Mobile and Secure.Com

Have you ever wondered why when you click on some web page links, you ended up at a different web page from the one you were expecting? Even when you hovered over the link to confirm the address in your browser’s status bar, before clicking? No it’s not a browser hijacker, you’ve just followed a blind link.

Blind links are written by the site’s webmaster as a way to increase revenue or click-through ratings. The web page code is using embedded JavaScript to show you one URL, while sending you somewhere different with each click (it is possible to get to the URL you want, but it may take quite a few tries).

This is a well used tactic of sites trying to make money from visitor traffic by directing visitors to sites they (probably) don’t want to visit (such as those serving adult content), but whose owners will pay the re-director a fee for the traffic.

Any sites I encounter using this technique are added to my hardware firewall’s block list.