Spoofing HTTP Referer on AdWords traffic & Dealing with malware dissaproval (4)
Spoofing HTTP Referer on AdWords traffic & Dealing with malware dissaproval
The tl;dr is that I'm not sure if the AdWords malware detection bot is mistaking http referrer spoofing for malware OR if it's because my site truly had malware (it did). Read below for details.
Here are the facts:
- I have an AdWords account that has been promoting whitehat via display network for over a year.
- Due to a new rule by the merchant that forbids direct-linking, I attempted to spoof HTTP referrer of my traffic using a meta-refresh. Using a landing page and going 100% legit to appease merchant wouldn't be an option here because it renders the campaign unprofitable.
- The meta-refresh path was like this: tracking-template.com (php server redirect) -> fake-lander.com (meta refresh) -> merchant-url.com. No cloaking, just a simple meta refresh to modify HTTP referer.
- Shortly after implementing this referrer spoof in my redirect path, my ads stopped showing. After contacting support, they said it was due to a malware infection. The URLs they gave me that were supposedly infected by malware were ONLY the 2 URLs (tracking template, fake LP) involved in the referrer spoofing.
- Coincidentally, my site was actually infected by malware around this time.
- After removing the malware, I asked for a malware rescan 3x. Only after I removed the redirect spoof did they tell me the site was clean of malware and then lifted the freeze on my account.
It's possible the automated malware scanner employed by AdWords detected the referrer spoofing as a malware infection. It's also possible that this was merely a coincidence and it was the malware alone that triggered the detection.
At this point, I intend on running a test on another AdWords account (losing my primary account would cost me big $$$) to determine if the malware scanner doesn't like something about the way I was redirecting to spoof referrer.
Two questions:
1) Does anyone know a way to spoof referrer on AdWords without triggering the malware scanner?
2) Is AdWords particularly fussy about referrer spoofing? I have done it in the past without issue. However, I have recently gotten an FB ads account banned for referrer spoofing, so I'm wondering if ad networks are getting more strict about this.
Any comments/feedback would be greatly appreciated!
If I'm not mistaken adwords doesn't really like any sort of redirects. And once they enforce parrallel tracking next month you won't be able to use them anymore in the way you have it set up now.
I contacted support about that and supposedly parallel tracking wont be forced on display campaigns. But it's possible the support person gave me bad info.
Originally Posted by bertm00
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