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EBAY links on the forum took me to Viglink? Why is this?

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3baygarage

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Joined
Sep 1, 2013
Messages
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Location
SW Florida/from Buffalo,NY
Clicked on several Ebay links here on the forum today. I was redirected to some Viglink site each time, which was advertising related Amazon tool sales.

I understand this may not be a forum issue, but to my knowledge I had not changed any settings anywhere.

I just Googled how to get rid of it. I was directed to the Viglink site where there was a disable button option.

Never heard of this ****. This happen to anyone else?
 
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pescados666

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Joined
Feb 16, 2014
Messages
142
Location
South Houston, Texas
3baygarage said:
Clicked on several Ebay links here on the forum today. I was redirected to some Viglink site each time, which was advertising related Amazon tool sales.

I understand this may not be a forum issue, but to my knowledge I had not changed any settings anywhere.

I just Googled how to get rid of it. I was directed to the Viglink site where there was a disable button option.

Never heard of this ****. This happen to anyone else?
Click to expand...

What browser are you using? If you open an incognito window (or safe mode/whatever firefox or IE calls their version of incognito mode) to click the same links does it also do it?
It sounds like it's a form of malware that's hijacking your links. It could be doing it through a browser add-on or through a hidden program. You could try scanning your pc with Malwarebytes anti-malware scanner (you can run the trial version until you figure out the problem too for a bit more added protection, and then disable it when you're annoyed by the reminders to get full version) to see if it finds anything unusual.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/
 
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firworks

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Jun 29, 2015
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4,079
Location
IL
VigLink is what GJ uses to convert outbound links into affiliate links to earn money for the site. It's probably a big part of why you don't see massive side bar ads, top bar ads, and pop ups all over this forum. Pretty standard practice. If you click the link and it doesn't take you to the page it was supposed to it's likely a bug in VigLink or the setup.

Example:
User posts an Amazon link to a product. When it gets clicked, instead of going straight to Amazon it goes through VigLink to add the GJ affiliate code to it and then should end up at the correct Amazon link imperceptibly to the user who clicked the link. The only real difference is there's an affiliate code in the Amazon URL so if you buy any items GJ gets a portion of the sale for sending you there.
 
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3

3baygarage

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2013
Messages
11,947
Location
SW Florida/from Buffalo,NY
firworks said:
VigLink is what GJ uses to convert outbound links into affiliate links to earn money for the site. It's probably a big part of why you don't see massive side bar ads, top bar ads, and pop ups all over this forum. Pretty standard practice. If you click the link and it doesn't take you to the page it was supposed to it's likely a bug in VigLink or the setup.

Example:
User posts an Amazon link to a product. When it gets clicked, instead of going straight to Amazon it goes through VigLink to add the GJ affiliate code to it and then should end up at the correct Amazon link imperceptibly to the user who clicked the link. The only real difference is there's an affiliate code in the Amazon URL so if you buy any items GJ gets a portion of the sale for sending you there.
Click to expand...

This is kind of what figured. Something must be broken along the way in the redirect.
 
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