Naively asked.!

Thread Starter

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
30,557
How can this happen?
Over the week-end I happened to visit a local Canadian site where I obtain certain products for one of my hobbies, A site I visit regularly on a regular basis.
All links to the site now show a Japanese clothing company, which is total odds to their product line, Everything is in Japanese.
It is a holiday here today so cannot contact them by phone.
Someone hacked their site?
I got a couple of friends to confirm it on their computer just in case it was just me!
Max.
 

Thread Starter

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
30,557
Maybe the conviction of Avenatti had something to do with it?
Any reason you can't tell us the "product."
There is no reason, didn't think it relevant!
Brewing supplies!

How regular? (i.e. how far 'back' was your last visit?) -- Smallish 'E-business' retailers tend to be ephemeral propositions at best...
Sincerely - good luck!
HP
Was there last week.
They have a four stores in the local area, been in business for at least 25yrs.
Max.
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,470
There are a lot of old links out there and I do occasionally come across a domain that has been sold. Other than that or hacked...
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,237
They may have inadvertantly let their domain registration lapse and the other company was waiting. Seen it happen.
Yep! Also seen it happen. It was a friend of my company’s owner. I was tasked with recovering the web site files, buying back the domain and getting the site up and running in a few weeks. I got a bonus for my work.
 

402DF855

Joined Feb 9, 2013
271
Hosting companies can foul things up. My site went down a few months ago, took a couple of hours talking to tech support to restore it.
 

Lo_volt

Joined Apr 3, 2014
370
They may have inadvertantly let their domain registration lapse and the other company was waiting. Seen it happen.
This happened to a motherboard supplier I used many years ago. In that case, the "other company" linked the url to a porn site. It took a bit of talking to my boss to explain what happened, then a lot of phone time to the supplier. They never got their url back but ended up registering a new one.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,237
Have you checked their IP address from multiple devices? Your system may have been hacked with DNS poisoning. Use tracert.

After checking and if different devices report different addresses, access the site by IP, not name. That may identify the infected device.

Then you may have to clear the DNS cache. Also, check names in your local DNS or hosts file. I’d check the entries for DNS servers in your network configuration. An invalid entry in either location could have been hacked.
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,237
I have checked the site from some different locations, still the same.
Max.
Have you used the IP address instead of the name? Has anyone of your acquaintances tested for you?

Basically, from your location or nearby, DNS is returning the IP address of someplace else. My suggestions are an attempt to locate where the DNS failure is occurring.
 
Top