Pages in topic:   [1 2] >
Could this be a scammer or a phisher? (web crawlers on visitors page)
Thread poster: Tom in London
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Jul 25, 2017

I don't often look through the list of people who've visited my profile but 90% of them seem to be looking at me via www.baidu.com, which is a Chinese ISP.

Since Chinese is not one of my languages and I have never done any business with China, I'm wondering whether unscrupulous people in China are trawling through all the profiles of everyone in Proz, with the aim of searching for personal information,
... See more
I don't often look through the list of people who've visited my profile but 90% of them seem to be looking at me via www.baidu.com, which is a Chinese ISP.

Since Chinese is not one of my languages and I have never done any business with China, I'm wondering whether unscrupulous people in China are trawling through all the profiles of everyone in Proz, with the aim of searching for personal information, email addresses, CVs, etc?

I would welcome the views of others.
Collapse


 
Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 13:45
Member
English to Italian
Crawler Jul 25, 2017

Same here. Probably just their crawlers checking and indexing ProZ content... (a bit too often)

[Edited at 2017-07-25 11:47 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Why? Jul 25, 2017

Mirko Mainardi wrote:

Same here. Probably just their crawlers checking and indexing ProZ content... (a bit too often)

[Edited at 2017-07-25 11:47 GMT]


Why do they do that?


 
Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 13:45
Member
English to Italian
Search engines Jul 25, 2017

AFAIK, basically to make that content discoverable and therefore searchable through their search engine. Even Google and Microsoft do that, among others, only it seems it's not explicitly mentioned in the "Came From" column.

 
Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 14:45
German to English
+ ...
Their IP addresses show that they do not come from China Jul 25, 2017

most often they come from Los Angeles and other US cities. I don't think that this is a phishing tool but rather a harmless crawler grabbing all it can. In short, something along these lines, right now I have no time to create a better wording.

[Edited at 2017-07-25 12:15 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
YEs but-- Jul 25, 2017

Maija Cirule wrote:

most often they come from Los Angeles and other US cities. I don't think that this is a phishing tool but rather a harmless crawler grabbing all it can.


Yes, but what are they grabbing, and why?


 
Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 14:45
German to English
+ ...
I don't know Jul 25, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

Maija Cirule wrote:

most often they come from Los Angeles and other US cities. I don't think that this is a phishing tool but rather a harmless crawler grabbing all it can.


Yes, but what are they grabbing, and why?


what and why, but my computer guy says that they are harmless and that's enough for me as I am a computer idiot and often cannot understand simplest things:(


 
Gerard de Noord
Gerard de Noord  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:45
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Just a search engine bot Jul 25, 2017

It's just a harmless search engine bot. Mirko explained it quite well.

Cheers,
Gerard


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Guy Jul 25, 2017

Maija Cirule wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Maija Cirule wrote:

most often they come from Los Angeles and other US cities. I don't think that this is a phishing tool but rather a harmless crawler grabbing all it can.


Yes, but what are they grabbing, and why?


what and why, but my computer guy says that they are harmless and that's enough for me as I am a computer idiot and often cannot understand simplest things:(


As a Mac user I don't have a "computer guy" (not needed). Why would these crawlers be crawling if there's no reason behind it? Surely it's done with a purpose? I'm very concerned about the increasing penetrability of internet systems that are supposed to be secure. Shouldn't Proz be doing something to prevent this kind of activity?


 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:45
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
Purpose Jul 25, 2017

Tom in London wrote:
Why would these crawlers be crawling if there's no reason behind it? Surely it's done with a purpose? I'm very concerned about the increasing penetrability of internet systems that are supposed to be secure.


Of course, it has a purpose: They are indexing web pages. If they (ie. search engines like Bing, Baidu, Yahoo! etc.) started searching the internet every time a user enters a search query, it would take forever to get search results. Instead, they are crawling the internet constantly and systematically.

Tom in London wrote:
Shouldn't Proz be doing something to prevent this kind of activity?


No, because that's exactly the kind of activity which ProZ (and most of its users) want (so that they can be found by potential clients).

At least that's my simplified understanding of it.


 
Maija Cirule
Maija Cirule  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 14:45
German to English
+ ...
Maybe Jul 25, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

Maija Cirule wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Maija Cirule wrote:

most often they come from Los Angeles and other US cities. I don't think that this is a phishing tool but rather a harmless crawler grabbing all it can.


Yes, but what are they grabbing, and why?


what and why, but my computer guy says that they are harmless and that's enough for me as I am a computer idiot and often cannot understand simplest things:(


As a Mac user I don't have a "computer guy" (not needed). Why would these crawlers be crawling if there's no reason behind it? Surely it's done with a purpose? I'm very concerned about the increasing penetrability of internet systems that are supposed to be secure. Shouldn't Proz be doing something to prevent this kind of activity?


a tin foil hat and a hefty shot of gin and tonic would do the trick:)?

[Edited at 2017-07-25 17:11 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:45
Member (2008)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
OIC Jul 25, 2017

Thomas Pfann wrote:

Tom in London wrote:
Why would these crawlers be crawling if there's no reason behind it? Surely it's done with a purpose? I'm very concerned about the increasing penetrability of internet systems that are supposed to be secure.


Of course, it has a purpose: They are indexing web pages. If they (ie. search engines like Bing, Baidu, Yahoo! etc.) started searching the internet every time a user enters a search query, it would take forever to get search results. Instead, they are crawling the internet constantly and systematically.

Tom in London wrote:
Shouldn't Proz be doing something to prevent this kind of activity?


No, because that's exactly the kind of activity which ProZ (and most of its users) want (so that they can be found by potential clients).

At least that's my simplified understanding of it.


(I think).

Thanks.


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:45
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Baidu Jul 25, 2017

They have been visiting my profile as well and Chinese is not one of my languages…

 
Matthias Brombach
Matthias Brombach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 13:45
Member (2007)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Yes, they should: Jul 25, 2017

Tom in London wrote:
Shouldn't Proz be doing something to prevent this kind of activity?


... because those entries disturb the view into that part of my proz profile. I regularly check the IP visitor lookups by their region of origin to match them with requests from yet unknown outsourcers, as a part of my risk management (and out of sheer curiosity). It would be useful to implement a filter for plain baidu.com for all members who want to get rid of it. The filter shall not be part of a "plus" membership

[Edited at 2017-07-25 13:16 GMT]


 
Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 13:45
Member
English to Italian
"Search engines" tab Jul 25, 2017

Matthias Brombach wrote:

Tom in London wrote:
Shouldn't Proz be doing something to prevent this kind of activity?


... because those entries disturb the view into that part of my proz profile. I regularly check the IP visitor lookups by their region of origin to match them with requests from yet unknown outsourcers, as a part of my risk management (and out of sheer curiosity). It would be useful to implement a filter for plain baidu.com for all members who want to get rid of it. The filter shall not be part of a "plus" membership


Hmm... on second thought, crawlers should already be filtered out and listed under the "Search engine" tab... so maybe those visits are in fact from real people using the Chinese search engine?


 
Pages in topic:   [1 2] >


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Lucia Leszinsky[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Could this be a scammer or a phisher? (web crawlers on visitors page)







Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »
Protemos translation business management system
Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!

The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.

More info »