Tracking fraudulent/illegit domain traffics

DavidAusman

Hi
Im currently building a PHP application that detects domain's traffics which is manipulated in fraudulent/illegit way. This include BOTs and any sort of redirection.

In order to do this, I must be able to track down their traffic referrer. This can be done easily using $_SERVER['HTTP+REFERER'].

But what happen if they use 301 redirection or javascript "location.href" to direct traffics. I try several methods and dig the header info to find some clue to detect it's traffic source but has no luck. Can anyone please share with me how to detect redirected traffics, either with javascript or .htaccess 301 redirection?
Thanks

NogDog

The HTTP_REFERER header is supplied by the client, and as such can be easily spoofed (such as by a hacker's script or a nosy robot) or not sent at all (such as with certain privacy settings in some browsers).

DavidAusman

Ok, what do you think is the best way detecting manipulated traffics?

The other factor I can think of is setting cookies and use javascript to detect mouse event. Because most bots don't accept cookies and doesn't have any mouse event. But that wouldn't be enough to track down redirected traffics.

etully

Once you define manipulated traffic, you'll be closer to discovering how to detect it. What do you have against redirects?

DavidAusman

Well, me and my friends are building a small domain portfolio. We usually purchase them thru online forums.

We had been cheated multiple times. People are selling domains that are not as good as what it seems to be. They send redirected traffics, bots and using other methods such as 301 redirection to increase overall traffics.

These 301 & javascript redirection methods doesn't have a valid http_referrer. It is really hard for me to distinguish a redirected and pure type in traffics. Can anyone please help? I don't mind paying a hundred bucks for this.
Thanks