What is Pagejacking?
Pagejacking is a technique used to siphon Internet traffic from intended websites to unintended sites, usually containing pornographic content. Once at the site, surfers might find it difficult to leave, as clicking the “back” button of the browser might only redirect them to new pornographic sites. Pagejacking is unlawful, under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), falling under the purview of a deceptive practice that interferes with commerce. To set up pagejacking, an unscrupulous vendor copies a popular webpage from a legitimate site along with its underlying HTML code. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and is what Web browsers process into the visual graphics we see when we visit sites. You can view the source code, or HTML of a webpage by right-clicking on a site and choosing “View Page Source” from the popup menu. The source code of a webpage includes meta tags. Meta tags are keywords and key phrases that describe page content. Search engines use the meta tag section to
In essence, pagejacking is the copying of a page by unauthorized parties in order to filter off traffic to another site. The copying doesn’t include just the wording – it’s the whole box and dice. Traffic to the illegitimate page is then usually redirected to a competing, or at times, totally unrelated offer.
