Spam archive
Experts Exchange's deceptive practices
2009-04-24 22:33
For future reference, I sent the following spam report to Google about Experts Exchange's deceptive search results, in this case for the example query "experts exchange html".
I'm a bit unsure about how to categorize this, but I guess "cloaking" is the closest I can get here.
The problem is as follows:
When you search for any page and a Experts Exchange results show up, and you click on the result link, the page Google sees shows up only under certain conditions:
If the browser user turns off referrer logging, the content showing Experts Exchange's solution to any given problem is not shown or served to the end user. If the user turns on referrer logging, the page visited from the search result is different.
Exact steps to reproduce:
- Open query page
- Turn off referrer logging (F12 -> Send Referrer information using the Opera Web Browser - similar options may exist in other browsers)
- Open the first search result leading to experts-exchange.com in a new tab
- Scroll to bottom of page -- note that no search results are available to the end-user at all.
- Go back to the Google result page
- Turn referrer logging back on (Reverse procedure from step 2)
- Now load the same search result as in step 3
- Compare the resulting document - it now contains the solution text not available following the procedure in steps 1-4.
ROKSO
2006-11-07 13:10
Link: ROKSO
The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database collates information and evidence on known professional spam operations that have been terminated by a minimum of 3 Internet Service Providers for spam offenses.
Why Yahoo's marriage of RSS and e-mail could be an antispam breakthrough
2005-12-03 09:44
Link: Why Yahoo's marriage of RSS and e-mail could be an antispam breakthrough
Richard Bliss once said:
What if e-mail was re-architected so that, instead the keeping e-mail on the recipient’s system prior to opening it (the way e-mail basically works today), e-mail was kept on the sender’s system?
I have mentioned something similar to people before, and they have pretty much thought I was insane, but I do truly believe that moving mail from a store-and-forward model to the store-and-get model a better one. We do need a few associated technologies, though:
- We need FOAF
- We need a publishing protocol. Atom provides that
- We need a consistent format. RSS is not — We need Atom
Brainbench and spam
2005-11-09 11:09
I once signed up for Brainbench, to take a JavaScript test. I obviously shouldn’t have done that.
Over the years, they’ve sent me all sorts of mail that I’m not interested in. Over the years, I have gotten exactly zero professional offers due to Brainbench.
Recently, I dug up my unused Brainbench login, signed off from the one mailing list I was obviously on, and sent them an e-mail, saying that I wanted to be deleted from all of their mailing lists, and that I didn’t want any more mailings from them. I even got a reply (e-mail addresses mangled):
O'Reilly joins the search engine spam parade
2005-08-22 11:33
Link: O'Reilly joins the search engine spam parade
Is it ethical to sell your Google Rank for money? Are you more entitled to it because you are O’Reilly?
My single-word-answer for both is: No!
Brute force referer spamming
2005-08-17 10:25 – Four comments
I am currently the target of a brute-force Russian referer spam attempt.
Referer spam mirror
2005-06-17 11:17 – Seven comments
Today, I mostly block referer spammers, but I am considering letting them taste their own medicine, by way of a little mod_rewrite magic.
Wordpress Followup from Waxy.org
2005-04-02 18:22 – Leave a comment
A response from Matt
2005-04-02 14:38 – Four comments
Matt Mullenweg responds to the entire WordPress incident, and to my satisfaction, he is humble about it, apologizes and explains the whole debacle in a straightforward honest way.
Ok, I just lost any respect I may have had for Wordpress
2005-03-30 22:23 – 30 comments
Wordpress.org uses cloaking to hide spam links from human visitors, while keeping them visible for search engines.
Spam Huntress Harassed
2005-03-25 14:29 – Leave a comment
Referrer spam: rel="nofollow" doesn't work
2005-03-13 13:08 – Nine comments
Referrer spam is becoming a real problem. It hurts search engine results, and forces website owners to handle large volumes of spam traffic. Search engine vendors can fix most of this problem: Permanently.
Wikipedia: Referer spam
2005-03-13 12:30 – Leave a comment
Referer tarpit
2005-03-05 10:14 – Three comments
Referer Tarpit is a solution for slowing down referer spammers, so you can save others from spam.
MT Blacklist to mod_security
2005-02-27 23:01 – Leave a comment
Referrer Spam Redux
2005-02-16 15:06 – Leave a comment
Shameless spammer
2005-02-08 13:04 – One comment
Reffy spammer stops using his own tool
2005-02-06 20:52 – Leave a comment
Search Engine Optimizers are blog spammers
2005-01-31 21:11 – One comment
Referer spammers are comment spammers too
2005-01-16 15:44 – Nine comments
Is there a connection between referer spamming tools such as Reffy, and mass comment spamming in Movable Type?
Observation
2004-11-09 22:59 – Four comments
The .info TLD seems to be more spam-infested. To the extent that SpamAssasin actually thinks mail from this TLD is more likely to be spam
Spam and be punished
2004-11-08 14:15 – Six comments
Radisson SAS have been thrown out of Google for extensive search engine spamming, through the use of doorway pages and shadow domains.
A solution for blog spam?
2004-09-06 14:40 – Ten comments
Introducing automatic semi-moderation as a solution to blog comment spam: even if spammers get through, they will have nothing to gain from spamming.
Spammed by the "Church" of Scientology
2004-07-17 17:34 – Two comments
I have been spammed by the Norwegian branch of the "Church" of Scientology. For your reading pleasure, I'm hereby providing a rough translation and analysis of their spam.
Porn clone blogs
2003-11-20 19:31 – Two comments
Analysis and speculation on the porn clone blogs that have hit referer logs.
Morons in refererspace
2003-07-18 18:12 – Three comments
Anti-spam-company attempts mass referer spamming and fails.
Blog comment spam
2003-05-08 10:46 – Seven comments
Is blogosphere buzz a possible motivation for blog comment spammers?
MT Comment spamming
2003-03-16 10:54 – Seven comments
On the first outbreak of blog comment spam. Is blog comment spamming going to become a widespread problem?