Trafficparadise referral spam is back, but this time they have a new domain name that shows up in Google Analytics called trafficmonetize.org instead of their old 4webmasters.org referral spam domain name. Surprisingly enough, I only had to filter this spam out of my personal website Google Analytics and not this site (update: now I’ve had to filter it out of this site’s Google Analytics as well).

How To Block Trafficmonetize.org Spam: Filter Method

I created the instructions below using both images and text to make it easier for you to understand and follow the guide. The important parts of the page that you need to click or interact with are marked with a red circle.

1. Go To The Google Analytics Website And Log Into Your Account

You can visit the website by clicking the URL in the heading or by clicking here.

2. Go To Your “Admin” Tab

The admin tab is right next to the ‘Customisation’ tab to the far right of the Google Analytics logo.

3. Click On “Filters” Under The “View” Section

Once you’re on the admin page, go to the 3rd column called “View” and click on “Filters”.

4. Click On “+New Filter”

There’s a big red button on the page that says “+New Filter”. It’s pretty hard to miss, so click it.

5. Enter The Information In The Image Below And Save

This is the final and longest step in this guide. Once you’re on the filters page. You’re going to want to do the following:

1. Click on ‘Create New Filter‘
2. Under ‘Filter Information‘, click on ‘Custom‘
3. Click the “Exclude‘ button
4. Under ‘Filter Field‘, select ‘Campaign Source‘ from the drop-down list.
5. Under Filter Pattern, enter ‘trafficmonetize.org‘
6. Click on ‘Save‘.

Wait about an hour for the filter changes to take effect and you should be able to see your real Google Analytics data without the referrer spam in it.

How To Block trafficmonetize.org Spam: Htaccess Method

In every article I’ve written about ghost referrer spam, I never recommended using this method or the following method if the referrer spam is indeed ghost referrer spam that never actually visits your site as this method and the subsequent method are more suited for protecting your site from any possible sessions in the future from these sources. If you find that the traffic is taking up your server resources or you think that it may be malicious, then try using thie following code in your htaccess.

## SITE REFERRER BANNING
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} trafficmonetize.org [NC,OR] RewriteRule .* – [F]

How To Block trafficmonetize.org Spam: Deflecting Method

This is not also not a recommended method, but you can create a text file called “deflector.map” and add the following code to it:

#
## deflector.map
##
##referer –> redirect target
http://trafficmonetize.org http://trafficmonetize.org

After that, you’re going to want to add the following code to your .htaccess

RewriteMap deflector txt:/path/to/deflector.map
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !=””
RewriteCond ${deflector:%{HTTP_REFERER}} =-
RewriteRule ^ %{HTTP_REFERER} [R,L]

Why Does trafficmonetize Referrer Spam Occur?

For the same reason as before, trafficparadise only wants you to visit their website so that you can purchase their pop-under software, which must not be selling very well if the developer has to resort to spamming Google Analytics accounts in order to make a sale. Another possible motive they may have is to get webmasters to talk about them (like I’m doing here) that way curious webmasters visit their link. So, to alleviate that curiosity, here’s a screenshot of trafficmonetize.org (it redirects to traffic-paradise.org).

You shouldn’t be surprised about that “phishing attack ahead” page, but here’s a screenshot of it if you were to visit the actual site.

On a side note, I wouldn’t be surprised if I eventually start receiving referrer spam from people who want me to mention their abysmal links on this website in one of these articles.