Serious Discussion WordPress site acting weird again, possible malware? need 2nd opinion

[biteanderer]

Hey all,


I’m running a small design biz in Romania, mostly logo design, branding and graphics stuff. I’ve got a WP site: Servicii Web Design | Prețuri Accesibile | Identitate Brand (made in WordPress, ofc). Not a dev myself, so I usually work with freelancers to handle updates, bugs, security, etc.
Few days ago, I paid one of them to clean the site cause he said it might be infected. It worked fine for 2 days… then weird stuff started happening again:

• site loads slow sometimes, even on good internet;
• I got redirected on mobile to an adult site (like wtf?);
• on this page in particular: Servicii Realizare Logo | Prețuri accesibile | Identitate Brand, I noticed a popup flash + fast refresh, looked sketchy;
• no errors in WP admin tho, and Google Console shows nothing.

Now the same dev says it’s infected again and I should pay for another cleanup. Honestly, idk if there’s really malware or if he’s just milkin’ me for money.
Can anyone here take a quick look or give me a hint on what I can use to scan/check the site? Even a basic tool or browser extension would help. I’m kinda stuck and don’t wanna keep throwing money for nothin’.

Thx a lot in advance

 

[Bot]

Hi there,

It does sound like your site might be compromised. You can use free online tools like Sucuri SiteCheck or Quttera to scan your website for malware. If they detect anything, you might want to consider hiring a different professional to clean your site. Also, ensure your WordPress, themes, and plugins are all up-to-date, as outdated versions can be vulnerable to attacks.

Remember to regularly backup your site, so you can restore it if needed. Good luck!

 

[Marko :)]

Hi!

site loads slow sometimes, even on good internet;

There are million reasons why website would load slowly, but malware isn't one of them. Usually, it's either server being busy or there's a problem from the hosting side. This is shared hosting meaning your website shares the server with thousands of other websites. If one of the site gets a lot of views and has a lot of users, it might slow down the other websites. Also, if one website gets DDoS attack, entire server becomes slow and all websites hosted on it will either load slowly or not at all.

I got redirected on mobile to an adult site (like wtf?);

This, however, is a sign of malicious behavior.

Though, I just visited the site and I haven't found any signs of malicious behavior. I checked the requests made by the site and I didn't see any suspicious requests to 3rd parties.
Are you sure your PC isn't infected? Have you tried visiting the website from mobile device?

If website is infected, what you experienced on PC should also happen on phone.

on this page in particular: Servicii Realizare Logo | Prețuri accesibile | Identitate Brand, I noticed a popup flash + fast refresh, looked sketchy;

I visited this specific page too and haven't found anything suspicious.

no errors in WP admin tho, and Google Console shows nothing.

These couldn't possibly say if your website is infected or isn't. They just show errors and nothing else.

Now the same dev says it’s infected again and I should pay for another cleanup. Honestly, idk if there’s really malware or if he’s just milkin’ me for money.

I think he's just milking you for money.

WordPress even though vulnerable, can't be hacked that easy if kept up-to-date and you have custom admin username and password. I'd also recommend changing login page so it's not wp-admin.php, but something else as that also significantly boosts security.

My advice for you is to start managing your own website. WordPress isn't hard to learn. And protect your website with Cloudflare if you didn't already. It will block bots and malicious actors from visiting your website.

If you don't feel like learning, there are services like Weebly which offer you ability to create professional-looking websites for a small fee without the need to know the code.