Correct referrers

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1

If I look to my website statistics, I see that there are lots of referrers from sites that I don’t know. Most of them are weird Russian sites. These sites haven’t put any link to my website, strange how they get to my site.

So I wonder how they get to my site, and why they’re counted as a referrer.

Probably they have some sort of script somewhere on their website, that redirects constantly to other sites, so the other sites see them as referrers?

My question: which statement is (in)correct, or are they all (in)correct:

  • if you click on a link on a website X, it is counted as a referrer from site X ?
  • if a javascript redirects you to a website X, is it counted as a referrer from site X ?
  • if a site opens in an iframe on a website X, is it countedd as a referrer from site X ?

Anyone can help me with this strange question?

2

You omitted

  • if a site visits a page with a spoofed HTTP header, the spoofed referer header counts as a referrer

My guess is because some sites have publicly visible logs, these are attempts to get backlinks to those sites.

3

Can you do anything against it?

If you get framed by some other site, you can do this:
<script type=“text/javascript”>
if (top.location != self.location)
top.location = self.location;
</script>

but what about that http header spoofing stuff?