Remember me complaining about there being something fishy in the referrals? It was back before Christmas. Seems the Starprose problem is getting bigger. I know at least two other sites have mentioned the spam. There is even a MetaFilter thread about being spammed by the Lieberman campaign.

Whoever this spammer is, it's ridiculous. Today, I was spammed for Dick Gephardt and Carol Moseley Braun. I doubt theirs or the Lieberman campaign did that. In fact, I was spammed this weekend by a URL by this Starprose system claiming that this referral spam is new way to advertise. This post explaining the system is a hoot, especially the people that are replying to it. They are calling a spade a spade. :laugh: I'd link to this post but I don't want to give Starprose any more traffic.

I think the goal of this referral tool by Starprose is to hit published referral logs, like those created by those that use the Textism Refer script which is also known as the Dean Allen's Refer script. Since many people (including myself) install it as the script tells us to and like to publish our results, it makes the script an easy target.

However, because of the Starprose Journal spam I got, I moved the Refer script. Actually, I changed the name of the directory to something else. I think if we all rename the refer directory to something else, the automated programs looking for the default /refer/index.php for the Refer script and trying to spam us won't be as lucky. They can't hawk to what they can't find.

I think it's pathetic many people have to stoop to the measure I mention above. I should be able to enjoy my site without being spammed. :( However, it's so nice to see anything mentioning Starprose getting 403'd. :evilol:

Posted by Shawn at January 5, 2004 11:42 AM in General.