Google Spam Squad On Polish Hacker's Trail Over Vapor URLs

Feb 11, 2016 - 8:26 am 2 by

Bars3 Google 1200

Last week we covered that Google Investigating Polish Hacker Who Is Stealing Webmaster Rankings. It was a case of a hacker using iframes and hacking into other sites, stealing their content and outranking the original site with the spam site. The concept is not new but revealing this actually shocked a lot of webmasters.

Google's Michal Wicinski posted an update in the thread this morning basically saying that the Google team who handles this sort of hacked spam is now on the case. He wrote, based on Google translate, "the team which is responsible for this part of the search engine looks at the problem." He added he is unable to share more details "because I do not work directly on the solution." He won't be able to "give more details on the current status or estimate how long things can take time," he added.

He did ask for webmasters to help and give more examples:

If you notice other examples Twoch replacement pages for the benefit of the parties, which compromised the examples in the form of vapor URL {URL of your page that disappeared - URL of the page with burglary} will be most helpful and speed up finding a solution.

So here is your chance to add your feedback in the thread.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: January 16, 2026

Jan 16, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google Search Ranking Volatility Hits January 15-16

Jan 16, 2026 - 8:41 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Personal Intelligence, Universal Commerce Protocol, Apple Picks Gemini & Ongoing Search Volatility

Jan 16, 2026 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google To Prioritize Removing Prediction News Content From Search & News

Jan 16, 2026 - 7:55 am
Google Maps

Google AI Overview Local Pack Leading To Huge Drops In Visibility

Jan 16, 2026 - 7:51 am
Bing Ads

Microsoft Advertising Adds Share Of Voice Metrics, Asset Group-Level URL Options, Customer Acquisition Goals...

Jan 16, 2026 - 7:41 am
 
Previous Story: Google UK's Matt Brittin Asked What He Is Paid