Phantom hits to website

**-Shay-** · 13 April 2016, 9:50 am

I've been getting phantom hits on my logs coming from Mountain View, CA. They are not googlebot. They do seem to be google-related, however (Google User Content). A few examples of these phantom hits are.

104.196.95.31
173.255.116.206
146.148.104.125

Anyone have any ideas what these are from or any additional insight on these?

**Progger** · 13 April 2016, 10:29 am

Omg Shay...FBI, CIA and the Secret Service are watching you

Dont worry, one visitor have problem with your page language and translate it with the google translater .

regards

**-Shay-** · 13 April 2016, 10:39 am

Originally Posted by Progger

Omg Shay...FBI, CIA and the Secret Service are watching you

Dont worry, one visitor have problem with your page language and translate it with the google translater .

regards

I tried to duplicate the phantom hits by using google image search (viewing the image in search) and by using google translate. Neither one duplicate what I'm seeing - so it is probably not that.

**dfiocch** · 13 April 2016, 12:27 pm

Quality reviewers, perhaps?

Two hits also for me

104.196.95.31 (mobile device)
173.255.116.206 (desktop)

**-Shay-** · 13 April 2016, 12:52 pm

Originally Posted by dfiocch

Quality reviewers, perhaps?

Two hits also for me

104.196.95.31 (mobile device)
173.255.116.206 (desktop)

Maybe, although I would not expect the number of hits over the course of several weeks if they were quality reviewers to be as high as it is. Its not that the number of hits is exceptionally high - but if it were quality review from google, I'd expect a few hits over a few days at most. I would not expect over 100 hits over the course of a week times 6-8 weeks.

**Scampi** · 13 April 2016, 2:14 pm

I was just looking, and it's showing as from Google Cloud . . . https://cloud.google.com/

**universal4** · 13 April 2016, 4:13 pm

Most likely just another competitor running some sort of bot or scraper looking at your content for THEIR OWN seo benefit.

Or it could be a link seller/link buyer scraping your content for THEIR OWN seo benefit.

Or it could be a spam harvester scraping your content looking for email addresses for THEIR OWN benefit.

Rick
Universal4

**-Shay-** · 13 April 2016, 4:30 pm

Originally Posted by universal4

Most likely just another competitor running some sort of bot or scraper looking at your content for THEIR OWN seo benefit.

Or it could be a link seller/link buyer scraping your content for THEIR OWN seo benefit.

Or it could be a spam harvester scraping your content looking for email addresses for THEIR OWN benefit.

Rick
Universal4

That was my thought and I would love to block this just like I did with Amazon & Digital Ocean.

**universal4** · 13 April 2016, 4:36 pm

But....seowannabe's think you should always allow bots and scrapers if it befits THEM.....

Oops, I am sorry and I apologize to all those running these kinds of bots, may you comfortably be blocked EVERYWHERE on the internet.

Rick
Universal4

**TheGooner** · 13 April 2016, 4:44 pm

Unfortunately ... it seems that Google Cloud is just another server farm ...
https://cloud.google.com/networking/

There is no inference that this traffic has anything to do with Google itself ... just like Amazon.com owns AWS hosting but doesn't use it.

**-Shay-** · 13 April 2016, 5:06 pm

Originally Posted by TheGooner

Unfortunately ... it seems that Google Cloud is just another server farm ...
https://cloud.google.com/networking/

There is no inference that this traffic has anything to do with Google itself ... just like Amazon.com owns AWS hosting but doesn't use it.

Based on what you and Rick have said, there should be no valid reason for them to hit my site and they should be blocked.

**-Shay-** · 13 April 2016, 5:38 pm

The ranges I found on their documentation is as follows:

10.128.0.0/20
10.142.0.0/20
10.132.0.0/20
10.140.0.0/20

However, an example of a recent hit - 104.196.89.83 falls outside of that range. Am I missing something?

**sweetbet** · 13 April 2016, 6:54 pm

Someone is most likely up to no good, but wouldn't they just use another ip address if you block those ones?

**-Shay-** · 13 April 2016, 7:01 pm

Originally Posted by sweetbet

Someone is most likely up to no good, but wouldn't they just use another ip address if you block those ones?

Yes, I'm sure they will. The unfortunate reality is that I have to do something though. I can't just let this person do what I think he is doing.

**TheGooner** · 13 April 2016, 10:28 pm

Originally Posted by -Shay-

The ranges I found on their documentation is as follows:

10.128.0.0/20
10.142.0.0/20
10.132.0.0/20
10.140.0.0/20

However, an example of a recent hit - 104.196.89.83 falls outside of that range. Am I missing something?

I think that they have a lot more than that ...

I found your address here :

104.196.0.0

104.199.255.255

Google Inc. (AS15169)

US

9,932

2

That output is basically saying it has 9,932 different domains hosted on the range ...

Google Inc (AS15169) has a lot of ip addresses - see this page ...
http://www.tcpiputils.com/search?q=G...+%28AS15169%29

**dfiocch** · 14 April 2016, 2:40 am

Awwww!

Repeated hits (300+) from same IPs in less than 3 hours.
Definitively scrapers since these bots are looking for articles.

**GCG** · 14 April 2016, 2:55 am

Originally Posted by dfiocch

Quality reviewers, perhaps?

Two hits also for me

104.196.95.31 (mobile device)
173.255.116.206

Your site has been copied in parts of a few lines each time

**dfiocch** · 14 April 2016, 3:13 am

Originally Posted by GCG

Your site has been copied in parts of a few lines each time

Yes, I know. Yes, I see. Thanks GCG.
But... it's a neverending fight. My "deny" lines reached a 4 digit number, my bounce back script is up to 400kb... I'm sick...

**Progger** · 14 April 2016, 6:21 am

Yesterday 20k visitors from amazon server farm.

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