Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Note! Your computer might be affected by Adtiger(.)tk Spam and other threats.
Threats such as Adtiger(.)tk Spam may be persistent on your system. They tend to re-appear if not fully deleted. A malware removal tool like SpyHunter will help you to remove malicious programs, saving you the time and the struggle of tracking down numerous malicious files. SpyHunter’s scanner is free but the paid version is needed to remove the malware threats. Read SpyHunter’s EULA and Privacy Policy
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
Referral traffic coming in from Adtiger(.)tk may be the last thing you want to see popping up on your Google Analytics page. This type of referral traffic is familiar as Ghost Referrer spam, and it is performed via a specially programmed spam bot that includes a combination of different technologies. They allow the Adtiger(.)tk spammers to conduct automatically spam the website while not even being visited the website.
Name
Adtiger(.)tk Spam
Type
Referral Spam
Short Description
Swiftly devaluates Google Analytics data, especially when sites with low traffic are involved. May advertise dangerous third-party URLs.
Symptoms
Sudden spikes in GA data.
Distribution Method
Via PUPs, installed by bundling (Browser Hijackers) or by visiting a suspicious third-party site that is advertising it.
This type of spam is reported by researchers at Ohow possibly be what is known as Ghost Referral(or referrer) spam. This type of spam uses advanced technologies to exploit the free hyper text transfer protocol(HTTP) and connect remotely to the targeted segment of the website it wants to affect. These advanced technologies allow it to remain hidden and spam websites for long periods of time than the more conventional Web Crawler spamming technique. Hence the “ghost” in Ghost Referral.
Adtiger(.)tk In Detail
Once the domain was analyzed it was established that it was an advertising site and its global rank in Alexa(Alexa.com) was around 2M.
Furthermore, the following technical information about Adtiger(.)tk surfaced:
→ Origin: Poland IP address: 46.41.144.46 Blacklisted in the spam watcher sites: cbl.abuseat.org; blacklist.spambag.org HTTPS: No
Furthermore, on the website itself there is information on its methods to use affiliates to advertise online:
From what is observed so far, the Ghost Referral spam redirecting to Adtiger(.)tk is strongly believed to be used by affiliate spammers who have included in their PPC (pay-per-click) scheme. However, this may be just the beginning of the dangers associated with that. Since the spammers may advertise third-party websites via Adtiger(.)tk, such sites may conceal various risks from the user:
Phishing websites that usually resemble retailer stores like AliExpress, Alibaba, eBay, Amazon, BestBuy and others, but only aim to steal financial data when the user buys something.
Fake tech support scamming sites that may use scareware messages to get users to call a provided number and make that phone call immensely expensive for the victim.
Websites that promote rogue applications that may collect user data or crash the user PC regularly.
The bottom line is that besides the quick devaluation of the statistics of your site in Google Analytics rendering the data corrupt, this spam may also be dangerous for the users who have clicked on it.
Remove Stop Adtiger(.)tk Referral Spam from Your Site
In order to prevent this referral spam from your computer, it is strongly advisable to take immediate actions to block it out via several different methods. This is why we have provided different techniques for that, and we advise you to use the appropriate ones for your situation. We have also included blacklists of other reported domains that may be taken advantage of by spammers.
1: Filtering Adtiger(.)tk Spam in Google Analytics
Step 1: Click on the ‘Admin’ tab on your GA web page.
Step 2: Choose which ‘View’ is to be filtered and then click the ‘Filters’ button.
Step 3: Click on ‘New Filter’.
Step 4: Write a name, such as ‘Spam Referrals’.
Step 5: On Filter Type choose Custom Filter –>Exclude Filter –> Field: Campaign Source–> Filter Pattern. Then on the Pattern, enter the domain name – Adtiger(.)tk Spam
Step 6: Select Views to Apply Filter.
Step 7: Save the filter, by clicking on the ‘Save’ button.
You are done! Congratulations!
Also, make sure you check out these several methods to help you further block out this referrer spam from Google Analytics:
In case you have a server that is Apache HTTP Server, you may want to try the following commands to block Adtiger(.)tk Spam domains in the .htaccess file:
Disclaimer:This type of domain blocking in Apache servers has not yet been tested and it should be done by experienced professionals. Backup is always recommended.
3: Stop Adtiger(.)tk Spam via WordPress.
There is a method outlined by security researchers online that uses WordPress plugins to block referrer spams from sites. There are many plugins that help deal with referrer spam, simply do a google search. We have currently seen one particular plugin reported to work, called WP-Ban, but bear in mind that you may find an equally good or better. WP-Ban has the ability to block users based on their IP address and other information such as the URL, for example.
Also, in case you feel like you may have clicked and been redirected to one of the domains mentioned in the spam message, and you believe your system may be compromised, you should scan your computer with a particular anti-malware tool. Downloading such software will also make sure your computer is safe against any future intrusions as well.
Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.
