a day and see a nice friendly report that's made freshly for you.

For a lot of people a solution that works isn't something they need to mess with, especially if they need to tweak settings that aren't very friendly.

- Tony