GoDaddy worked with researchers to shut down 15,000 domain-shadowing websites tied to bogus affiliate marketing offers promoted via spam campaigns.

Researchers at the security firm Palo Alto Networks worked with domain registrar and web hosting firm GoDaddy to shut down 15,000 subdomains pitching ‘snake oil’ products and other scams. The takedowns are linked to affiliate marketing campaigns peddling everything from weight-loss solutions and brain-enhancement pills.

Those behind the spam campaigns used a technique called domain-shadowing, and they were able to compromise thousands of servers and abuse hundreds of domains and website admin account credentials, according to researchers.

Spam campaigns associated with these subdomain takeovers date back to 2017. Links in messages pointed to subdomains of websites, which unknowingly hosted the product pitches that were backed by bogus endorsements purporting to be from the likes of Stephen Hawking, Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani…