Find something interesting?

What you need, when you need it.
But who needs a leech..?

This is a special kind of sites. But not in any positive way. The problem is not their content. Au contraire, they are utterly contentless.

These sites contain phrases like these:
"Find something interesting",
"Find what you're looking for" or
"What you need, when you need it".

But what do you find, and do you need it..?

Click any menu, but you'll only get
ads, ads, ads - plus another menu.
Repeat ad nauseam...

Unique content?

'About us' reveals: "We empower individuals, organizations and businesses by providing unique up-to-date information. Our dedicated team of professionals strives to gather the most relevant content for our users."

Since such sites are devoid of any contact information, it is impossible to guess whom these 'dedicated team of professionals' really are. What they're up to. Or if they exist at all.

What do they offer? The latest example nfbconnect-upd5.com offers these links:

Travel, Computer Notebooks, Music Download, Online Dating, Education Online, Insurance, Credit Card, Jobs, Health Insurance, Credit Report, Lawyers, Game, Health and Beauty, Online Store, Professional Services, New Technology, Online Casinos, Vacations, Home, Debt Help, Gift, Business Opportunity, Car Finance, Student Loan.

If you fail to locate a common theme, you're not alone. These 'professionals' seem to specialize in everything! Sometimes even contradicting, like Pcdg.org linking to both 'Christian Youth Camps' and 'Teen Adult Video' on the same page.

How can 'unique services' consist of supplying links to google.com, adobe.com or msn.com? Really rare resources, I'll admit...

"Today's most Visited links" is also a fake, since links are hardcoded and never change.

On the bottom of each site: "Bookmark this page | Make this your Homepage". Well, who would miss this unique collection of quality resources..? Just joking, you'd still get more out of watching a tv set to a dead channel...

Leeches of the net

Don't get me wrong; this is not about whether I like ads or not. I can tolerate ads, if I also get some content. (Search engines always combine both.) But if I only get ads, and if they are disguised as content, it's a different story.

These sites are legal scams, operating in a grey zone. Not phishing, since they don't steal your data or drain your account. But they do steal your time, and they dilute the real content of the net. They claim to provide 'unique up-to-date information', but it's not unique, not up-to-date and not information.

They behave like parasites, so
I suggest a new category:
Leeches...

More leeches..?

Update: Later DomainDetectives.net followed this trail further, and they did find more: Directi: Find Something Interesting? We did...

TheBigRetort has also been looking for leeches: Adleech parasite leads to Russia...

Who is behind?

These names recur as registrants:

Private Registrations Aktien Gesellschaft (33)
DN4ever (12)
MetaPredict (11)
Domain Discreet (9)
Network Solutions (5)
Privacy Protect (5)
Virtual Real Estate Brokerage (2)
Continuum Web Solutions (2)
Others
Click the name to see the Whois I dug up.

cnomy.com seems to be a central site, since 7 other sites redirects here. Furthermore, cnomy.com is the nameserver for 27 sites.

kolmic.com is another central site, 6 other sites redirects here. Furthermore, kolmic.com is also the nameserver for 3 sites.

IP Locations vary but here's the most popular:

US - California - LA - Everyones Internet (37)

United Arab Emirates - Direct Information Fzc (33)

US - Texas - Houston - Everyones Internet (7)

US - New York - Buffalo - Kanoodle (5)

A phishy past or a shady present?

Several times during my investigation Firefox warned about possible phishing. Siteadvisor had also rated many of these sites red.

The domain names are typically just as meaningless as their content. However, in the case of nfbconnect-upd5.com, a not yet updated thumbnail at domaintools.com revealed that it was a recently a North Fork Bank phishing site. The domain name suddenly made more sense. And yet...

Days later I reported signin.motors.dardtt.com for eBay phishing. The site was suspended, but almost at once someone else bought it. dardtt.com was online again, now reanimated as yet another Utterly Contentless Site.

It looks like abandoned or suspended domains are bought to suck the last traffic and linkjuice.

According to TomS, experienced reviewer at Siteadvisor: "Domain search/hitfarm. It hosts domains that are vacant or abandoned, then fills a frameset with links to it's preferred partners. It gathers advertising click payments, but it uses deceptive methods to get you to click through. You see a google link to a page you want, but end up on a hitfarm which offers another link to the original site you wanted. Clicking here gives the comission to bnmq.com and not Google. Not illegal, but deceptive and it distorts the web process and tracking. They actually use tricks to fool automated web rating and indexing."
(14-04-2006-01:25:23)

1% of the net

During my search I also noticed that several open directories had been spammed with multiple entries linking to these contentless sites. Blogs had not been spared either. And yes, they do appear in searchengines results.

I searched Yahoo and got 3.880 answers. Repeat the search...

I tried Google, but only got 3 answers. Then I noticed they had omitted results that were very similar. All included the total number jumped to more than 1 million. Repeat the search...

Last time I read how many sites were online, the number was 100 million. I think it matters, if 1% of the net is only faking content.

What to do..?

Since a leech is a legal scam, there isn't any place to report abuse. But you can still avoid creating new ones. Next time you abandon a site, buy the domain name for an extra year. Then traffic has time to vanish, and old links can be removed/redirected. Otherwise your old site might come straight back to life again, reanimated as one more ad serving zombie...

Mads Dam, September 2007

111 Utterly Contentless Sites:

4564554359733.com
alabama-gulf-shores.com
alltechnicalschools.com
amillo.net
angeteen.com
animefans.in
ashkoboos.com
asianxvids.com
ayushayurveda.com
bazgasht.net
berlingske.net
bnmq.com
buildingweb.org
bridalimaging.com
bxs224.com
cctvjk.com
cgi-technologies.com
cindybridal.com
clckm.com
cn57.net
cnomy.com
cob495886838.com
corleoneorlando.com
creationslaure.com
cs4you.org
ddlww.com
deltadesignandfab.com
dvd-f.net
dilpu.net
diyfans.com
dmlab.biz
erklgnra.com
eshve.com
filter2005.com
fotbalcz.info
friendabroad.com
funkylocker.com
fuskerando.com
gallafan.com
gastro2005.org
gharieh.com
golnaz82.com
googlgoogle.com
golfbusiness.us
gutturik.com
hagerty-polish.com
hashop.com
herbal-remedies.in
highwayfinindia.org
hohong.com
hotelhardenberg.com
hotmemories.com
hyzzjwl.com
ijnephrol.com
iojrehdh.com
ipodderx.com
jj-toy.com
kidiwi.com
kisstw.net
kkrcity.com
kohmen.org
kolmic.com
language-translation-services.com
latexmania.net
lavaeasy.info
laydominicancongress.org
lotusfair.com
malkm.com
mehdi-he.com
mihanbroker.com
mmfdp.org
modzine.net
mydccusecure.com
myindir.com
namkit.com
nfbconnect-upd5.com
nht-team.org
oemcd.net
online-educations.com
otaku.com.cn
palmdino.com
patsummerall.com
permatasolution.com
pcdg.org
pishmo.com
popularcarbazar.com
pornlinksonly.com
radiantconcepts.com
romiik.com
rusbank.net
semaho.com
sexestoys.com
shaghayeghdehghan.com
shops2save.com
subalterno.com
swarez.net
swcivilwar.com
tapeshweekly.org
tel118.com
thewhackshack.net
trafficroo.com
tyacad.com
unlockmexico.com
unitedemailsystems.com
warezonly.com
wargamezone.net
webvoyeur.com
wenshjdh.com
wobworld.org
wwf.com
zongyz.com

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