Http_referrer shows Facebook but I wasn't on facebook

Question

This is the weirdest thing. I have very simple CF code that looks at cgi.HTTP_REFERER. Simply, it looks at referrer. It the link was clicked from outside our main website domain, it displays something. Otherwise, nothing happens. So, if someone clicks a link from FB and it goes to our website, it displays something. If someone clicked the link from our homepage on our website, it does nothing.

There is a specific link that when clicked from our homepage, the "does something" happens. I wrote out all the variables and the http_referrer shows https://m.facebook.com. I wasn't on Facebook when I clicked the link. I wasn't on mobile. I was on my main website homepage when I clicked the link.

Now, here's the only things I can imagine:

1. We have facebook commenting on that story page.
2. that URL has been shared on Facebook.

But, we share all of our stories on Facebook and they all have FB commenting so I would think if FB stored this information, I would be having this issue on all pages.

Anyone have any idea why this is happening?

Answer 1

As with others, my user_agent, remote_addr and an referer are all incorrect. I also see different remote_addr values depending on which browser I use. So whatever you are dumping, it is not the CGI scope for my request.

I suspect you have a function which handles the dumping of the CGI scope, it's in a CFC that's in a persistent scope and you have an unVARed variable in there somewhere? Or your page-caching (possibly on a front-side proxy?) based on browser, and the dump in the cache?

NB: on Opera and Safari I do not get Facebook as the referer.