Some time ago I wrote a webapp that would convert long URLs into fixed-length ("tiny") ones. Yes there is tinyurl.com out there but I keep forgetting the short URLs.
Thus it was easier for me to write it from scratch and be able to look at the database backend whenever I wish. The application has a verification code embedded in an scrambled image so I am sure that only humans can generate the short URLs.
I made the mistake to post its location on my home page (which is being prowled by Google and other bots).
It just happens that some scammers/spammers have used it today to spam people: they made a redirection to an image containing an ad for counterfeit watches. Now I get lots of hits from people who read their e-mails (and I see scores of webmail providers being hit by this spam).
Naturally I changed the stored links so people now get a logo of a US law enforcement agency and when they click the hook & bait link in their e-mails they end up at the website of the said agency.
It pisses me off that I get one hit every other second and my web server is getting a high load average as I installed the Perl webapp as CGI scripts instead of using mod_perl.
This will eventually force me to upgrade my ancient system (both as hardware and OS version) and put mod_perl in place.
-ulianov
