youtube referer spam

[tangor]

This is a REFERER (sic) report.

First time for me. Only three hits, all for the same file

The entry is https://youtube.com/channel/ followed by an incomprehensible string.

I have no videos on this site. Zero.

Curious if this is something new from the g kiddie (yt) that I will have to watch out for? Can't quite figure out how allowing something like this will actually benefit.

ASIDE, I followed that referer and it was an anime yt site (hint, reveals potential country of origin), and it did NOT, in any way, deal with the topic(s) of my site.

MORE FUN: The IP involved is from UKRAINE, not the usual ASIAN one would expect.

Wondering if others are seeing this?

[edited by: not2easy at 12:41 pm (utc) on Jul 31, 2020]
[edit reason] delinked for readability [/edit]

[jmccormac]

All sorts of wierd and wonderful ref spam including Youtube, Pinterest, FB and other sites. A particular ISP in Kiev is a persistent spammer but most of the refs are to local sites.

Regards...jmcc

[NickMNS]

Congratulations Tangor

I followed that referer and it was an anime yt site

The spammer has gotten at least partial success with the referrer link.

The point of this is that webmasters will see the referrer, wonder "what is this?" follow the link and hopefully watch the video (in this specific case). The goal is likely to garner sufficient views, to meet the YT hurdle for monetizing the account. Once that is achieved the account is likely sold for a large profit. I'm sure the spammers have enough fake accounts that they can easily meet the subscription requirements.

Also what is surprising is not where the IP is from, it is that there was even an IP logged. Typically referrer spam works by making request directly to the Google Analytics endpoints and skipping the website's server completely. It is likely more efficient with wider reach. I'm not sure how many webmaster spend their time combing their raw logs for referrer data, whereas there are many who will immediately notice new referral traffic.

[lucy24]

Heh. I once investigated an apparent YT referer. The reason the request ended up on my site is that--based on the full query, visible in the referer--they’d meant to post a long comment to the thread--yes, a polite and pleasant YT comment, gasp--but typed it in the wrong place and it was interpreted as a search. Oh, and it was a very sweet video. One isn’t always so lucky.

[tangor]

Heh. Didn't watch any vids, the channel page said all it had to say ... so no luck in getting a view. :)

I clear referer spam constantly (very little shows as they are all fed 403s) so when a new one shows up it stands out. Side benefit, didn't feed a file in return, just an itty bitty 403.