Use A Proxy Server, When Following Stats Links

We've been observing the ongoing problem with referer spam since the beginning of the year - yet we see that some blog owners still haven't heard of the problem. Some folks who are advised later, to be more cautious

Don't click on the links!

come back with anxious queries

I already clicked on the link! What will happen now? Have I been hacked?

Here, there's no authoritative answer.

When you click on a Stats traffic source link, and get an eyeful of porn or spam, you're not going to be happy - but hopefully, if your computer is well protected, chances are probably good that you're OK. On the other hand, if this makes you anxious, it would not be a bad idea to get the computer checked out.

In the future, if you must check out your Stats traffic sources, use a proxy server. Again, don't click on the links - copy the URLs, and paste them into the proxy server address window.

If you surf to a referring website and like what you see, then go back, click on the link, and bookmark the URL. Just do this after you screen the traffic source.

If, one day, Blogger uses SafeSearch to screen the URLs, we'll be safe again. And shortly afterwards, referer spam will dry up as the people who pay for spam based advertising stop paying.

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