Valleywag: Scams

How to get real Google bucks from fake press releases

Tim Faulkner — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:35:36 PST

Phony press releases have become the grist for the newest Internet profit mills. If you're like Chris Anderson and us, you don't read press releases. But several tech blogs were taken in by a dubious press release issued by a nonexistent company allegedly backed by real investors who may or may not have invested in several fake companies. Huh? Exactly. How the scam was uncovered, how it works, and how to avoid falling victim after the jump.

Although there's evidence of many fake press releases floating around the Internet, the scam first came to the attention of Silicon Alley Insider because one particular release mentioned Internet television, a must-cover topic on its beat. But "the world's first broadcast-quality Internet television service" raising an alleged $45 million, profitable and yet no one's heard of it? SAI managing editor Peter Kafka's eyebrows were raised.

Alas, no eyebrow raisings took place at VentureBeat or PEHub, which were suckered despite PaidContent's observation that the HD AmeriTV announcement was a ripoff of a Joost release.

The confusion was exacerbated when these bloggers contacted First Mutual Credit, the only real company listed as an investor for confirmation. Two separate sources initially confirmed First Mutual's investment, but the New Zealand company has since denied any involvement. (Maybe it was that strong Kiwi accent.)

Several other fake companies and fake press releases have been identified. But what is the scam in advertising a nonexistent company? Peter Kafka, who has been closely tracking the story for Silicon Alley Insider, is stumped, but we think he's already stumbled upon the answer: Fake press releases get picked up by a host of PR-aggregating sites that profit off of Google AdSense ads.

Fake blogs already remix existing blog posts to generate nonsensical pages that nonetheless turn up in Google search results and display Google-sold ads targeted to relevant keywords. Press releases filled with buzzwords make even more lucrative fodder for AdSense.

So who makes money here? Press release aggregators like PR Leap would never admit it, but their cash register rings whether or not their press releases are accurate. And the perpetrators of the HD AmeriTV press release? There's no proof, but we smell a search-engine optimization scam, where they get paid by clients to try to improve the ranking of websites by seeding the Web with fake pages.

There's a simple solution, of course: don't read press releases ... real or fake.

You don't call, you don't write ... unless you're a telemarketer

Tim Faulkner — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:15:43 PDT

Is it any surprise that direct marketers are easily circumventing the Feds' Do Not Call registry, as the Wall Street Journal reports? Lead generators are exploiting a loophole which allows direct calls to individuals on the list if written consent is provided. So marketers have turned to the tried-and-true method of direct mail. "Reply cards," the favored tool, are standard fare. They typically target the elderly, the most susceptible market, with purportedly useful retirement information or the claim of an affiliation with AARP. And it's perfectly legal.

The only recourse is if the marketer is particularly deceptive. One such company, unsurprisingly, is ChoicePoint. Yes, the same company that allowed the data of hundreds of thousands of individuals to leak to other ~~scammers~~ data brokers. ChoicePoint is sending more than a million of these lead cards a year, even after AARP successfully sued a subsidiary for promising a "new" AARP probate study that was fourteen years old and no longer valid.

False San Diego charities appear on eBay

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:33:29 PDT

Proving you people are as sick as we thought, there's news that scammers are already exploiting southern California's wildfires for profit. Security firm Websense spotted an eBay auction titled "Children Lost." Fortunately, the intricacies of English grammar once again foiled the scam artists' attempt at ill-gotten gains. The fake eBay auction asked shoppers to "put the item you want to buy aside and take in consideration of helping."

Marry your daughter off online

Evelyn Nussenbaum — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:30:20 PDT

Meet Kyra A. She's 14-and-1/2, lives in the Southeast, and her hand in marriage can be won for the low, low price of $27,995. Psych! The giant-killer New York Times reporter Brad Stone, best known for unmasking Fake Steve Jobs, has discovered that Marryourdaughter.com is a hoax, designed to provoke discussion of the inconsistency of laws on underage marriage and sex in our great country. And to think that I nearly listed my 6-year-old there ...

BurnLounge employee says "Take this job and shove it"

Nick Douglas — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:41:54 PDT

Boy meets startup, startup gets sued by the FTC for being a pyramid scheme, startup lays off boy, boy tapes himself playing poker on his last day and dubs in "Take This Job and Shove It." Wikipedia has the short history of this possibly criminal music store.

Make easy money the social-networking way

Megan McCarthy — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:58:15 PDT

MySpace, the News Corp.-owned social network for the unwashed masses, heroically sued spammer Sanford Wallace to stop him from abusing the site. Wallace allegedly created 11,000 fake profiles and spoofed MySpace login pages to gain access to legitimate users' accounts. MySpace also claims that he used an automated program to control the fake and hijacked profiles to send out links to adult-oriented websites in comments and messages, bringing him enough traffic to collect about $1 million in revenue from his websites. A federal court injunction prohibits Wallace from having a MySpace profile or sending emails implying that he is affiliated with the Fox Interactive Media property. Pity, that. For a while, Wallace made it look like exploiting emo teenagers with unfortunate hair was an even easier way to riches than writing a Facebook app.

An open letter to our pals at Paltalk

Chris Mohney — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:24:24 PST

We recently received a solicitation from video chat site Paltalk to see if we'd like to join in an interview with Amanda Congdon. Talk about a short memory. A few months back, Paltalk got in touch with Gawker for a chat with Congdon and Arianna Huffington. We cooperated, on the condition that we'd get to run a highlight clip on Gawker. Unfortunately (for us), things did not go as planned. First, we asked for reader queries, and received the expected raft of obscenity and foolishness. There were a few gems, which we dutifully compiled for use. However, we'd have to settle for just Arianna, as Amanda, now on West Coast time, wouldn't be interviewed until the New York staff was well into the second half of happy hour. So fine, Huffington solo.

Paltalk prez Joel Smernoff showed up at Gawker HQ to set up the video feed, and our own Intern Heather (now Editorial Assistant Heather) asked the questions. By all accounts, Huffington handled even the coarsest questions with characteristic aplomb, and all present were dutifully amused. You'll never know though, because after a day of silence, Smernoff finally responded to our "where's the damn clip" emails:

Thanks for reaching out to us and glad that Gawker was able to participate in the live chat with Arianna yesterday. Unfortunately, after discussing this with counsel and given the relationship with Huffington Post, they are uncomfortable with releasing any of the proprietary video from the chat for external purposes at this time.

"Reaching out"? You contacted us, pal(talk). Never had I been date-raped for content with such careless poise. We obviously shouldn't have let him leave the office alive without surrendering the clip first. Further questions about what was meant by "the relationship with Huffington Post" went unanswered. We asked Arianna herself what that might mean, and she had no idea.

So, to Mr. Philip V. Ramirez at GroupGordon Strategic Communications: Thanks for "reaching out" to us for the Amanda Congdon interview. Unfortunately, after discussing this with what little dignity you left us last time, we are uncomfortable with releasing anything to you other than proprietary feces produced precisely for such external purposes. At this time.

Wikileaks continues to reek

Chris Mohney — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:00:08 PST

Why is anyone still paying attention to Wikileaks? A month after John Young aka Cryptome published the prelaunch email list for the proposed confidential document clearinghouse, Reuters runs yet another story prompted by an anonymous informant. According to the Reuters source, this was all part of the master plan, and the interest in Wikileaks' credibility void only proves the necessity of its existence. (Figure that one out.) Given the Wikileakers' brazen hype and relentless pursuit of millions of dollars to fund the site, questions naturally arise about their supposed activist street cred, not to mention an increasing fishy scam-stench. How do you spend millions on a wiki, anyway?

Loose wires: Patent then bought by Golden Palace

Nick Douglas — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:46:05 PDT

A stay-at-home-dad with no time to himself wastes what precious sleep he has debunking some theory about outhouses, TiVo, and how Google CEO Eric Schmidt relates to any of the aforementioned.[Passing Notes]
Face of the Flying Spaghetti Monster discovered in patent diagram! [ZD Net Blog]
We hope this tech writer is actually black, because that makes it okay, right? Right? [Nigga Know Technology]
When an article starts out, "I worked in a lot of crappy factories as a youth, so I'm very sympathetic to the workers at Apple's iPod factories in China," it's safe to assume it's sprinkled with patronizing hyperbole, not unlike those stories of an oppressed Brad Pitt dressing up as a chicken, standing out in the LA heat, working for El Pollo as a struggling actor. [Wired]
We're upping the August Capital ante. Whoever gets onstage at John Battelle and O'Reilly Media's Web 2.0 event with a fake startup wins a free year of Valleyschwag. [John Battelle's Searchblog]

— co-written with Beth Gottfried