WordPress users, if you use the plugin About The Author Box, this plugin inserts a hidden bit of text to promote some spam site. It does this by inserting a noscript javascript tag so that users won’t see it but search engines will.
It appears on line 25 of the file ‘about-the-author-box.php’. Here is what it looks like:
<noscript><a href=”http://yourherbalcare.com”>Your Herbal Care</a></noscript>
That gets added to the code of your site and while you and your users won’t see it visibly it’s in the code. Google could ban you for doing it too, because it’s considered cloaking. They are doing it this way so only search engines see it and it counts as a back link for them.
Please be aware when downloading plugins. Read over them and look at the source of your site after the plugin has been installed. That’s how I found this sneaky bastard’s tactics.
Thanks for the tip. If I remove line 25, will this plugin be fine to use?
Yes indeed.