WEBSITE HIJACKING

[StevenT]

I am experiencing a very frustrating problem. It doesn't happen all of the time, but it happens MOST of the time.

Since everyone here is so much into improving their SEO rankings, I'm sure you will understand how I feel. Anger, Panic, Frustration!!!!

Here goes.

I live in Staten Island, for those that do not know it, Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York City. The areas that I have targeted are Staten Island, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Long Island.

If I search "EIFS inspections staten island," my EIFS website shows up in the #1 and #2 positions, I also show up #3 and #4 from ActiveRain. This problem happens at my direct listings (my website address) and/or at an ActiveRain listing.

When I click on one of the listings, and it switches from listing to listing, many times I am brought to some other HI website, or to mine for an instant and then to the other. Sometimes it is to the same website, sometimes to a completely different website, sometimes to an HI search site or some other type of search site.

Sometimes I am able to "arrow back" to get to the search results page, most of the time I am locked into the "pirate" site and have to do a completely new search to get away. Sometimes, if I try it a second time it works properly, sometimes a different listing gets hijacked.

Almost ALWAYS at least one or more of the listings gets hijacked.

By the way, the sites I am brought to is almost always in a different part of the country, so it's not like it will do anybody any good. But if someone is looking for an inspector, I'm sure they are not going to realize they have been kiddnapped or try to get to me again.

I contacted one of the site owners, he was very nice and insisted he did nothing to create this situation. He gave me the name of his provider.

All of the work and time that I (we) invest in trying to better our SEO and sites should not be in vain.

IT JUST ISN"T RIGHT AND THERE HAS GOT TO BE A WAY OF PROTECTING OUR WORK.

Steve

[Bill Kibbel]

Which search engine are you using?

[Mark P]

Steve,

When I search for your site an choose it, it comes up fine. I tried it several times.

The problem may be on your computer. It may be infected with a virus or browser hijacker. I have experienced similar problems from time to time. The last time it was so bad I had to take my computer into a shop to get the hijack virus off.

Here is some stuff you can do for free that may help.

1. Run "Disk Cleanup" and delete all temp internet files, cookies, etc.

2. Scan your PC with both of these free programs.

http://www.superantispyware.com

http://www.ewido.net/en/

Go to the left of the page where it says,"Scan your computer now online

and clean it for free!"

Install and run "Windows Defender"

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... fault.mspx

Good Luck

[StevenT]

Bill, I use internet explorer.

Mark, I hope you are right and I will try whay you said. I didn't know that there was such a virus. I'll let yo know how I make out.

Thanks again,

Steve

[Michael Brown]

Hi Steven,

I was just wondering why you would target people searching for "EIFS inspections staten island"?

I wouldn't think many clients would search that term at all?

I would think the term you want to target is "home inspection staten island" or "New York home inspection" etc.

We don't have the tool anymore but I did a lot of research as we could tell how many searches were done each month for a certain terms and I never remember "EIFS inspections" ever coming up for any county? You can only target a couple of terms on a website so why waste it on something no one searches for?

As for your browser hyjacking it sounds like adware in a BHO that may be installed but you would notice it on other sites as well.

Michael Brown

DevWave Software Inc.

[StevenT]

I started running the downloads Mark suggested, I hope they help. Someone else mentioned Norton360. I am beginning to believe that it is a computer problem and not an internet issue.

Mike, the reason I feel that "eifs inspector staten island"is a usable term is because many home inspectors are do not inspect EIFS, and an EIFS inspection is very specific.

I just feel that if someone's Home Inspector, or bank, etc., tells them they need an EIFS inspection, they would search EIFS. If I needed a Cardiologist, I could search Physicians, and then flip through each one until I found one that was a cardiologist or I could just search for what I was really looking for from the get go.

Of course Staten Island is only a locale, I also use the other NYC boroughs as keywords. If I lived in San Francisco, I would use that. I assume it works, only because my old HI website never showed up in a search. I have higher hopes for my new site.

I realize that the amount of terms one can use is limited, the site I mention is dedicated solely to EIFS. I use the term "home inspections" for my home inspection site and list EIFS on that site, as one of my services.

Steve

[SonOfSwamp]

FWIW, I use Norton 360. On three computers. Flawless, so far.

WJ

[StevenT]

So, I've tried everything. I even went to Norton, as Walter and a few others suggested. Actually, Norton told me that I had a virus and for $100.00 they would rid my computer of it, and then for another $60 bucks install Norton360 to protect me from future viruses.

I paid the $100.00, they took over my computer for three hours and were unable to figure out the problem. The technician said he would have to pass it on to their "Elite Team" and that they would contact me within 48 hours with an answer. Ten days have pastand they haven't gotten back to me yet. I called them back yesterday, they said it was sent to the Elite team and they they would contact me soon.

Today I bought an external hard drive. I am now saving my important files and next week I am going to reformat my hard drive. Dell tells me that will solve my problem.

I hope so.

[kurt]

High likelihood for the "JSPyme" Trojan Horse virus.

It locks into the operating system and it cannot be removed.

You're royally screwed. Norton, AVG, or any of the other stuff will get rid of it. They won't even see it. You want rid of it, you'll be reloading your OS.

Commonly found at free porn sites......Hey, I'm just sayin'.......

At least, that's where most folks get it anyway........[:-angel]

"Erotica is using a feather. Pornography is using the whole chicken"........Isabelle Allende

[StevenT]

[:-censore

[Michael Brown]

Not sure what browser and OS you are running but IE7 can turn on and off BHO's.

For IE6 and earlier you can use BHO Daemon. Does it do that in FireFox also, that would be a good indicator if it is a BHO. If it's only in IE and not FireFox it most likely is a BHO and we can help you get rid of it.

There is an Anti-Spyware tool called BHODemon that you can download from the link below:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3550.html

Another one is this but it's not so user freindly, in that you can turn off stuff your not suppose to:

Trend Micro HijackThis 2.0.2

http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-Hij ... 27353.html

Give us some info maybe we can help.

Michael

[StevenT]

Thank you very much for your concern,

Last night Norton (Symantic) got in touch with me and it appears that they figured out the problem, only time will tell. By the way, like you suggested, they installed Firefox, and explained it was a more secure browser to use.

So far, so good.

I will mention one thing that I'm noticing right now as I'm writing this response. There is now a "spellchecker" that is underlining my errors as I type. I don't know if that has always been here, or if it's part of Firefox, but I've never noticed it before. Wow!!!

Thanks again,

StevenT

[corky]

Hum, interesting fix. Steven, did that work? LOL you should have contacted microsoft, I'm sure they would have blamed norton lol

[StevenT]

Yes, the problem has been fixed Mike B. hit it right on the head. I am noticing that some things that are necessary have also been removed and I've had to have Dell reinstall some programs.

All is well.