Spam?

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  hikingfordonuts · Member · Oct 24, 2017 at 2:11 am

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  I noticed my blog views shot up over the course of a few days. I am just starting my blog and I have about 5 views a day and there has been over 1000 views the past 3 days. I tried clicking on the referred link and it leads me to some skeptical sites. I just want to make sure my information is protected. Should I contact anyone?

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

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  edwinho89 · Member · Oct 24, 2017 at 2:36 am

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  Hi @hikingfordonuts

  Your site, hikingfordonuts.wordpress.com looks pretty neat, and has an interesting name! Based on your description, it seems to be gaining popularity and people are sharing your WordPress site externally – that should be a good thing I suppose. Donut lovers like me will be attracted to your site name at first glance.

  I do not think it is anything alarming at this point, however it’d be great if you can perform some security checks mentioned on the Security page.

  You can continue monitoring your views at https://wordpress.com/stats/day/hikingfordonuts.wordpress.com and report any unusual activities at https://wordpress.com/help/contact

  Hope this helps!

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  hikingfordonuts · Member · Oct 25, 2017 at 2:53 am

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  Thanks for the reply. I will do that. I hope that is the case, it is just that when I click on the refer section of my blog stats it takes me to an odd ad website, http://thecountrylove.com/. This doesn’t make too much sense to me.

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  timethief · Member · Oct 25, 2017 at 2:56 am

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  See https://en.support.wordpress.com/stats/#marking-spam-referrers for details and images.

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  kokkieh · Staff · Oct 25, 2017 at 8:08 am

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  Hi there,

  I looked at your referrer stats, and the vast majority of the views over the past few days are coming from Facebook, so the most likely explanation is that one of your posts went viral over there. So I wouldn’t worry about this – most bloggers only dream of something like this happening :D

  Also note that blocking a referrer doesn’t prevent that site from linking to yours, nor does it prevent stats from being recorded if someone views your site via a link on that site. It only means that specific referrer won’t appear in the Referrers section of your stats any more.

  The countrylove site does appear dodgy. Your info and your site is not in any danger, though – there is no way that by simply linking to your site they can in any way access anything that’s not already public.

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  hikingfordonuts · Member · Oct 26, 2017 at 2:49 am

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  Appreciate the feedback.

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  hikingfordonuts · Member · Oct 26, 2017 at 2:50 am

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  Appreciate the feedback.