Links from Casino & Poker Sites

[dviney]

I have noticed recently in my weblogs (referrer URL list) the following sort of entries:

h t tp : / / f r e e - p o k e r . y e l u c i e . c o m /
Total hits Files Pageview Bytes sent | Referrer URL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 0.01% 0 0 1156 0.00% | /
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are lots of them and when I look at the referring pages (and source) there are no links to my site (I would be depressed if there were).

What I don't get is why this is happening and what these site owners have to gain by this?

Are they after my page rank? Just trying to get webmasters to click on the links? What?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[Weedy Lady]

Do you have any graphics on your site that perhaps the gambling sites may have hotlinked to? That would show up on your referrer list.

I have a major problem with people hotlinking to my graphics, and do a lot of clicking on referrer links to find out which ones, and then deal with them appropriately. Last Christmas two companies actually stole a whole page from my site and posted it on their own site. Lots of hits from them! Took care of it with an e mail to their CEO's.

[mikmik]

This is becoming an epidemic. I am hearing all sorts of people getting this, me included. It might be hotlinking, it looks like it anyways, but the sites are almost always new referrals.

The sites vary, and some are blogs and all manner of different types. There is something more sinister going on, I think.