Can a website that is following Word Press blogs be reported for possible virus?

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  blackbutterfly768 · Member · Aug 27, 2015 at 4:29 am

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  A person subscribed to follow my blog. Their gravatar appears under “My Community” on my blog. I also see that they have clicked “like” on other blogs that I follow. In paying it forward, I visited their blog and discovered it’s a website that has a pop-up that requires downloading a video app. I declined that. Another pop-up came up with a voice saying that my computer had been infected with a virus and to click to remove the virus. I immediately closed the tab.

  The website’s URL is aniketsharmaphotography.com. It is not hosted by Word Press. Since the person is obviously making the rounds to Word Press blogs, I am concerned that they are attempting to infect Word Press’ bloggers’ computers with a virus.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  kokkieh · Staff · Aug 27, 2015 at 5:24 am

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  Hi there. As that website is not hosted by WordPress.com, I’m afraid there’s nothing that WordPress.com can do about it. The best option would be to do a WhoIs lookup on that person’s domain and report them directly to their web host, as I’m almost certain their web host’s terms would also forbid the hosting of malware.

  You can try reporting that person’s Gravatar profile. Log in to the Gravatar.com website, then click on their Gravatar icon where they liked your blog or search for their profile directly in Gravatar. There should be a “Report Abuse” link on their profile.

  Also, if you haven’t yet, make sure you run a virus scan on your computer, and also use a malware scanning tool like Malwarebytes to be on the safe side. Once you’re done with that, it might be a good time to change all your online passwords. Yeah, I’m a bit paranoid about online security :)

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  supernovia · Staff · Aug 27, 2015 at 5:38 pm

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  Sounds like a spammer. KokkieH is right — report the Gravatar profile so the abuse team can take a look.

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  supernovia · Staff · Aug 27, 2015 at 5:39 pm

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  Oh, and about the website, you might file an abuse report with GoDaddy as well.

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  blackbutterfly768 · Member · Aug 29, 2015 at 5:53 am

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  Thanks for the responses. I figured that Word Press could not take any action against that website, but thought maybe they have ability to block the IP address or classify it as spam. The gravatar disappeared from My Community, so I guess the person moved on.

  I did look up the “who is” and found that the site is registered to someone in India. It is hosted by GoDaddy and based on my previous experience with them, I might as well talk to a wall.

  Thanks again.

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  kokkieh · Staff · Aug 29, 2015 at 7:58 am

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  Unfortunately nowadays IP addresses aren’t unique anymore, so blocking an IP address is not very effective and may wind up blocking other people as well. Reporting them to their web host, Gravatar and also search engines and advertising providers is really all one can do in the case of sites hosted elsewhere.