Title: Reverse trackback spam
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# Reverse trackback spam

 *  [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reverse-trackback-spam/)
 * Okay, I know this is weird, but today I found yet another site that has a trackback
   from *me* that I never put there. I.e. it’s a trackback that links to a non-existent
   article on my website. It’s trackback spam on someone else’s site. But it looks
   like it’s coming from *me*.
 * How is this possible?
 * Some of it is REALLY old too – the one I found today says the trackback was posted
   in 2008, but it’s just *now* showing up in my 404 logs, which tells me that it
   was just recently put up.
 * How is this possible?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [Marventus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marventus/)
 * (@marventus)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reverse-trackback-spam/#post-2986595)
 * Hi, Shelly.
 * What could have happened is that someone added that trackback in a comment back
   then, and you recently changed your Permalink structure, so the link no longer
   points in the right direction.
    If I were you, I would check my comments see 
   if there is anything suspicious. Also, do you have a spam plugin running on your
   site? This is really recommended to avoid these kind of problems.
 * Cheers!
 *  Thread Starter [Doodlebee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/doodlebee/)
 * (@doodlebee)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reverse-trackback-spam/#post-2986627)
 * Thanks Marventus,
 * Actually yes, I do have spam stuff in place, and I moderate my comments. If there’s
   no soam in the comment, I approve it.
 * of course, that’s only something I started doing about 2 or 3 years ago – and
   all of these weird things I’ve been finding are from 2008. but I’m pretty stringent
   about security on my site 9as well as on my server) which is why I don’t get 
   how someone could put a trackback on a site form a post that doesn’t exist on
   my site. (yeah, makes sense right?)
 *  [Marventus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marventus/)
 * (@marventus)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reverse-trackback-spam/#post-2986632)
 * >  I don’t get how someone could put a trackback on a site form a post that doesn’t
   > exist on my site.
 * Doesn’t make much sense to me either, unless, as I mentioned before, the Permalink
   to your old post broke or was changed in the future, making the old trackback
   to throw a 404.
    There are many plugins out there that scan your comments for
   past and present spam, so that you can make sure got rid of it all. Watch out
   for false positives!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Reverse trackback spam’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Marventus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marventus/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reverse-trackback-spam/#post-2986632)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics