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I have access to over 100 GA profiles and I've never seen this before.

In a newly created analytics account (3 days ago) we're seeing some pageviews that have the following format:

/www.torture.ml/reply734532

/www.pornhub-forum.ga/topic42854

The website is for a plumbing company.

Notice how the url structure begins with "/" and then has another url (not related to our site at all) after it.

Any thoughts on how these urls could be making it into our analytics account?

Shayan Ghosh
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Tom Enns
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    possible duplicate of [why are porn stuff sites appearing on my google analytics data?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29717151/why-are-porn-stuff-sites-appearing-on-my-google-analytics-data) – Linda Lawton - DaImTo Apr 24 '15 at 13:59

1 Answers1

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This is known as Ghost Referrer Spam.

For more information, you might want to read @carlos 's excellent answer to a similar question: Why are porn sites appearing in my Google Analytics data?

Here's an extract answering your concerns:

This is Ghost Referrer Spam, there's no flaw in your app/site regarding this aspect. They just target random GA tracking-ID's no matter if it's an app or a website, it's called Ghost because it doesn't reach/use your app actually.

You shouldn't worry about security issues but if you want to keep clean your google analytics is better to exclude them from your reports

The only way to stop them for now is by filtering them in Google Analytics you can add a single filter:

  • Go to Admin tab in Google Analytics
  • Select the View you want to filter > Filter > New Filter
  • In Filter Type choose Custom Filter > Exclude Filter
  • Field: Campaign Source
  • Filter Pattern: Enter youporn-forum.ga or any referral spam that is hitting you
Community
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Philippe Sawicki
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