Our criminal compliant
for unauthorized forwarding of our link to external sites
& fake virus reports
against certain website operators
Written by Çiğdem Gül
Germany, September 12, 2020 – updated on December 10, 2021
Dear friend,
dear members,
dear visitors,
dear cooperation partners of our „Intercultural Network for the Gifted“.
„Anyone who has recently been on the Internet on their smartphone , this can happen to you: Suddenly a page with the heading“ Google Membership Rewarded ”opens. Allegedly you were selected as the winner, which Google would like to thank for your loyalty. In addition, virus warnings are currently being displayed to some users. ”Google also apparently warns that there are viruses on the website of the“ Intercultural Network For The Highly Gifted ”and on the device used. In order to prevent damage caused by these, the message prompts you to download an app via the link displayed.
After we have typed in the link https://www.interkulturellhochbegabte.de of our „Intercultural Network for the Gifted“, we are automatically redirected to supposedly reputable sites and competitions. Or false virus messages are displayed.
I would like to inform you that on July 4th, 2020 I filed a criminal complaint with the Wuppertal / Germany police authority against certain website operators. This was followed by multiple correspondence with the responsible chief detective. He, his police IT-team, and later the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office checked our case.
After examining the case with the police IT officer, the responsible chief detective gave me important information, which I summarize for you here in my words:
1. You can continue to open our website https://www.interkulturellhochbegabte.de without fear, read and comment on articles.
There is no virus or other harmful actions on the link and on the website of our „Intercultural Network For The Highly Gifted“.
2. The phenomenon “fake Google competition or alleged virus warning” is called AdCloaking.
3. After the link has been typed in, it will be redirected to certain website operators without authorization: Such site operators are people / sites who have paid money to get clicks for their sites. These clicks are granted to them by entering a link and redirecting it to your pages without authorization. The site operators are therefore not legally liable for such actions.
4. Our website https://www.interkulturellhochbegabt.de is secured with SSL encryption. The responsible detective chief inspector said that the problem of „AdCloaking“ does not affect the security of the website. WordPress has security flaws that need to be fixed by an expert. It is only because of these security gaps that unauthorized persons sneak in and grant the above-mentioned website operators their paid clicks.
The responsible chief detective said that unfortunately there is no legal basis for my criminal complaint against the site operator. Nevertheless, my criminal complaint was also checked by the public prosecutor as a precaution. The public prosecutor’s office in Wuppertal / Germany informed me in a letter dated July 18, 2020 that the proceedings had been discontinued because a perpetrator could not be identified.
It is annoying for all of us to receive such fake virus reports and sweepstakes. Please ignore such redirects and call up the link of our website and the links to the articles again. We hope WordPress will close its own security loopholes soon.
Best regards
Çiğdem Gül
Wuppertal, Germany, December 10, 2021