Spain-holiday personal website URL hacked

[kevsboredagain]

I was surprised to see zero clicks to my website from Spain Holiday this month so had a quick check of the advert. Instead of my own website URL was one for really amazing holidays .com

How the heck did this get in there????? My email and phone contacts are unchanged and I have an very strong password and 2 step verification enabled with Google authenticator.

Awaiting a response from Spain Holiday...

[Casscat]

I've just checked my listing and the route to my own site is still as it should be. That said I only rarely get click throughs anyway as the link is so well buried

[kevsboredagain]

Disappointing reaction from SH.

I've had no website clicks because my URL was not verified (I changed it back to my own site 2 minutes before sending them an email complaining hence the reason it was unverified when they checked)

SH did not put the spammy link on my advert (so the implication is that I must have done it myself)

They seem totally unconcerned that an advert could be modified, seemingly without any trace or notification to the original owner.

[joddle]

That does not sound like the usual response from SH! - Whenever I have had a problems I have spoken to Klaus or Helena and they have always looked very carefully into any issue I have raised with them and given very considered and positive answers. In your shoes I would approach them again but be sure they really understand exactly the proceedures you have gone through. I find they are not the sort of company that ignores their clients.

[kevsboredagain]

Yes Joddle this has always been my experience too.

My biggest regret is not making a screenshot when I saw the wrong link with a verified status, as they simply don't believe me. Having visited the link which was in my advert, I now believe it was not a hacker or breach of my account. The link contains only 3 properties and is a half completed website that does not look very active.

I believe the error may have occurred when Spain-Holiday upgraded their website a few months ago. I've had no reason to change my web address for nearly 7 years now and I've been with SH for that long. Sadly though, after several email exchanges, which are going nowhere, they simply assume I have made an error and entered a link completely unknown to me.

If the link had been changed by a person, I would have received an email. All my emails are sorted automatically into folder, so I have everything from SH in one place. There was no email.

[joddle]

I think you may be right in thinking it happened during the site upgrade - I had a few little issues although not anything like data being changed. Speak to them - they are very good on the phone, especially Claus - emails always seem impersonal to me and I find I get far more joy when I am speaking with people. As for them not believing you, I think you have to insist that it happened and suggest if may have been during the site upgrade and not a system hack - its very easy for things to go wrong during an upgrade, and this may have been one thing that slipped though. They got a lot of stick when they first upgraded the site so may be feeling a little sensative to issues being brought up now!